Best PDF Creator and Reader?

[truthseekerowner]

Always used Adobe Acrobat for my PDF needs. I am just looking for a free good alternative to read and "print" (create) PDF files out of office documents. I did a small research but i am looking for the best. Post what you use and why, with version and program name.

 

[itmoba]

I use Libreoffice for traditional reading and editing PDF files. When it comes to OCR and converting PDFs to text, I use my own engine (i.e., I wrote and compiled the code) which takes advantage of tesseract and opencv. (No, you can't have my OCR engine -- it's not for sale, and it's closed-source.)

Why? Because Libreoffice is free and open-source.

Version? Not applicable, because it's a modified version compiled from source.

 

[truthseekerowner]

Itmoba not interested in your OCR engine. I like office just looking something that does the same acrobat does or better but open source. I heard about PDFCreator but dont know if there are better alternatives.

 

[itmoba]

Don't use PDFCreator -- it's absolute garbage that installs malware, albeit "soft" (e.g., Amazon toolbar for IE). Stay away from that kind of junk.

 

[truthseekerowner]

Yeah malwarebytes just warned me. Then i am still looking!

 

[skittle]

MS office and LibreOffice can export (print) to pdf file. if you want to create more professional looking pdf consider learning LaTeX

On windows Sumatra or foxit reader are popular free pdf readers..

 

[truthseekerowner]

I think ill upgrade my Acrobat licence again...

 

[skittle]

What specific needs does Acrobat fill that others do not?

 

[truthseekerowner]

Skittle, i was just looking for a malware/ad free all in one reader and creator (print). Since i have microsoft office and i like it, should work with it.

 

[skittle]

Well if you just want to export word/ppt documents to pdf then use MS office or LibreOffice for that. Read them with the any pdf software like sumatra or foxit... on linux there are many other pdf readers too

Only thing acrobat has that's useful is editing a pdf; but not really given the nature of pdf is to be a read only anywhere format.

 

[truthseekerowner]

I have office 2013 and it wont let me print/make pdf files by its own. I always install acrobat for that. I am missing something?

 

[skittle]

I have office 2013 and it wont let me print/make pdf files by its own. I always install acrobat for that. I am missing something?

I don't have office so I can't confirm but MS documentation suggests it is available in the "save as dialog"
https://support.office.com/en-IN/article/Save-as-PDF-d85416c5-7d77-4fd6-a216-6f4bf7c7c110

It is for sure available in LibreOffice as I use this feature often along side my LaTeX/knitr documents

 

[truthseekerowner]

Ill just update my licence anyway. Al though is hard to believe there is no open source solution except for pdfcreator to do this. Thanks anyway.

 

[skittle]

well pdfcreator method of virtual printer is not a good solution because it does not create searchable pdf with indexes, chapters. Proper way of making a pdf is to export with MS office or what ever you use.