How to Print Directly to PDF from ANY Program
Most people don t realize that you can print directly from any program straight to PDF.
You don t have to have Adobe Acrobat and only use programs that sync with it, or other
programs that have a built in PDF export function.
There are a many reasons to do this. Say you are using old software or any program and
need a PDF instead of paper printout. There is NO REASON to print to paper and then scan the
document. This is much slower and lower quality.
Another extremely useful function is for shopping online. When you get to the receipt
page just print a PDF to a folder and you have permanent electronic copies.
All of the instructions below are for using windows based computers. If using an Apple
Mac then the print to PDF function is built in and needs no further software installation. In to
bottom-left of any print window in the Mac you will see a button to print directly to PDF.
 Print to PDF may seem like an odd statement until you realized that the Adobe Acrobat
program is basically an electronic printer, and creating a PDF is the same as printing to paper,
except this time the paper is electronic.
Some things NOT to do:
Never print to paper to scan a document. Print directly to PDF.
If you have paper documents you need to scan:
Never scan a text document as a JPEG file, like you would with pictures. The JPEG
format is a compression algorithm specifically for photos, not black and white text. The file will
never look or print exactly like the original.
If you must scan a document to share with others the preferred format would be PDF,
since it is the default standard for sharing documents, and is by far the easiest way for most
recipients to read and print the document. If you cannot send the document as PDF then at least
scan as a TIFF file which will not lose quality. (NOTE: Windows XP comes with a Scanner and
camera wizard which when will save text documents and a GIF that is extremely small and very
high quality).
Print to PDF Instructions on Next Page
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How to Print Directly to PDF from ANY Program
Instructions for Adobe Acrobat Users (Full version Only)
(A freeware program and instructions follow)
Step 1:Chose the print window in the program you are using as you normally would.
When you see the printer name at the left-top of the document pull down the selection window
and choose instead the Acrobat Distiller printer instead of your default (remember, acrobat is
basically a printer).
Now when you click OK to print the PDF file will be located in your Program
Files/Adobe/PDF Output Folder.
Step 2 (Optional): If you want to make it easier to access your PDF files just create a
link to the folder on your desktop. Then you can open that folder and your files will be there.
Go to the C: Drive and open the Program Files folder. Next look for the adobe folder and
open it. Then look for the folder for the version of Acrobat you are running and open that. You
will see a folder named  PDF Output . Right Click on that folder and select Send to Desktop
Creat Shortcut, as show below.
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How to Print Directly to PDF from ANY Program
This will make a shortcut to the folder on your desktop to view your files.
If you are not using Acrobat or just want a different program to use that is Vista
compatible, works great, and is FREE then look at the instructions on the following page.
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How to Print Directly to PDF from ANY Program
Print to PDF Using free Primo PDF
Step 1: Download and install Primo PDF from www.primopdf.com.
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How to Print Directly to PDF from ANY Program
Step 2: In any program choose print and when you are at the print window select Primo
PDF instead of you standard printer as show below.
Step 3:You will see a window shown below pop up. Make sure that Print quality button
is selected. Click on the button next to  Save as to select where you want the file to be saved.
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How to Print Directly to PDF from ANY Program
Step 4:Click the OK button, as shown below, and the file will be created in the location
you selected and your PDF reader will open to view the results.
Congratulations! You can save basically anything to PDF now as fast as printing to
paper and no need to scan so much.
One other advantage of this approach is that if you are saving multi-page documents, it
will print to a multi-page PDF just like it would on paper. No more multiple scans to save a
document or having to combine pages in software.
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