The 
is Proud to Present
Free PDF
Instant
Message The
Zipguy
These webpages are included in the Free PDF Download
as they ARE the documentation
Congratulations! You've FOUND IT!
What is Free PDF?
Free PDF is a utility which allows you to create
PDFs just by printing to a "Create PDF" printer,
from any Windows 9x/ME application FOR FREE!
Free PDF bridges between RedMon (owned by Ghostgum Software Pty
Ltd) and Aladdin Ghostscript (owned by Aladdin Enterprises), thus simplifying
the PDF creation process, providing useful options and making
it easy to use them. Configuration of the programs requires comprehension
and some effort on your part.
Although, functionally, Free PDF behaves like a printer, Free PDF is
not a printer driver. You can use any Postscript printer driver
you like.
So you can print anything (almost) to a PDF limited only by your imagination.
Note that some of the advanced PDF features, including PDF hotlinks and PDF
Table of Contents, are not supported.
Here's the Official Hype[r] Spin Mode that anyone has permission to use as
a good description for Free PDF on Download sites (Just Click on the Screen
shot to see the PDF):
THANK YOU!
First of all, the 
would like
to extend his appreciation to L. Peter Deutsch
the author of Ghostscript, and
Russell Lang
the author of Redmon. Without their work, Free PDF would not have been Possible!
Free PDF lives between RedMon (owned by Ghostgum Software Pty Ltd) and Aladdin
Ghostscript (owned by Aladdin Enterprises).
Until June, 2000 The ZipGuy thought he had come up with this method all by
himself, but in perusing old bookmarks The ZipGuy found a page where
he may have gotten part of the idea so Thanks to the
alpha-geek@GodAndScience.org
and whosoever may have been his sources.
Trust the Clergy, Students, The Zipguy and Kids to come up with sneaky,
clever, simple and cheap ways to do things!
Quality Web Hosting
Many thanks to
WebXD Web Designer
extraordinare, LockerGnomie Chat Favorite, and now ZipGuy
Cohort!, for the new Free PDF Logo!
Visit Him for Excellence in Web design
and in Web Hosting! |
 |
What Free PDF does, and does not, do:
Free PDF is a simple, small program. It is just an enabler.
In the interests of fairness, giving credit where credit is due, and not
taking credit for other people's work, it is important that you understand
what Free PDF does, and does not, do.
Free PDF does:
-
Make it easy to use RedMon and Ghostscript to make PDFs
-
Gives you a "Save As" Dialog for you to name your PDFs
-
Remembers where you like to put your PDFs (the Default is on you desktop).
-
Let you optionally call your Favorite PDF viewer to glance at you new PDF
when you make one
-
Lets you graphically configure where the Ghostscript and PDF viewer executables
are.
-
Gives you a variety of other options
Free PDF does not:
Free PDF just makes it easy to use these other programs to make PDFs
painlessly, merely by printing from Windows 9x applications. Free PDF is
a short simple program, sort of like a single player on a team. Other
Programs (namely RedMon owned by Ghostgum Software Pty Ltd and Aladdin
Ghostscript owned by Aladdin Enterprises) do the hard work (see the
Background page for more information). Free PDF
is a small, but vital piece of the puzzle. All these programs are Free.
Samples Created with Free PDF!
Ok now that that's out of the way the ZipGuy will put his hat back on his
head, roll up his sleeves and get down to the business at hand. So
ya say you want some samples? No problem.
Note that all of these samples are PDF screen shots and you can click on
them to bring up the pdf in your browser right now and view them in Acrobat
Reader!. They are just linked to the URL of the PDF File.
Here's a trivial example which was created using Free PDF, and may give you
idea and get your juices flowing:
Here's a great example. This is a diagram of how to aim a pool shot.
It was made with a program you probably don't have! Because the output
has been converted to a PDF you can view it, despite not having that graphic
program.
And another
Sharp eyed return visitors may have noticed that the above graphics are now
in color! See the news section for how to do this. Get the Idea?
Pretty much anything you can print you can make into a PDF. Interested?
Why Free PDF?
The Zipguy figures there are many people (like him) who want to create PDF
(Portable Document Format) files in order to share their glorious creations
with others,
But DON'T want to fork over $232 to buy Adobe Acrobat, If you're among these,
then this is your lucky day!
You've FOUND
IT!
Yes, the setup is a bit of a pain,
and it does take a little bit time and effort on your part,
But Only ONCE!
