CutePDF Writer is a free Windows program that creates PDF files by acting as a printer. Once it is set up, it appears in the list of printers, so any application that can print can also save its output as a PDF. It is free for both personal and commercial use and runs on desktop Windows as well as Windows Server, including Terminal Server setups.
A virtual printer instead of an editor
Users access CutePDF Writer through the Print command of other applications. Its whole job happens at print time. In a word processor, spreadsheet, browser or any other program, the user chooses Print, picks CutePDF Writer as the printer and prints as usual. Instead of paper, the print job ends in a Save As dialog where the PDF gets its name and location.
Because it works through the standard print system, the PDF reflects whatever the application sends to the printer: the same pages, layout and margins. Users choose paper size and orientation in the normal print settings. Users can add sizes that Windows does not offer as custom forms in the Windows print server settings. They can then select these forms when printing to CutePDF Writer.
The Ghostscript converter
CutePDF Writer does not turn print jobs into PDF on its own. The printer driver produces PostScript, and a separate PostScript-to-PDF converter turns that into the final file. Ghostscript is the usual choice, and CutePDF Writer finds an existing Ghostscript installation automatically. Without a converter, no PDF is produced.
The converter can also be swapped. A small settings file in the program folder can point CutePDF Writer to another converter program and pass it its own command-line options. The same approach applies to output quality. The conversion settings file accepts Ghostscript’s quality presets for screen, printer or prepress use. The printer preset can cut the file size by about half.
Passwords and document properties
When the Save As dialog appears, CutePDF Writer offers more than a file name. Users can protect the PDF with a password using 256-bit AES encryption. Opening the file then requires that password. Users can also change the document properties before saving, including the title and other descriptive fields stored inside the file.
These are the only changes the free program makes to the document. Adding comments, stamps, watermarks, page edits, form fields or digital signatures falls to CutePDF Professional. This separate paid program from the same developer works alongside CutePDF Writer.
Automated saving
CutePDF Writer includes basic programmatic access for scripts and other software. Two settings in the current user’s registry control it: one skips the Save As dialog, and the other sets the full path and name of the output file. With both in place, a program can print a document straight to a known PDF file without anyone clicking through a dialog. The skip setting resets after each PDF, so it has to be set again for every job.
More advanced automation belongs to the licensed Custom PDF Writer edition rather than the free CutePDF Writer. This includes numbered or time-stamped file names, combining several print jobs into one PDF, adding backgrounds, emailing the result or saving to mapped drives on Terminal and Citrix servers.
Fonts and network use
If text in a PDF comes out missing or wrong, users can set CutePDF Writer’s printer properties to send TrueType fonts as soft fonts instead of substituting them. The printer cannot be shared or mapped over a network, so each computer that needs to create PDFs must have CutePDF Writer installed locally.
