[thelist] Non-Adobe PDF authoring software

[Andy Olsen]

Thanks to Gina for providing a key tip. I had not found the site at 
http://www.pdfzone.com/ (although, of course, I did look!). This is a very 
good resource for all things PDF. Nice site, well-organized.

 From there I found a nice product from 5D, called PDF Creator. It works 
fine and is a fraction (3/10) of the cost of similar products from Adobe. I 
liked it better than some other products, which did not function as printer 
drivers so that any output from any App could be used to make a PDF. PDF 
Creator allows control over the final form of PDFs and integrates nicely 
with Monopoly-Word. I paid US$74, and bought it online from programmer's 
paradise, at http://www.programmersparadise.com/Paradise/home.asp .

You can get to 5D's web site at http://www.five-d.com/ but this is for 
their higher-end software. PDF Creator is actually promoted through a 
different web site, at http://www.jawssystems.com. From there, you can find 
a retailer you like.

Whereas the software is fine and good, the online purchasing process was a 
real chore. Between Netscape failing to show form fields so I could not 
fill them in but they were, nonetheless, required; and VISA 
address-checking problems (bought a house and didn't tell them); and lost 
links to download purchased software; I'd much rather have gone to a store, 
if stores sold this software which they don't. It took way too long to buy 
the software. I mentioned this to my girlfriend, and her response was 
"imagine how it is for the rest of us to try and buy things online?" There 
is definitely room for improvement! (I try to buy my goods from local 
vendors...)

Anyway, thanks to Gina and everyone else for your responses! I hope my 
lessons will be helpful to others.


At 01:51 PM 10/17/00, you wrote:
>Hi Andy,
>
>Good place to look would be;
>http://www.pdfzone.com/products/software/index.html
>
>Haven't closely looked it over myself yet, but I'd almost bet you'd find
>something :)
>
>Gina
>
>|By now, I would have expected someone else would have come up with software
>|to create PDF files. Adobe is charging a rather high price. ($250).
>|
>|Anyone know if this has been done?