5 good reasons to use offline pdf printers
March 31, 2011
Hi there
Use an online PDF printer – yes or no?
There are many online PDF printers that you can choose from, and most of these are free to use. And for some jobs, they are more than adequate.
Probably the best of these is Primo.
But if you are producing an ebook intended for sale, they might not produce the desired results.
5 good reasons to print PDF with an offline printer
Reason 1: filesize
Most online printers have a maximum filesize that you can upload. That is often 5 mb, or if you’re lucky, 10mb. And this might not be enough if you have a 250 page book with lots of high quality images.
Some services allow you to use an FTP service to upload larger files, instead of emailing them.
Talking of filesizes, you need to pay attention to the returned PDF filesize, in comparison to the original word document. Some of the free online services blow the pdf out to an unacceptable size. Even tripling the size of your document.
Reason 2: Security Options
If you download an offline pdf creator, it will probably install as a virtual printer. What that means is that it will become selectable from your printer options. But instead of printing to paper, you print to pdf.
This allows you to look at the advanced print options, which include not only print quality, but security settings. With an online printer service, you take what they give you. You might want to print with 128 bit security, and an offline printer will allow you to do that.
Reason 3: Your TOC
A clickable Table Of Contents is certainly desirable. Even obligatory in a longer pdf. And not many online pdf printers will produce one. This is one of the major drawbacks, in my opinion. However, if you are producing something that doesn’t require a TOC, then you don’t have a problem. Perhaps a collection of printable plans, or images.
Reason 4: Anchor text in your links
Not many online printers deal with these. If you use a full URL for your anchor text, then that will be converted to a clickable link. However, you may not want to do that, and that is where online services fall down…they generally won’t convert anchor text to links, unless that is a full URL.
Reason 5: Peace of mind
No matter how good and/or reliable the online service might be, once you email or upload your pdf to their website, it is now out of your hands. Could your pdf ever be intercepted when it’s being sent back to you? Does the website keep a copy of your pdf somewhere in their data base?
While the chances of anyone ever getting an unauthorized copy of your pdf is highly unlikely, you can never rule out the possibility with 100% certainty.
There are some minor drawbacks as well. For example, suppose you want to print your pdf NOW, but you have lost internet connectivity? Or your email service is down, the website is offline, or you simply don’t get you pdf returned in a timely manner?
None of those are considerations when you print the pdf yourself.
Conclusions
So there you have it: 5 good reasons why offline printing might be your best option. But which offline (or virtual) printer is the best to use?
It depends on whether you really want to stick with free software, or you are prepared to spend money and purchase something better.
With the free printers, DoPdf is worth trying.
If you want to get something that does much more that printing pdf (like the ability to make alterations and edits to existing pdf files) then my top recommendation is NitroPDF Even having Acrobat professional on my computer, I prefer to use this for my day to day work.
Related Posts:
PDF Printers, What They Are, And How To Use Them
Free PDF Creators
How To Make Self Publishing Cost Effective
Primo Online PDF Converter
PDF Software Reviews