pdf 995 - create pdfs for free!

suitable for e-books?

[neophyte]

I am soon to be a first time (and possibly one time) self publisher of an e-book (43 pages, no illustrations). So far, I've been doing trial compilations on adobe for free.
Now that the time has come for the final compilation, their price for the licensed versions (with all the features) looms rather large. I've found a company called 'pdf 995', which puts out several versions - all downloadable. The licensing is free in exchange for advt. on my website/or $10 without. A sample compile seems OK, but slightly blurry when compared with adobe. Has anyone had any experience with pdf995? Has anyone encountered the same problem - the high price of adobe for a very limited project - and solved it in another way? All suggestions and advice will be highly appreciated.

[Jenstar]

There are many similar services online that are suitable for converting into .pdf files for ebooks, which are usually free or about $9.95 a month. Most don't have the wide range of fancy features that the full version of Adobe Acrobat has, but for a limited project without illustrations that doesn't need anything fancy done during the conversion, it will probably work fine.

If you do decide to continue making ebooks, I recommend getting the full Adobe Acrobat, or if you need features that are unavailable with the online conversion services.

[killroy]

personally I use jaws which works as a printer driver. It isn'T free, but cheaper then adobe.

There are many different programs out there doing pdf conversion and you'll just have to shop around for a cheap alternative.

(incidentally jaws was included as a 1 year license in a magazine, so free for me ;)

SN

[txbakers]

I use PDF Factory Pro from FinePrint - also installs like a printer driver. I use it constantly.

[richardb]

Hi neophyte

pdf 995 + the edit stuff, it's ok on txt but cr*p for graphics. A poor mans PDF.

Any other suggestions folks?

Rich

[Jenstar]

Neophyte is not including any illustrations in his ebooks, so the online version will probably work fine.

However, I agree, you will never get as good quality as you will with the original Adobe Acrobat software. But for those on a budget, the online version has been used by many as an inexpensive alternative to buying the software.

Unfortunately, the only negative to the full Adobe Acrobat program is the big price. But for me, it was worth every penny ;)

[tkteo]

pdf995's distilling engine is based upon GNU/GPL Ghostscript (GS), which is open source. Last I checked, they had yet to incorporate the latest version of GS, which greatly improves on file size and rendering quality. In other words, the latest versions of GS being developed are not as "poor man" as previous versions.

In fact, most, if not all of the alternatives to Adobe Acrobat incorporate GS source code.

People who are extremely familiar with TeX typesetting will be able to tell you more. Most if not all people who compose documents in TeX install GS as well. I use TeX (with GS) at times, but I am not an expert.

Graphics-wise, it's highly advisable to convert the images to (encapsulated) postscript (EPS) before distilling with GS.

You can always check out ghostscript dot com for more info.