Author Topic: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows  (Read 2425 times)

fruitcake

  • some kind of fruitcake
Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« on: 21 March, 2023, 01:04:02 pm »
Looking for a lightweight program that will install in Windows to enable me to print to PDF. The program would be available as a printer in WindowsXP 32-bit to allow export of any file as PDF. It just needs to do this, nothing more. It would be installable via a .exe file and wouldn't need an internet connection. This is not an internet connected computer.

Any recommendations?

Thanks


fruitcake

  • some kind of fruitcake
Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #1 on: 21 March, 2023, 01:18:58 pm »
I vaguely recall having used CutePDF back in the day, though I'd need something without adware / browser toolbars / bundled crap.

Free open source preferred as it's more likely to be free from crapware etc.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #2 on: 21 March, 2023, 01:27:36 pm »
I've used Bullzip in the distant past, can't remember too much about it other than it was free and seemed to work.
Still available to download and works in 32-bit XP I think.
https://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php

fruitcake

  • some kind of fruitcake
Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #3 on: 21 March, 2023, 01:31:18 pm »
That should work. Cheers.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #4 on: 21 March, 2023, 01:34:04 pm »
I'm scratching my memory as when we were on XP at work there was a PDF printer driver installed

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #5 on: 21 March, 2023, 04:21:31 pm »
I'm scratching my memory as when we were on XP at work there was a PDF printer driver installed
W10 has a print to PDF option built in.Whether it fulfills the lightweight option specified in the OP is unknown.
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #6 on: 21 March, 2023, 05:07:15 pm »
The requirement spec said Windows XP 32-Bit

I think we had CutePDF, so nae use.

There was the XPS driver but that doesn't produce PDF IIRC

Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #7 on: 21 March, 2023, 06:09:17 pm »
I have previously used doPDF, it was OK. Seems the latest version doesn't support XP, but older versions do. And not too much bundled crap. https://www.dopdf.com/previous-versions.html

Or for free/open source, ClawPDF looks interesting, not tried it myself. https://github.com/clawsoftware/clawPDF

Or if its Word/Excel files, easier just to open in LibreOffice, and export from there?

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #8 on: 21 March, 2023, 06:14:10 pm »
The requirement spec said Windows XP 32-Bit


So it did. Ignore me.
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #9 on: 21 March, 2023, 08:11:22 pm »
A bodge I haven't needed since my days as a penniless student oaf is to print to postscript (pick a driver for a proper postscript printer, and tell it the port is a file IIRC), and convert that to whatever on a proper computer.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #10 on: 21 March, 2023, 08:33:06 pm »
A bodge I haven't needed since my days as a penniless student oaf is to print to postscript (pick a driver for a proper postscript printer, and tell it the port is a file IIRC), and convert that to whatever on a proper computer.

That's pretty much what bullzip does, as best I remember.
It uses Ghostscript behind the scenes to do the heavy lifting, converting postscript to PDF.

Of course, I may be talking total bollocks, it's an old memory, and I CBA to research it now.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #11 on: 22 March, 2023, 02:19:35 pm »
Windows XPS Printer Driver
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/printdocs/microsoft-xps-document-writer

Adobes XPS to PDF solution however is to open the XPS is EXPS viewer then use the windows PDF printer driver
https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/hub/how-to/steps-to-convert-xps-to-pdf

So.... erm... that doesn't help you much

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #12 on: 22 March, 2023, 02:20:31 pm »
I've used Bullzip in the distant past, can't remember too much about it other than it was free and seemed to work.
Still available to download and works in 32-bit XP I think.
https://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php

+1 for Bullzip
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Recommende a .exe program to print to PDF in vintage Windows
« Reply #13 on: 02 April, 2023, 11:32:26 am »
I used to use PDFCreator,  an open source program. Website is:

https://www.pdfforge.org/pdfcreator/download