But it is FREE! And It WORKS!
Is this Legal?
Won't Adobe get Mad?
The short answers are:
-
Yes, it is legal, and
-
No, Adobe won't get mad.
The is constrained from copying the contents of the
"Portable
Document Format Reference Manual" but you can look at it yourself. He
would direct your attention to the "Introduction" section, and the sub section
entitled "Copyright permission to use PDF". Adobe wants (and smartly
so in the 's opinion) to promote the Portable Document Format
as 'the information exchange format' in the electronic realm.
To help achieve this goal they:
-
Explicitly give permission to create files that are in their PDF Format
(as long as an Adobe Copyright notice is included)
-
Explicitly give permission to create software that produce output in PDF
Format (again as long as an Adobe Copyright notice is included)
-
Publish the specification of PDF format in gory detail
This is smart because developers (and customers) have embraced the PDF format.
Developers have written many tools for and extensions to the PDF format.
Just look at the other sites in the PDFzone webring to see for yourself.
Adobe's primary concern seems to be that they still hold the
Copyrights, and (again smartly so in the 's opinion)
in the integrity (and purity) of the PDF format. This position has
been consistent for years. Adobe is smart enough to realize that the more
people that use PDF, the more successful they will be! As a result, the
community of PDF software professionals is thriving.
In any case, Free PDF does not actually produce PDF's, the Ghostscript program
does, so it is the owners of Ghostscript's worry, rather than the
's. If this is news to you, read the "What Free PDF does,
and does not, do" section above.
Here's a recent
article on this subject.
Alternatives
If you are profligate, and insist on easy to install 'turn-key' software,
ZipGuy recommends you look elsewhere (bringing your wallet) into the
following alternative programs both of which cost approximately $50
(U.S).
Win2PDF (which relies PDFlib
technology)
& seems fairly easy |
Win2PDF
 |
DocuCom PDF Driver from
Zeon Corporation's
"DocuCom family" Which seems more advanced
(PDF 1.3 compatible) |
 |
Tell me More about Free PDF!
How'd you like to have a printer like this?
When you print to this printer it makes a PDF out of your output. One uses
a PDF viewer, like the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, to view/print these PDF
files. One can view/print these PDF files on any platform which has
a PDF viewer available without having the application which created the
output.
So for example you can create PDF of an AutoCad Diagram (by printing to the
above printer) and anyone can view it on their machine without requiring
AutoCad. Also they can print, even if they have a much different printer
than you do, which is usually problematic. Also you can E-Mail PDFs or
put them on your website for downloading.
(News)
Lockergnome-
Chris Perillo, of LockerGnome Fame, was kind enough to feature Free PDF in
his 07/03/00 Daily issue (and of course the weekly issue). Those hordes
of eager clambering Gnomies buried this site on Monday! The ZipGuy thought
they'd be eating Fireworks, and shooting off Hamburgers! or was that
versa visa? Thanks Chris!
Dave
Central - The ZipGuy submitted Free PDF v0.95 Public Beta
to Dave Central (DC) on or about 6/10/00. After a couple of weeks he
gave up on his submission. Then when he found out Free PDF would be
in Lockergnome, he worked on that. Someone instant messaged the ZipGuy
saying that there was a bad download link. It turns out that DC put
Free PDF up on Friday 7/1 and didn't notify him. Well, needless to say, the
old submission to DC still had the old download link that had problems and
since has been fixed everywhere else. See the Message Board for details.
So someone posted a comment on DC that said "I
can't get a link to work to download this program". They also visited
this page and were too blind to realize that there
was content on this page! So they further stated that
"the FreePDF page is a dead end. I click the download
kink, get another page, click the link there, and my browser flashes
and...nothing." Theirs was the only comment! You can imagine how this
got the ZipGuy's dander up! Anyway he's posted comments there and the
matter seems to be straightened out (although the download link is still
bogus)! Despite this adversity, Free PDF has
been on their what's hot list since the day after it went up, and was at
a high (as far as The ZipGuy is aware) of #3 on Friday
7/7/00. Anyway, The ZipGuy is grateful to
Dave
Central for the Traffic! Thanks! Still haven't heard
a peep from NoNags! So, with the
Lockergnome
mention and
Dave
Central's help....
Traffic has been OUTSTANDING!
- Needless to say this has generated amazing traffic! Take a gander at
the 7/1/00-7/8/00 Traffic Report.
