PDFCreator
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PDFCreator is an application for converting documents into
Portable Document Format Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating syste ...
(PDF) format on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It works by creating a
virtual printer In computing a virtual printer is a simulated device whose user interface and API resemble that of a printer driver, but which is not connected with a physical computer printer. When a document is "printed" by a virtual printer, instead of phys ...
that prints to PDF files, and thereby allows practically any application to create PDF files by choosing to print from within the application and then printing to the PDFCreator printer. In addition to PDFCreator Free, there are three business editions with additional features: PDFCreator Professional, PDFCreator Server and PDFCreator Terminal Server. Since 2009, PDFCreator has included closed source
adware Adware, often called advertising-supported software by its developers, is software that generates revenue for its developer by automatically generating online advertisements in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the ...
, toolbars and other software that is installed by default.


Implementation

The application is written in Microsoft C# and released to the public at no charge. It works with 64-bit and 32-bit Windows versions including Windows 11. The actual PDF generation is handled by
Ghostscript Ghostscript is a suite of software based on an interpreter for Adobe Systems' PostScript and Portable Document Format (PDF) page description languages. Its main purposes are the rasterization or rendering of such page description language file ...
, which is included in the setup packages. Besides being installed as a virtual printer, PDFCreator can be associated with .ps files to manually convert PostScript to PDF format. PDFCreator can convert to the following file formats: PDF (including PDF/A (PDF/A-1b, PDF/A-2b and PDF/A-3b) and PDF/X (X-3:2002, X-3:2003 and X-4)), PNG, JPEG,
TIFF Tag Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word process ...
, TXT. It also allows to digitally sign PDF documents. PDFCreator allows any COM enabled application to make use of its functionality. The business editions of PDFCreator allow users to write their own C# scripts with access to the entire job data. These custom scripts can be integrated directly before and after the conversion. They have full access to the .NET-framework and can reference compatible external libraries. PDFCreator allows the user to disable printing, copying of text or images and modifying the original document. The user can also choose between two types of passwords, user and owner, to restrict PDF files in several ways. The former is required to open the PDF file, while the latter is necessary in order to change permissions and password.
Encryption In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can de ...
can be either Low (128 Bit), Medium (128 Bit AES) or High (256 Bit AES), with the latter only being available in the PDFCreator Business editions. PDFCreator provides the possibility for automating certain tasks, for example with the help of user tokens. These placeholders for values, like today’s date, username, or e-mail address can be helpful when printing many similar files like invoices. With PDFCreator users can verify their authorship of a document with digital signatures. This feature is part of all PDFCreator editions, including PDFCreator Free. Starting with version 0.9.6, there is full support for
Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
and version 0.9.7 provides support for
Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...
. Starting with version 3.0.0, PDFCreator ended support for
Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
. Starting with version 4.4.0 there is full support for Windows 11.


Editions

PDFCreator is open source and freeware. The code can be downloaded and modified. In addition to PDFCreator Free there are three commercial editions. All of them allow administrators to predefine specific settings centrally with the easy management of user groups. ;PDFCreator Professional:This version can be installed silently in Windows domains, which is not possible in PDFCreator Free. ;PDFCreator Terminal Server: It has been developed for the use on Windows Servers with installed Remote Desktop Service and on Citrix Servers. Print jobs can be assigned securly to separate user sessions. Only one license key is needed per terminal server and it is valid for an ulimited number of users. ;PDFCreator Server: This works as Windows service application. It allows the central management of settings and users for administrator. Additionally, it lets the user share PDFCreator printers in their network, auto-convert without user interaction and it offers high performance through multi-threading.


Adware toolbar controversy

Between 2009 and 2013 the installation package included a closed-source browser toolbar that was considered by many users to be
malicious software Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, ...
. Although technically an optional component, the opt-out procedure used to be a two-step process (prior to version 1.2.3), which was considered by many to be intentionally confusing. In addition to the spyware activity described below, the toolbar allowed one-click creation of PDFs from the current webpage and included a search tool. As of version 1.2.3, the opt-out procedure only required unchecking one checkbox during the installation process. Starting with version 0.9.7 (February 2009), PDFCreator included an
adware Adware, often called advertising-supported software by its developers, is software that generates revenue for its developer by automatically generating online advertisements in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the ...
toolbar. The end-user-license agreement for PDFForge Toolbar by Spigot, Inc. (versions prior to 0.9.7 have a different, optional toolbar called "PDFCreator Toolbar"), states that the software will: Pdfforge, which created PDFCreator, wrote an FAQ entry regarding the toolbar that stated: Since that time various versions of PDFCreator have included adware toolbars and other software with the installer, which many virus scanners identify as problematic or undesired software. In March 2012 the company announced that the toolbar had been discontinued with version 1.3.0. The company stated: As of 23 March 2012, PDFCreator included the MyStart toolbar by Incredibar. On 13 June 2012, PDFCreator once again included another controversial bundled software package, which tests as
spyware Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is software with malicious behaviour that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user—for example, by violating their priva ...
, called SweetIM. In July 2012 the project disabled reviews and ratings on its sourceforge repository. On 30 August 2012, PDFCreator version 1.5.0 was released which included an installer for the " AVG Security Toolbar." There was an option to disable installation of the "AVG Security Toolbar, but it was not clearly identified. Furthermore, installation of PDFCreator required acceptance of the AVG EULA even when installation of the "AVG Security Toolbar" was disabled. On 23 October 2012, PDFCreator version 1.5.1 was released which includes an installer for iClaro Search. Compared to previous adware choices, once installed, iClaro cannot be removed using the "Add/Remove Programs" option. On 14 January 2013, PDFCreator version 1.6.2 was released which includes an installer for Install Entrusted Toolbar. The setup screen for Install Entrusted Toolbar has a single option in black font. The description for ''Express (recommended)'' reads: In October 2013, PDFCreator was stealthily installing more software, including Amazon's Internet Explorer toolbar, without notifying the user.


Awards

The now defunct OpenCD project chose PDFCreator as the best free software package for creating PDF files in Windows. In August 2008, ''
InfoWorld ''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its siste ...
'' magazine recognized PDFCreator with an Open Source Software Award from the field of more than 50 available open source or free PDF creation applications. Both of these awards predate the inclusion of the contested spyware.


See also

*
List of PDF software This is a list of links to articles on software used to manage Portable Document Format (PDF) documents. The distinction between the various functions is not entirely clear-cut; for example, some viewers allow adding of annotations, signatures, e ...
*
List of virtual printer software A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List The SC Germania ...


References


External links

* * {{sourceforge, pdfcreator Adware PDF software Windows-only freeware Software that bundles malware