John M – I need to make PDF files for distribution to my students. I found pdfFactory by a Google search. I had been struggling today with Adobe but it would not convert my Wordperfect 8 file which had 23 pages, tables and 20 figures. The trial version of pdfFactory whizzed through this with no overflows or errors – and all in about 60 seconds. I fell off my chair in delight and amazement. Of course, I had to buy it.
* * *
Jay H. – It’s rare that I come across a shareware program worthy of paying for. Among those, Fineprint is one of the sturdiest and most useful. It saves space, time, money and trees. It does what it is supposed to do superbly and no more. It is the antithesis of bloatware and it actually gives me a little thrill every time I use it. This is what software is all about!
I use it to print out information that I want a hardcopy of for permanent storage. By printing 4 pages per page, my information is still legible and yet takes up on quarter the space! It’s cheaper, too. I also use it as print previewer and formatting tool and I use the booklet feature to create neat little informational pamphlets and handouts!
Thought you deserved to know that your product has made an impression on me. Keep up the good work!
* * *
Dirk L. – Thanks — worked like a champ, I’m all registered and am EXTREMELY happy with the new features! I’ve used pdfFactory for “normal stuff”, but one of the most valuable uses for me is archiving online purchase confirmations and similar online documents so I have a permanent electronic copy — now I can secure those documents! Your product represents both a great value and feature set — characteristics usually mutually exclusive these days!
* * *
Russell B. – You will have received my $49.95 for FinePrint pdfFactory, but I should add my personal thanks for saving my ***. Last semester, I discovered that about half my students were unable to read the phonetic symbols (Sildoulas.ttf and WordPerfect fonts) in my materials. The font was properly embedded and the file readable on a machine which did not have the special fonts loaded.
I was stumped until a student came up with the solution to the problem. The Adobe Reader 5.0 refused to read the phonetic characters while the Adobe Reader 4.0 did so without problems. I attempted to solve the problem by acquiring a license for Adobe 5.0 (Daddy’s money). I discovered that 5.0 correctly embedded the fonts, the 4.0 Reader would read them, but the 5.0 Reader would not! Amazingly, pdfFactory 1.41 creates files with embedded fonts that the Adobe Reader 5.0 can read.
* * *
David U. – There’s a lot of junk on the web. But every once in a while you find something that installs the FIRST time, works right the FIRST time, the purchase goes right, upgrades happen, and the product sort of fades into the background, like a keyboard or a text editor. I go to the web site and my one and only question is answered with about 2 mouse clicks. No searching or wading thru pages of junk.
You guys are doing a great, great job. I’m a contract programmer and I hope that my clients think I’m 10% as professional as you guys appear to be. You make it look so natural and easy.
I wish you the best of everything. You’ve taken small but important problem, one that can soak up hours and ruin days, and smashed the hell out of it.
* * *
Roger R. – I just want to tell you, I’m *blown*away* by FinePrint and pdfFactory! I usually find utilities of this type to be not worth the money …sometimes even if they’re free. But I downloaded your demos and within15 minutes was ordering both. These simple, yet powerful tools accomplish things I’ve wanted to do for *years*. Concrete user-friendliness. Extensive, well thought-out capabilities. And what appears to be rock-solid stability, even in the flaky Windows printer environment. Worth much more for those of us who make our living producing documents of various types and formats. Congratulations.
* * *
Bradley K. – We are a homeschool family who use a curriculum that involves printing on a high quality duplex printer thousands of pages. We print out our own books for educational reading and the FinePrint ‘booklet’ option is a huge solution to printing pages with wide margins. You have let me master the margins! FinePrint is definitely the best piece of software we use -that is, the most intuitive and easy to use. The many options you have made available are great. We like to put a watermark “Knepp Family Homeschool” on our pages, so folks who might borrow our books will actually return them! Thank you for a great product with which we have not had one difficulty! And thank you for the discount for schools, even a simple homeschool!
* * *
Jayn S. – Just wanted to express my thanks for creating a great program that does what it says, simply and effectively. The trial version met my needs, so I registered. The price is right too. I like being able to combine multiple docs. I like how you give me the option to embed the fonts and then REMEMBER which fonts I embedded for future use. Very user friendly, unlike most Adobe products I have tried. Your website is clean and easy to navigate through.
* * *
Brent C. Wilson – I have been using FinePrint for over 2 years now and I really love it. Let me congratulate you on FinePrint. It has driven a wedge between printer drivers and this software.
I just created a training document using a word processor, our mainframe system and FinePrint in about 1 hr. The fact that I can copy the printout to the clipboard as a graphic is amazing.
Before I would have to: (1) copy the text from our mainframe system (running in an emulator) to the windows clipboard (2) paste it into something like Photoshop, and hope the formatting stays (something that in certain cases can be come quite infrequent), (3) export it to disk as a bitmap or equivalent (4) import it into my Word processor as such. (File-Import-Choose Directory-Click OK) (5) Then months later, when I run out of disk space, look through all these directories and get rid of all the old bitmaps, etc.
With FinePrint I simply: (1) click on the print icon in our terminal emulator (2) right click on copy to clipboard as monochrome bitmap (3) Paste it into the word processor (Ctrl-V) ** No more files to clean up, no more formatting problems….and quick !! Also The gutter feature is great, now my documentation is easier to read when I print it. Thanks Muchly
* * *
Jerry S. – I registered pdfFactory immediately after downloading the beta. Let me tell you, sir, that pdfFactory is a godsend. In many ways it is far more flexible and easier to use than Acrobat.
While I originally registered pdfFactory intending to use with FinePrint, I found that pdfFactory solved a particularly irritating problem for me. I despise on-line manuals. And as publishers increasingly include nothing more than a so-called help file, the situation has become far worse. First, my eyesight is typical for my age (old). Second, the help files, more often than not, are written by folks who lack writing skills, are often poorly structured and worst of all, provide no index, meaning that every search for some item is a frustrating struggle.
A near-perfect solution is simply printing the help files to pdfFactory. Much easier and faster to do in pdfFactory than Acrobat. My thanks to you and your colleagues, Jonathan. As you did with finePrint, you’ve created an extraordinarily powerful tool that saves time and makes day-to-day computing a lot easier.