The best freeware virtual PDF printer: a comparison

PDF Virtual printers are a convenient way of creating PDF files. These programs can save any kind of printable document as a PDF file; all you need to do is to select ‘print’ from your favorite program, then select the virtual PDF printer and get a PDF file.

There are many excellent free virtual printers. We have tested 15 of these and selected 10 of them to evaluate and compare. These (in alphabetic order) are: Bullzip PDF Printer, doPDF, Doro PDF Writer, PDF Printer (PdfSvg), PDF reDirect, PDF24 Creator, PDFCreator, Perfect PDF 7 Master, Print2PDF Free and qvPDF.

The virtual printers that we tried but decided to exclude from the comparison were Bolt PDF Printer, CutePDF Writer, ImagePrinter, pdf995, PDFlite and Primo PDF, mainly because they were inferior by functionality, configurability, or ease of use. Some (e.g. Primo PDF and CutePDF) were removed from the list for privacy considerations as they contain adware/spyware components.

[Note: this post was written by Freewaregenius contributor Priit L.] Last update: 6/21/2011.

PDF is one of the most widespread formats for document exchange on the internet. PDF (Portable Document Format) was once an Adobe proprietary format but was accepted in 2008 by ISO as an open standard. Everybody can create PDF files and there are hundreds of programs available capable of doing that. Many document editors can save PDF, and there are programs that convert documents like Microsoft Office DOC, DOCX, XLS etc to PDF, as well as a number of online converters are available to do this job. However, virtual PDF printers have emerged as one of the most reliable (and common) solutions for creating PDF documents. This post aims to evaluate the various freeware options out there and identify the best.

PDF printers can differ in functionality; however, we have identified some of the essential features as follows:

• The user interface: varied greatly, from no user interface at all to complex interfaces cluttered with configuration options. We came to the conclusion that a good interface needs to be as simple as possible for inexperienced users while offering some flexibility.
• Quality settings: ability to create lightweight files for web upload or big files for high quality printout;
• Watermarking and stamping: add Your identification watermark or stamp like ‘sample’ or ‘top secret’;
• Encryption and passwords: protect Your document by encrypting it and require password in order to open or change it;
• Print aggregation: ability to merge several documents into one PDF file.

Some programs offer additional functionality like:

• Output other file formats beside PDF: convert whatever document or web page to JPEG/TIFF/etc image;
• Append another PDF file as background image;
• Rotate the output image;
• Digitally sign PDFs;
• E-mail: send the created PDF by opening an e-mail program or even use a built-in SMTP client to send the file.

Of course, different people need different functionality so the division between ‘essential’ and ‘optional’ can be argued about.

The comparison: introduction and user interface

In this section we introduce the various PDF printers and address the user interface.

#1: Bullzip PDF Printer

• The interface: Easy interface. Configuration sets can be saved.
• Score for interface: 5/5

#2: doPDF

• The interface: Simple interface with novaPDF ads and minimal settings. Printer Preferences (right) let to change DPI settings.
• Score for interface: 3/5

#3: Doro PDF Writer

• The interface: Very simple and intuitive interface.
• Score for interface: 5/5

#4: PDF Printer (PdfSvg)

• The interface: Simplistic interface with preview.
• Score for interface: 5/5

#5: PDF reDirect

• The interface: Main page too complex (cluttered) for beginners. Preferences (right) have sufficient number of configuration options.
• Score for interface: 4/5

#6: PDF24 Creator

• The interface: Balanced interface with enough basic options. ‘Save as’ selection (right) includes huge possibilities to configure.
• Score for interface: 5/5

#7: PDFCreator

• The interface: Simple interface, with complex configuration hidden under Options button, a bit dull :). Configurable Options are a bit cluttered.
• Score for interface: 5/5

#8: Perfect PDF 7 Master

• The interface: Simple and essential main interface. Settings are available under ‘PDF settings’ button.
• Score for interface: 4.5/5

#9: Print2PDF Free

• The interface: Simple for beginners, can be expanded several times for advanced configuration (‘More >>>’). On the right screenshot the fully expanded interface with quality options is shown.
• Score for interface: 5/5 *** Editor’s favorite interface ***

#10: qvPDF

• The interface: Simple interface. The configuration module (right) is accessible through Start Menu. Additional configuration is available through Printer preferences/Advanced (some in German).
• Score for interface: 3/5

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Essential functions and settings

Here is evaluated the list of functions and settings that are mostly common to virtual PDF printers:

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Other interesting functions

Here is evaluated the list of functions that are a bit less common to virtual PDF printers:

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Licencing and technical details

At last here is the information about licencing and some technical details like 64-bit Windows support and GhostScript requirements. (Note: GhostScript (GS) is a common development tool that is used as a part of PDF conversion process, some virtual PDF printers contain this software or need it to be downloaded and installed separately.)

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Conclusion

Putting it all together – here are the overall scores for the evaluated virtual PDF printers:

There are several excellent virtual PDF printers that offer good functionality and have a balanced interface – simple intuitive basic interface and complex settings hidden from beginner or casual computer user. Four PDF printers got 5/5 and choosing between them was a bit difficult.

• The editors choice is PDF24 Creator.
• Almost equal candidates are PDFCreator and Bullzip PDF Printer (although the latter is only free for commercial use for up to 10 users).
• Print2PDF Free had what we thought was the best interface, although it did not offer output to image formats (download link above).