Bottom line, in that week The ZipGuy has had
10,895 visitors and 25,902 Page
Views! Thanks everyone!
The Message Board
Is Smokin' - If you haven't been there it is definitely worth
a look. If you're having problems with Free PDF or wondering about,
say, how it works on NT?, look there.
It's the best place to
You Have to See this - Here's
a Sneak Peek at the upcoming outrageous Splash
Screen for Free PDF which is only 34k. The link is to a zip file which
is 12k! That's as small as a banner ad. Take a look. Everyone loves it. It
was made by the 'Mizer' who is a wizard and a ZipGuy Cohort.
There are two ZipGuy Cohorts how help the ZipGuy
with theirs skills. They call him the Mizer because he writes excellent
VB stuff and it is so small! He may be collaborating with the ZipGuy
and perhaps writing the "update checker" module.
And many thanks to WebXD Web Designer
extraodinare, LockerGnomie Chat Favorite,
and now ZipGuy Cohort!, for the new Free PDF Logo!
Visit Him for Excellence in Web design and in Web
Hosting!
Past Headlines
| You can Help Promote Free PDF!
New Button, Banner and Funny Story! |
| Friday,
June 23, 2000 |
The ZipGuy knows you want to hear about the funny story first. This came
to him, in a burst of creativity while writing an e-mail. It has
a wacky caveman language where the order of the words are different. So it's
called "Wheel Story True mine" because it is about
the poor caveman from "Cave Netscape" who invented the Wheel and what happened
to him after the folks at "Cave Microsoft" got through with him.
If you like Free PDF and want to help promote
it, you can use this link to to
download a text copy of the story (right click and "Save target as..") and
E-Mail it to everyone you know.
LOL. It is funny and free, and yes it does have a plug for this site
in it. Here's how it starts
"Wheel Story True mine"
"Caveman Roller name me. Dirt me same old. yes and, Round(R) invented
me! Happen way this.
Food much having me lucky. Friends many. Roll can me ground on. Side mine
and belly and belly on mine. Big me legs hard mine use hurt. Dirty Me everywhere
on rolling dirt in. Mate mad me nag washing got time all the 'Skin Bear Great'
mine creek cave our time all. Cave ours 'Netscape(C)' holy be name. Know
why not me. Wizard Mighty Heap CAVE Holy ours words magic 'W3C' 'Mosiac'
and like, ask him me when. Scared Me am. Want him mad me at not. Stopped
why ask Him me. ...."
More
If you like Free PDF and want to help promote
it, you can use these buttons and a banners
The ZipGuy has a Free PDF animated Button for you. If you like Free PDF,
want to share the wealth or want to express your gratitude to The ZipGuy,
why not put a Free PDF button on your page?:
If you'd like to do this, just put the following code in the HTML for your
page and E-Mail the Zipguy and let him know that you've done so.
<A HREF="http://over.to/freepdf"><IMG
SRC="http://www.geocities.com/the_zipguy/freepdf/freepdf.gif" WIDTH="88"
HEIGHT="33" BORDER="0"></A>
If you prefer a banner, The Zipguy has a one of those also:
If you'd like to link to Free PDF using this banner, just put the following
code in the HTML for your page and E-Mail the Zipguy and let him know
that you've done so.
<A HREF="http://over.to/freepdf"><IMG
SRC="http://www.geocities.com/the_zipguy/freepdf/frpdfbanr.gif"
WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="60"
BORDER="0"></A>
News Page
| Color JPG's in your
PDF's... |
| Later
on Wednesday, July 05, 2000 |
News Page
| LockerGnome. Yeah Baby!, Re-Vamped
Configuration Page, The Check's in the Mail... |
| Wednesday,
July 05, 2000 |
News Page
| New Time Saving
Options! v0.95 Public Beta |
| Wednesday,
May 31, 2000 |
Want the details? More News? Visit the News Page
C++ Help needed!
Free PDF is written in the rather high level language Python/TCL (available
at www.python.org). The source code is included in the Download. If
you are an experienced C++ programmer and want
to write/modify some C++ source code to make a Port Monitor program
so that the setup and installation of Free PDF can be made easier, click
here |
PDF (Portable Document Format) is
Copyright ©2000 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Brought to you by Courtesy of The
some
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Just kidding! used mostly AOLPress2.0
(Easy to use Freeware HTML
WYSIWYG editor)
Click here to see why
and
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