How to convert a file to PDF

Do you often use the PDF format to share your documents with friends and colleagues but are you not at all satisfied with the long and boring procedure that you are forced to undertake every time to obtain files of that type? Helmets just like a bean. In fact, I am going to suggest you how to convert a file to PDF in an incredibly easy and fast way starting from any document that can be printed.

All thanks to the virtual printers, to the special programs that once installed allow you to transform any kind of printable file (therefore also photos, web pages, etc.) into a ready-to-use PDF document, using the operating system’s printing function. They are all free (at least in their basic variant) and very easy to use. Just think, in the specific case of Windows 10 and macOS there is no need to resort to the use of third-party tools as the virtual printer is already integrated “as standard”.

Then? How would you like to put up the chatter and take action? Yes? Great. I suggest you do not delay any longer and immediately get to the heart of the matter. Take a few minutes of free time all to yourself, position yourself comfortably and mediately start concentrating on reading everything listed below. I am sure that in the end you will be able to tell yourself very happy and satisfied and that, in case of need, you will be ready to provide useful advice in this regard to all your friends. Let it bet?

Index

• Convert a file to PDF on Windows
  • “Standard” virtual printer
  • PDF24
  • PDFCeator
  • Further solutions
• Convert a file to PDF on Mac
  • “Standard” virtual printer
  • Further solutions

Convert a file to PDF on Windows

Do you have a Windows PC and would like to understand what are the aforementioned tools you have on your side to convert a file to PDF? Then try the virtual printers listed below right now. Keep in mind that in the specific case of Windows 10 you can also take advantage of, as I said at the beginning, the function used for the purpose already included in the system.

“Standard” virtual printer

As I mentioned, starting with  Windows 10, Microsoft has chosen to make a virtual printer available on its operating system to allow users to create files in PDF format without necessarily having to resort to the use of third-party tools.

To use it, all you have to do is open what you want to convert into a PDF file using the program you generally use for that particular element (eg WordPad for text files), then open the File menu, call up the Print command and select  Microsoft Print to PDF  or  Save as PDF from the list of available printers. Then indicate the name you want to assign to the PDF you are about to create and the location for saving.

If you deem it appropriate, before starting the procedure for saving the file in PDF format you can use the on-screen commands attached to the print window and adjust settings such as orientation and margins, in order to customize according to your needs the characteristics of the final document.

PDF24

If you are not using Windows 10 or in any case if you are looking for a valid alternative to the standard “instrumentation”, the best suggestion I can give you is to put PDF24 to the test. This is a completely free program (for private use) that installs a virtual printer on the PC that is very easy to use and includes some useful functions for editing and compressing PDFs.

To use it, you must first connect to the PDF24 website and click on the PDF24 Creator xxx Private button to download the program to your PC. If the download does not start automatically, click the Start PDF24 Creator download manually link to force it “manually”.

When the download is complete, open the file you just obtained (e.g. pdf24-creator-xxxexe ) and click on Yes. In the window that opens, select I accept the terms of the license agreement, click Next three times, click Install and complete the setup by pressing  Finish

Believe it or not, now you are ready to field test how to convert a file to PDF from any printable file. So open any Office document, a Web page or a photograph and click on the Print option in the program you have opened, usually found in the File menu.

Then select  PDF24 as the printer to be used for the printing operation and click on the Print button. In the window that opens, set the quality of the PDF document you want to obtain from the drop-down menu at the top and click on Save PDF to save your file in PDF format.

You can also get a preview of the PDF before saving it, by clicking on the Preview button, and edit the PDF file to be created (rotating it, eliminating unnecessary pages, etc.), by clicking on Edit PDF and using the buttons on the toolbar of PDF24.

To change the general settings of the program, instead, all you have to do is click on the Options item located in the lower-left part of the window that opens when you intend to print/convert a file to PDF.

PDFCreator

To be able to convert a file to PDF you can also consider using  PDFCreator. This is another virtual printout for Windows operating systems, of an open-source nature, free and including several useful features, in fact, for the creation of PDFs.

