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Convert Word to PDF

  • 04-09-2008 2:19pm
    #1
    Tooler
    Registered Users Posts: 23 ✭


    I'm looking for a utility which I can convert a Word doc to PDF. I need to be able to call it from the command line.

    Any ideas?

    I've tried using the free PDFCreator, but the PDF ended up massive. The 2MB source Word file has lots of images, and ended up being 18MB in PDF.

    What are the Adobe options? Can Distiller be called from the command line to convert Word to PDF?

    Thanks,
    Tooler


Comments

  • #2
    irishpartyboy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 330 ✭✭irishpartyboy


    http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/creator/


  • #3
    calex71
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,126 ✭✭✭✭calex71


    why the need for command line out of interest?


  • #4
    rebel.ranter
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,570 ✭✭✭rebel.ranter


    http://www.cutepdf.com


  • #5
    Sarcasmo2005
    Closed Accounts Posts: 25 ✭Sarcasmo2005


    if you use word 2007, there is a microsoft plug in which will allow you to save to PDF. can't think of the name of it but you will get it from the microsoft download site. (I think MS did have it in initially in the release, but had to pull it after adobe complained)


  • #6
    babaloushka
    Closed Accounts Posts: 490 ✭✭babaloushka


    Sarcasmo2005 wrote: »
    if you use word 2007, there is a microsoft plug in which will allow you to save to PDF. can't think of the name of it but you will get it from the microsoft download site. (I think MS did have it in initially in the release, but had to pull it after adobe complained)

    I use this in Word 2007 and it's great - download it from Microsoft Office http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F1FC413C-6D89-4F15-991B-63B07BA5F2E5&displaylang=en and it operates from the main button (Save as > Pdf or XPS)


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  • #7
    Zascar
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,778 Mod ✭✭✭✭Zascar


    www.pdf995.com - very handy utility


  • #8
    Tooler
    Registered Users Posts: 23 ✭Tooler


    I've been away from this for a while, so just getting back to it now...

    Thanks for the replies.

    > why the need for command line out of interest?
    Ok - We have an automated report generation process which creates a Word doc containing generated maps and stuff from an Oracle database.
    The report tends to have lots of TIF images so the Word doc can end up being >15MB. The batch process, run from the Windows command line, then converts the doc into a PDF using PDFCreator (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/).
    The problem is that the PDFs are then >15MB, which is too big to email to customers (that's also part of the batch process).
    In Acrobat Pro, I'm able to save the Word doc as a PDF and it gets reduced to about 2MB in size, but I can't seem to be able to control Acrobat Pro from the command line.

    > http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/creator/
    Looks promising, but I can't get a trial version without signing up for some crap...

    > http://www.cutepdf.com
    Tried it, but it pops up a 'Save As' dialog, so I can't seem to batch it.

    > pdf995
    Similar to CutePDF

    > if you use word 2007, there is a microsoft plug in which will allow you to save to PDF
    That sounds promising. I found this article which describes how to batch it, so I give that a whirl next.

    Thanks


  • #9
    Biggins
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 34,567 ✭✭✭✭Biggins


    irishpartyboy wrote: »
    http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/creator/

    I use the same. Does the job.


  • #10
    Alun
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,492 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    Tooler wrote: »
    Ok - We have an automated report generation process which creates a Word doc containing generated maps and stuff from an Oracle database.
    The report tends to have lots of TIF images so the Word doc can end up being >15MB. The batch process, run from the Windows command line, then converts the doc into a PDF using PDFCreator (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/).
    The problem is that the PDFs are then >15MB, which is too big to email to customers (that's also part of the batch process).
    Have you tried looking at the image compression options in PDFCreator? I don't know how you access them from the command line, but in the dialog you get when you use it interactively, if you click on Options, then open up the Format menu at the side, then select PDF and then the Compression tab, there are compression (and also downsampling) options for embedded colour, grescale and minochrome images. The default (on my system at least) is "Automatic", whatever that may mean, but there are options to select different JPEG compressions or ZIP. Might be worth playing with.

    I'm assuming that Acrobat Pro, the defaults are different, and the TIFF images are being compressed (or downsampled) somehow without you actively choosing that option.


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