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I need to install a PDF Printer on a system we have. The program is set to automatically print a report, and I want this report printed as a PDF file. It needs to be fast, reliable, hopefully lightweight, and oddly enough not free.

We were using BullZip, however the system was having lockups and crashes. While I don't believe it was BullZip, my boss is of the "you get what you pay for" mindset. Does anyone have experience with a for-pay app that works well?

EDIT: It also needs to be customizable such that it automatically names and saves the file upon printing- no dialogues or prompts.

ALSO: I have tried CutePDF and doPDF, neither fit the bill for what I needed.

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migrated from serverfault.com Jan 29 '10 at 18:15

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

It's free, you will be able to deal with this because it works. http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

Failing that, drop $800 on a copy of Adobe Professional.

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I tried cutepdf before bullzip. I can't remember why it didn't make the cut- I think I couldn't specify that it auto-save without a prompt, or something like that. – Neil Olsen Jan 27 '10 at 21:57
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You may want to license a custom version from them. We rebrand CutePDF for our application and we have about 6,000 instances of it installed as "<PRODUCT> PDF" with very few problems. – ta.speot.is Jan 27 '10 at 23:50
Yes, CutePDF Writer prompts you to save. – Dan Dascalescu Feb 21 '12 at 12:43
up vote 10 down vote

I only know of open source solutions. For client-side stuff (which is what I assume you need), try PDFCreator. If you have a CUPS print server in the office, you could try the PDF plugin.

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+1 - It would be trivial to customzie PDFCreator to save PDFs without prompting for filenames. – Evan Anderson Jan 27 '10 at 22:00
The sticking point it price. Oddly enough, my boss is pretty much against free software in this instance. He thinks free means less reliable. I can't get him to budge. – Neil Olsen Jan 27 '10 at 22:08
Heh heh... I can modify PDFCreator for you to save to a specified directory. How much does he want to spend? – Evan Anderson Jan 27 '10 at 22:28
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I'd be as willing as any common commerical software "manufacturer" would be. (Read the license agreements to most closed-source software-- they typically have clauses that disclaim the "manufacturer" from all warranty and limit any damages to the amount paid for the software). Seriously, though, you have as much chance of "support" with free and open source software as you do with any commercial software you purchase w/o an explicit support contract. At least with FOSS software you can put support requests out for bid instead of being forced into a monopoly support arrangement. – Evan Anderson Jan 28 '10 at 0:09
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I've been using PDFcreator for quite a few years and have never had it crash or fail to produce the PDF, provided it is correctly installed and configured. It's a damn site more reliable than most commercial alternatives. – John Gardeniers Jan 28 '10 at 1:00
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up vote 3 down vote

Is this for server/web apps, or just desktop function?

WebApps: ABCpdf .NET - http://www.websupergoo.com/products.htm#pd

Desktop: NitroPDF - http://www.nitropdf.com/index.asp

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is NitroPDF configurable to the point that it is dialogue free? I need it to auto-name, save to a specified directory, with no user interaction. – Neil Olsen Jan 27 '10 at 22:03

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