PDF

Get basic print-to-PDF features

doPDF is a fairly basic program that's utterly bereft of features beyond its main function: to let users create PDF documents from within any program using the native Print option. Along with whatever printer you've got hooked up that shows up in the Print dialog box, doPDF adds an eponymous option. Select it, hit print, and you get the chance to change the name of the PDF you're creating. Hit enter and the PDF gets created, then automatically opens for you to proofread it.

Lacking any customization features and the control panel to manage them, doPDF is … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 872: Butt-squeezing death trap

It's a racy Buzz Out Loud as Natali Del Conte and Molly Wood double-team Jason Howell. Yes, by the way, that was the most blatant click-bait I've ever written. We discuss who's the bigger liar: Google or the Wall Street Journal. Plus, mobile news galore, including FCC approval of the Garmin Nuviphone. And then it gets too hot to remain in the studio and we flee to cooler climates.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 872

Does Google want Net priority? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122929270127905065.html http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2008/12/net-neutrality-and-benefits-of-caching.html … Read more

Gmail gets a proper PDF viewer

Gmail's integrated software-free PDF viewer has received a nice upgrade courtesy of Google Docs. Now opening up a PDF in Gmail won't fire up your native PDF viewer (like the slow-to-load Adobe Acrobat), and instead will send you to the document reader built into Google Docs.

There are two other benefits to this, the first being the updated page view which lets you hop around the document a whole lot faster. The other is the built-in zoom, which scales the text to fit your monitor with a higher degree of detail than the text resizer found in your … Read more

Light and easy

To put it gently, Adobe Reader is a real pain in the hindquarters. It's monstrously large, slow to load, and includes many features most users will hardly ever need. Foxit PDF Reader 3.0 kills the bloat and throws in some useful features, such as multimedia support and content-sharing options, while still allowing you to quickly access your PDFs.

The interface mimics Adobe's, so you won't have to change your reading habits. In our test, the text readability was similar. The small program starts surprisingly fast compared with Adobe. You might need to fiddle a bit to … Read more

Kick your PDFs into overdrive

Foxit Reader keeps pushing the PDF reader alternative with its latest major-point update, version 3. Although there are some long-awaited minor changes, such as auto-scrolling via the center mouse-button or annotating images and highlighted text, there are three major changes as well.

Multimedia content is now fully supported, which means that you can embed video and audio into a PDF and play them back from within Foxit. Although the competition from Adobe has had this capability for a while, this is one that's been long missing from Foxit and ensures that it's not left behind as multimedia embeds … Read more

Turn any file into a PDF

PrimoPDF 4 converts just about any file type to a PDF, using the source program the file was created with and its print command. Two new changes make the program easier to use and more useful. The interface redesign is definitely easier to navigate, and users can now choose to email the PDF instantly after its creation.

The conversion process from whatever document is on your screen to PDF is quick and efficient. Other features include a security feature, which allows the user to wrap the PDF in 40-bit or 128-bit encryption, PDF merging, and password protection. The user also … Read more

Documents To Go Premium now on BlackBerry

BlackBerry users have been waiting for Documents To Go, an excellent document viewer that's been besting native viewers on mobile phones, for years. On Tuesday, Data Viz ended the impatient toe-tapping with Documents To Go Premium Edition 1.005 and its new companion PDF-viewer, PDF To Go.

The Premium Edition of Documents To Go ($49.99 for a yearly subscription or $69.99 for a lifetime license), builds on the Standard Edition that comes preloaded on the BlackBerry Bold (review), which also officially released in the U.S. today.

This pro version lets you read, fully edit, and create … Read more

Featured Freeware: Print2PDF

Turn almost any savable file into a PDF using Print2PDF. Like similar programs, this useful utility installs as a print driver, allowing the user to specify settings such as fonts and image-compression quality inside the print dialog of the other applications.

Users can encrypt, watermark, or sign a document, and can configure user permissions to print, copy, or change the file. During tests, the output quality and conversion speed both proved quite satisfactory. If you're looking to convert documents into the PDF format, this tool will likely have all the options you need.

Newer features include support for prepress … Read more

Featured Freeware: PDF Download

The problem with opening PDF files in Firefox is that it tends to slow down your performance, especially if you open a number of them. This simple little extension gives you complete control over PDF files in a Toolbar button.

Rather than stick you all alone with a browser-jarring PDF file, the PDF Download extension provides you the option to: download the file locally, open it with Firefox using the PDF download options settings, view the PDF as an HTML file in the browser, bypass PDF Download, or cancel the link. The first two options are self-explanatory, while the "… Read more