PDF printer

As you surely know, the PDF format is still one of the most used for the distribution of electronic documents. This is because it is able to ensure a good compromise between quality and weight of the files and a correct display of the documents regardless of the software used.

You too may need to create some, and that’s why today I want to talk to you about some software that installs a PDF printer on your PC and, through it, allows you to convert any printable file into a PDF document. The use of a tool of this type, although on the surface it may seem a little complicated, in reality it is not at all … indeed! If you want to deepen the subject, then take a few minutes of free time all to yourself and concentrate on reading my tutorial.

In the following lines I will in fact show you which are the best tools belonging to the category in question for Windows operating systems and which are the solutions available for the macOS side. For the sake of completeness of information, it will also be my concern to point out some useful programs and services to export your documents in the format in question without necessarily having to resort to the use of a virtual printer. Are you ready?

Index

• PDF printer on Windows
  • Print Windows 10 PDF
  • DoPDF
  • PDFCreator
  • BullZip Free PDF Printer
• PDF printer on macOS
• Alternative solutions

PDF printer on Windows

Let’s start this guide by trying to understand how to use the PDF print on Windows operating systems. If you have the latest Windows 10 installed on your PC, you do not need to resort to the use of third-party resources as the OS already integrates a special software, or rather a dedicated function.

On the older versions of the Microsoft home system it is necessary to use extra programs. To find out more, keep reading.

Windows 10 PDF printer

Is Windows 10 installed on your computer? Then you can, as I told you, take advantage of the system’s built-in PDF printer. Let’s see immediately how to do this.

All you have to do is open what you intend to export to PDF using the program you usually use for that particular type of element (e.g. a web page with Microsoft Edge ), invoke the print command  (generally accessible via the File menu ) and choose  Microsoft Print to PDF  or  Save as PDF from the list of available printers.

To give a practical example, if you want to transform a Web page opened in Microsoft Edge into PDF, all you have to do is click on the […] button at the top right, select the Print item from the menu that opens and choose the Microsoft Print to PDF option from the Printer drop-down menu at the top.

Finally, if necessary, adjust the print settings (eg margins, orientation, etc.) and start saving the Web page in PDF by pressing the Print button. Et voila!

DoPDF

As seen together in the previous lines, Windows 10 includes a handy PDF printout that can be used without the need to install additional software. The same cannot be said of the older versions of the Microsoft operating system. In fact, in these cases (or in any case if you are looking for an alternative to what is offered “standard” by the Redmond company) it is necessary to take advantage of third-party tools. Among the various available on the square I advise you to try is DoPDF.

It is an excellent free software (in its basic version) that allows you to convert any printable file into a PDF document in just a few clicks. This means you can open Office documents, emails, photos and many other types of files and quickly turn them into PDFs that can be viewed on any device. It is extremely simple to use and does not watermark the documents it generates.

To download DoPDF on your computer, connect to the program’s website and click on the Download Now!  twice in a row. When the download is complete, open the file you just downloaded (eg dopdf-full.exe ) and, in the window that appears on the desktop, remove the check from the box relating to the installation of the add-in for Microsoft Office (in the center), the one relating to the sending of anonymous statistics (which is at the bottom right) and click on the Install Now button, then on Yes and, finally, on Close.

At this point, to convert a file to PDF, all you have to do is open it normally with the program you usually use to do it (eg a DOCX document with Microsoft Word ) and select the Print item from the File menu.

In the window that opens, select DoPDF from the list of available printers and click on the Print button. Then click the Browse button, select the folder in which to save the output document and start saving the PDF by clicking OK.

If you want, before starting the PDF creation you can also set the final quality level of the file using the options below the PDF options. Based on your preferences and needs, you can choose between:  Smallest file, Medium, Best quality or Embed all used fonts.

If you need, you can also adjust the printing preferences by acting from the DoPDF settings. To do this, call DoPDF through the Start menu and in the window you see appearing on the desktop click on the Preferences button . In the further window displayed, you can set the orientation and layout of the pages, the resolution, etc.

PDFCreator

If for one reason or another DoPDF has not convinced you and you are therefore looking for a valid alternative to this PDF printer, you can rely on  PDFCreator. It is another software belonging to the category in question, free (in its basic variant), of an open-source nature and full of advanced options for the most demanding. In short, try it now and you will see that you will not regret it.

To use it, first connect to the program’s website and click on the Download button in the center. In the new page displayed, presses the Download button that you find next to the wording PDFCreator Free, in order to download the free version of PDFCreator on your computer.