You ask me how to make use of it? I’ll point it out to you right away. First, go to the program’s website and click the Download button. In the new page that opens, presses the Download button which corresponds to the wording PDFCreator Free, in order to start the download of PDFCreator.

When the download is complete, open the file you just obtained (eg PDFCreator-x_x_x-Setup.exe ), click on Yes, on OK  and on Next twice. Then click on  Install, on Skip  (to avoid the installation of extra programs) and complete the setup by clicking on Finish.

Now, open the document you are interested in turning into a PDF file with the software you generally use to do this and call up the Print option which is usually attached to the File menu. In the window you see appear, choose PDFCreator  from the list of available printers and press on  Print.

Using the new window that appears on the screen, indicate the type of compression profile you intend to use to create the PDF using the options attached to the Profile menu :, type the name you want to assign to the PDF in the Filename: field, the location for saving pressing the […] button in correspondence with the Folder field:  and press the Save button at the bottom right.

You can also change the name of the author, the subject or assign tags to the file. To do this, just fill in the appropriate fields that you find at the bottom of the PDFCreator window. If you need to access the advanced settings of PDFCreator, press the Edit button instead.

Further solutions

In addition to using a virtual printer, as I indicated in the previous lines, it is possible to convert a file to PDF quickly and easily using the appropriate computer programs and convenient online services. If you are interested in this and therefore want to learn more about the decent, I suggest you read my article on how to convert files to PDF.

And if you are looking for specific solutions for converting Office documents and images into the format in question, I suggest you read these guides of mine dedicated to you specifically to the topic: convert Word to PDF, convert Excel file to PDF, how to convert PowerPoint to PDF and how to transform images to PDF.

Another way to be able to convert a file to PDF is to rely on the free and open source office suites  LibreOffice and Open Office. In fact, they integrate a special feature useful for exporting documents in PDF format. I told you about it in my guides on how to download LibreOffice and how to download Open Office.

To recall the functionality in question, just open the document you want to convert to PDF within LibreOffice or Open Office, click on the File menu and select the Export to PDF option from the menu you see appear. Through the window that will later open you can adjust the quality, resolution, etc. Finally, click on Export and indicate the location on your computer to save the output file.

Convert a file to PDF on Mac

Are you using a Mac? Then I am happy to inform you that even in this case you have a convenient virtual printer already included in the system thanks to which you can transform your files into PDF. Using it is a real breeze! To find out more, keep reading, you will find everything explained below.

“Standard” virtual printer

As anticipated, a virtual printer already included in the system is also available for the “bitten apple” computers. You ask me how to do it to be able to exploit it? I’ll point it out to you immediately. It’s that easy!

All you have to do is open the printable file you want to transform into PDF using the default application designated for this purpose (eg TextEdit for text files), click on the File menu and select the Print… item. In the window that appears, expand the PDF drop-down menu located at the bottom left and select the item Save as PDF.

Now type the name you want to assign to the file in the Save as: field, indicate the location where you want to save it using the Located in: menu  and click the Save button.

If you deem it appropriate, before saving the PDF as I have just indicated you can modify the other properties of the document, such as in the case of title, author and subject, using the options on the screen. You can also set a password for your file in order to protect the PDF by pressing the  Security Options… button. and adjusting the security options, in fact, from the additional window that appears. For example, you can ask for a password to open the document or just to copy its contents and print it.

Further solutions

Also with regard to the Mac side there are alternative solutions to the virtual printer that you can rely on to convert a file to PDF. To be precise, I am referring to LibreOffice and Open Office, which I told you about in the previous lines about Windows, and to online services that allow you to convert any type of document into files belonging to the type in question, as in the case of tools that I reported to you in my article on how to convert online.

If, on the other hand, you need to convert Word files to PDF through the computers of the bitten apple, you can refer to my tutorial on how to transform a Word file into PDF with Mac through which I have proceeded to talk about all those that in my opinion are the best tools belonging to the category in question.