Author Topic: PDF drivers, your favorite?  (Read 23145 times)

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Mark

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PDF drivers, your favorite?
« on: March 08, 2008, 07:33:50 AM »
I am, once again looking for a decent PDF print driver. It needs to be able to create a single .pdf file from Sheet Set Manager and allow for custom paper sizes.

What do you guys use?

thanks for any/all input.
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deegeecees

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2008, 03:45:04 PM »
CutePDF has been my PDFer for a while now.

MP

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2008, 03:56:58 PM »
I haven't used it a lot, but I haven't had any reason to replace it either: CutePDF. I've been using it ever since I saw Daron mention it. Searching ... yep.
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Josh Nieman

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2008, 04:02:55 PM »
Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional.

Every now and then I get a plot where it didn't render some items, didn't include some items or only partial items, from dimensions, to text, to leaders, hatches, model or paper space... but I don't think I would ever fully trust any application so much that I would =not= check it's output before sending it to the client or governing authorities, so it's no biggie for me.

I find it handles hatches, wipeouts, background masks, etc all fine, which are normally the tricky stuff for some drivers, and the file sizes are quite manageable.  I'm not too keen on how it makes a solid hatch into a lined hatch, because on SCREEN it can sometimes look a bit dodgy, but it always prints as expected.

Glenn R

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2008, 06:26:46 PM »
GhostScript is the best I've ever used. It comes with an .inf file for installing a printer (install it locally or on a network) then wrap that with a .pc3 file in AutoCAD. I then use my custom batch program to take the generated .eps file from the plot and pass it to the Ghostscript.exe and voila!

Perfect PDF's everytime including wipeout's, which are notoriously trouble in companies I've worked for.

Glenn R

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2008, 06:30:08 PM »
I'm becoming a fan of XPS though..........

Kerry

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2008, 07:07:50 PM »
I've been using GhostScript (@Home) for a while ... no issues.
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Willie

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2008, 12:23:26 AM »
We use pdf redirect

http://www.exp-systems.com/
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Keith™

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #8 on: March 10, 2008, 10:43:26 AM »
I've been using GhostScript (@Home) for a while ... no issues.

Same here ... ever since Se7en mentioned it some time back .. it is much better than Acrobat so far as configurability is concerned.
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Guest

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #9 on: March 10, 2008, 11:00:43 AM »
We've been Bluebeam'ing it over here for a while... Works great!

JohnK

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #10 on: March 10, 2008, 11:23:16 AM »
Ghostscript; I plot (batch or one at a time) to PS file(s) then convert to PDF via a batch script.
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Crank

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #11 on: March 18, 2008, 02:52:53 PM »
My favorite is FreePDF. Though the site is in German, many languages are supported.

This program is a shell for Ghostscript, so you need that as well.

- It's freeware (also for firms), with no advertisement at all
- Quality attitudes (dissolution, dimensions of picture area new calculation/ - grid)
- Support for encoded PDF (40 or 128 bits)
- PDF-printer support for all programs
- Terminal server support
- It's possible to set policys.
- Join different PDF-files to one new PDF (even different coded or paper size)
« Last Edit: March 22, 2008, 05:41:42 AM by Crank »
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M-dub

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #12 on: March 18, 2008, 03:09:46 PM »
I've used PrimoPDF ever since Mark mentioned it years ago, but I also use Acrobat 7.0 Pro, and find it to be the most robust.

Hmm... I think there's a "Word of Mouth" theme going on in here.  Maybe it IS time to change to something else.  I'll watch this thread for a while.

Mark

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #13 on: March 18, 2008, 10:24:19 PM »
Thanks to Se7en I'm now using Ghostscript to .ps files from Sheet Set Manager. I then batch print them to .pdf. Of course this is only for me, not company wide, not yet anyway.
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FengK

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Re: PDF drivers, your favorite?
« Reply #14 on: March 19, 2008, 03:43:51 AM »
i'm also a GhostScript user. have been using for 5-6 years and didn't feel like/need trying anything else.