When the download is complete, open the file you just obtained (eg PDFCreator-x_x_x-Setup.exe ), click on Yes, on OK to set the use of the Italian language and on Next twice in a row. Then click on Install, on Skip to avoid the installation of extra programs and on Finish.

Now, all you have to do is open the document you are interested in converting to PDF with the program you usually use to do so and select the Print item from the File menu. In the window that opens, choose PDFCreator from the list of available printers and press the Print button.

In the further window that appears, indicate the destination position of the PDF by clicking on the […] button that you find in the Folder field :, choose the profile you want to use for the file from the Profile menu : (eg. High Compression, High Quality  etc) and click on the Save button.

If you need to send the PDF by e-mail, click on the E-mail button below. The Merge button, on the other hand, allows you to merge multiple PDF documents into one.

If you want to assign a different title to the document, change the name of the author, the subject or assign tags to the file before proceeding with the saving, fill in the appropriate fields at the bottom of the PDFCreator window.

If, on the other hand, you want to access the advanced settings of PDFCreator, press the Edit button and adjust all the various parameters available from the new screen displayed. From there you can change the available profiles, modify metadata, file security settings and much more.

BullZip Free PDF Printer

Another PDF printer that you can consider using on your Windows PC is BullZip  Free PDF Printer. It is a free software (but possibly also available for a fee, with extra features) and easy to use but full of interesting features, for example the ability to encrypt files, to choose the quality of the output, to merge multiple PDF in one etc.

You ask me how you can serve? I’ll point it out to you right away. First, connected to the program’s website, click on the Download button and on the Click here to download button on the new page that opens, in order to start downloading the software.

When the download is complete, open the file you just obtained (eg  Setup_BullzipPDFPrinter_xx_x_x_xxxx_PRO_EXP.exe ) and click on Yes. Then click OK to confirm the use of the Italian language and select the item I accept the terms of the license agreement. Then click on Next three times, remove the saints relating to the installation of additional programs and click on Next again. Then complete the setup by clicking on Finish.

Now, open the document you are interested in turning into PDF with the program you usually use to do so and select the Print item from the File menu. In the window that opens, choose Bullzip PDF Printer from the list of available printers and click on the Print button.

In the new window that you see appear on the screen, indicate the location where you want to save the output file by pressing the […] button in the File name field and press Save.

If you want to send the document also by e-mail, check the e-mail box before proceeding. If you want to merge multiple PDFs into one, click on the Merge PDF button.

Before proceeding with saving the document, would you like to modify the settings of the latter? Then use the various tabs attached to the upper part of the displayed window to set the quality of the file, the degree of compatibility, to apply a watermark, to set a password, etc.

PDF printer on macOS

If you use a Mac, know that, similar to what happens on Windows 10, you don’t need to install any PDF printer to convert your documents. In fact, macOS already includes a tool of this type and it only takes a few seconds to learn how to use it.

All you have to do is open a printable file using the default application designated for this purpose (eg Textedit for RTF documents) and select Print… from the File menu at the top of the screen. In the window that opens, expand the PDF drop-down menu located at the bottom left and select the item Save as PDF from the latter.

Now, type the name you want to assign to the file in the Save as: field, select the folder to export it to through the Located in: menu (or by clicking the ▼ button located at the top right) and complete the operation by clicking Save.

If you want, you can also customize other document properties, such as title, author and subject, or protect the PDF with a password by clicking on the Security Options… button. You can request the password to open the document or just to copy the content and print it by placing the checkmark next to the appropriate items. Finally, type the keyword to be used to protect the file in the text fields below and that’s it.

Alternative solutions

To conclude, as they say, I want to point out alternative solutions to the PDF printer you have on your side to be able to export the documents of your interest in PDF format.

More precisely, what I want to send you to do is use the LibreOffice and Open Office office suites. If you remember correctly, I told you about it in my guides on how to download LibreOffice and how to download Open Office. They work on Windows, Mac and Linux, are totally free and integrate a special feature to export documents in PDF format.

To recall the aforementioned functionality, just open the document you want to transform into PDF within the suite you have chosen to use, click on the File menu at the top and choose the Export to PDF format item from the menu that opens. Later you can adjust the quality, resolution and other properties of the output file. Finally, press on Export and choose the location on your computer to save the document.

And if you don’t feel like downloading new programs on your computer or, much more simply, you can’t do this, you can rely on convenient Web services that allow you to export any type of document to PDF. To find out more, read my post on how to turn a document into PDF.