Ann – I just want to say THANK-YOU, for a wonderful product – pdfFactory. I am quite a novice at the computer, so often need help with applications. I produce a monthly newsletter for a club I belong to. I wanted to find a way to reduce the file for easier downloading when e-mailing the newsletter. I was advised to try Adobe Acrobat – but the price of almost $400.(Cdn.) was too much. However, I noticed that they offered a service “Create PDF files Online” – this cost $9.95 (US) a month. I signed up in January/03 and converted my January newsletter, originally in MSWord at 3.5mg. The PDF file was 1.8mg which was fine for e-mailing. However, February was another story! My original file in MSWord was 3.1mg and converted to PDF @ 10 – yes, TEN mg.
I tried all ways to receive help or advice as to why the file had swelled to more than 3 times the size. I tried removing pages from the original, but each time I ended up with a PDF file which was approx. 3 times the size. I quickly cancelled the monthly account! Then, a friend advised me to try your pdfFactory – I downloaded the free trial and converted my original Feb MSWord file of 3.1mg – and lo & behold!! I had a PDF file of 1.3 mg. THANK YOU!! After making several free trials, I purchased the product. What a terrific product – I have recommended it to several friends already.
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Jens B. – Sometimes you want to have graphics out of a word, pdf, or other document, which have no export for embedded Data-Graphics. It is very easy to solve that Problem with FinePrint. Just print into FinePrint and use “Copy Sheet to Clipboard”. Every graphics program lets you save the clipboard and the quality is much better than a screenshot.
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Dave – My academic specialization is public administration and management so I spend a huge amount of my time collecting, analyzing and using government documents from around the world posted on websites in .pdf format. It’s been a real irritant with me that when agencies post a document the total size of which is, say, >5MB, they often break it up into component chapters – without providing an additional download of the whole thing complete. A damned nuisance for researchers and also for students when we set these documents as reading material for university courses – lots of small files when what we want is the one, large, complete one.
I’d asked Adobe whether they could assist me (e.g. with a patch) so that I and my colleagues could combine these separate documents into one – using a ‘public good’ argument (y’know, helping students and all that stuff!!!). Their reply was a bit disapproving and that it was a bit ‘difficult’ (I think they were angling for us to purchase the whole Acrobat package – maybe they were also worried about document security??? dunno…). I pointed out that pdfFactory allows me to do so in a very convenient format and that it struck me you guys were showing the kind of flexible entrepreneurialism customers like myself were looking for! Thanks for nothing, Adobe…!
In a separate, earlier exchange, in which I was trying to get clear instructions from them (not clear on many printer drivers, e.g. HP) on how to print 2 pages per sheet off the free Acrobat Reader using various printers (again, knowledge I was seeking to help students), the Adobe rep had the grace to act embarrassed when I pointed out that pdfFactory was giving me a print speed (in this test I used 3 different types of government documents on 5 different networked and non-networked printers) of 1-4 pages per minute straight off (printing 2 pages per sheet) whereas the Reader setting sometimes gave a delay of 30-120secs before it printed anything, then gave only 0.5-1.5 pages per minute (and with one graphics-rich document, about 6 mins wait, with about 1 page per minute – long pauses between each page). At least that exchange with Adobe was courteous (the more recent one wasn’t!). But it was that test that convinced me to purchase your product 3-4 months ago and, as I noted previously, I’ve used it constantly since.
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Conway M. – Thank your for your fine product. I have been using Fineprint on Windows NT for a couple of years with great satisfaction. I would like to tell you of an interesting and vital use I have for finePrint. We have Vision 2002 installed on our machines but are unable to properly print them to our Xerox network printers directly. So I just print using FinePrint and it works perfectly. This is a great workaround for a problem which our IT folks have not been able to solve. You guys must be doing some right!!
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Barry D. – I have been using your trial version of pdfFactory for about 3 weeks now, it is fantastic!! I use MS Access to develop database applications and have always had a difficult time distributing reports electronically while preserving the reports’ format. Using pdfFactory, I have been able to send my most complex reports, including graphs, Gantt charts, sub-reports, and customized grids, pdfFactory maintained all formatting aspects of these reports while converting it to the Acrobat Reader format. This has saved me a lot of time!
