Open Source PDF File Creator?

General Forums Off-topic Chat
1

Is there an open source pdf file program like Adobe Acrobat?

Thanks, LC

2

OpenOffice can export .pdf files, there are probably others too.

3

There’s also Scribus, an open source desktop publisher (Similar to Adobe InDesign or Quark) available for Linux, Mac, & now Windows!

http://www.scribus.org.uk/

4

There are all sorts of free programs that will make just about anything print to PDF. For instance, PDFCreator for Windows will set up a mock printer that will create PDF’s from almost anything that prints. PDF Creator (notice the space) for Linux will also perform a similar function.

One thing you want to think about is how sophisticated you want your PDF’s to be. In OpenOffice 2.x, you can easily create very complex PDF bookmark trees, bookmarks, hyperlinks, and all sorts of fancy things you’d expect in a modern PDF. The ExtendedPDF script for earlier versions of OpenOffice will do the same. I haven’t tried anything like that in Scribus, but I would be surprised if it couldn’t do it too. Other programs like Inkscape that can export to PDF may also have that depth of functionality.

5

Ghostscript/GSView & any ol’ postscript printer driver…