PortableDocument Format (PDF) files have become somewhat of a de-facto standardfor representing fixed layout 2D documents, and their use andversatility have grown over the past decade. Recently, Adobeannounced that it intends to release the PDF 1.7specification for publication by the International Organization forStandardization (ISO). As demand increases for this format,many are wondering, what tools can be used to create PDFs with freesoftware?

Now that the new versions of Ghostscript are available under the free software GPL license other projects relying on Ghostscript can be fully GPL software as well. One of these projects, PDFCreator, I recently tested and I must admit I’m impressed.

PDFCreator allows you to make a PDF of anything you can print, documents, spreadsheet, presentations, anything with a print function. PDFCreator even has encryption and security features that would make it perfect for a corporate environment.