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Ulrich S. – Gentlemen, not given to easy praise, I was flabbergasted when using your product today. As a matter of fact, I have only tested the booklet feature and I must say that your product handles this in an extraordinary way. Not only did it correctly set-up all the pages but it also fixed a ‘bug’ on my HP DeskJet 2000 printer, not printing grey-scales properly. Now, not only do I NOT need to purchase a reverse printing device (I have one but did not use it for this test and I will and keep it regardless) but in addition, I no longer need to concern myself with the mechanics of fitting my printed pages to scale. I always wondered, why MS did not provide a driver such as yours. My initial investment in your product is going to be well worthwhile as I am making part of my living as a technical writer. Once again, congratulations for your outstanding product.
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Frank W. – In legal departments e-mail works as a tool for forwarding many types of documents, however some clients and law firms want documents sent by fax. Because I do a lot of contract work, I used to send lots of faxed documents. Our IT department made this easier for me by getting desktop fax software for me (“FaxSr”).
The fax software requires that documents and attachments be converted to tif files. This is is not a problem where you wish to simply fax a single document which is contained in a single application. From your open application (eg, WordPerfect) you open the printer menu, choose the fax software as your printer and press print. After answering prompts for recipient information and you press “send” and you are done.
This simple scenario is not always the case for me however. For example, I have had instances where a document is actually four different files — the main document is in two separate WordPerfect files, in addition to which there is a schedule “A” in Excel and sketch in Schedule “B” in jpg format. Converting these files to tif for faxing became time consuming since you have to browse for each of the desired files, convert each separately to tif and then go into the fax software and retrieve the converted files. Prior to buying pdfFactory, the process of desktop faxing these kinds of documents was too cumbersome and unreliable and I eventually abandoned it in favor of simply walking hard copies down to the old fax machine.
pdfFactory has brought simplicity to desktop faxing multiple documents. In the scenario described above, I can simply open WordPerfect, Excel and Corel Draw, print all the required files to pdfFactory, convert to pdf and then print from Adobe Acrobat Reader to my fax software. I have never encountered a conversion problem and I get reliable and high quality faxes. What a great time saver!
I use pdfFactory every day in my work. Thanks for a great product.
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John A – You folks are great! I have been using FinePrint for quite a few years now, and just couldn’t get along without it. I’m a programmer in a large university, and when I’m not making 2-up or 4-up archives of software documentation, I’m doing web searches prior to purchasing an item. I use FinePrint to print a manufacturer’s product web page (tossing the extraneous “junk” pages), do a 2-up with the invoice page, then print it to either show to my boss for an OK, or as future documentation as to what the item was and where it was bought.
Have you come across web pages that don’t allow printing? I have, but I use a freeware screen-print utility like “Printkey 2000” to grab the screen, send it to FinePrint, then do 2-up landscape (it’s automatic), and it looks great!
FinePrint also saved the day when we had reports for a multi-million dollar grant that needed special printing. We thought we were done, then we find the pages needed to be on special forms! Twice through the printer for every page?? Nope. As the Word form already existed, I followed the oh-so-easy instructions to make a FormFactory template and in under a minute we were printing regular reports on the special form!! Absolutely amazing.
Being able to change the duplex feature of a printer (so the 2nd page is flipped or not) is really great, as is the ability to print duplex on a NON-duplex printer! Wow!
When I go to someone else’s computer that doesn’t have FinePrint, aside from feeling deprived of a great utility, I find I have to be very careful what I print…because everything goes directly to the printer, rather than allowing me to review it and cull the unnecessary pages.
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Jason S. – I use PDF Factory to send sheet music to my band after I arrange it with Coda’s Finale. The only other option is to save the finished arrangement as a TIFF but that’s a pain because that’s one tiff file per page. With PDF Factory I can include song lists, music, rundowns, and notes all in one PDF and email it out to the band. It’s wonderful!
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Cameron F – As an MCSE, you would not believe how much crap I have to print out (300 page user manuals from PDF files for software installations, TechNet whitepapers and suchlike) and your product has reduced my printing costs by 75%. Not only is it the cost, but the manageability of the finished product – try carrying around a few 600 page documents… let alone stapling the devils!! Also, I usually fax clients their invoice, but the pdfFactory has solved the issue of invoicing to clients who do not have a fax… I can email them the invoice.
I trust you have won some awards for these innovative products which have produced such tangible benefits to me on a daily basis, more so than any other utility or “time saver” that I have downloaded or purchased in the past 18 years. Well done.