doPDF is a free PDF creation program for Windows, developed by Softland. It installs as a virtual printer driver rather than a standalone editor. Any application with a Print command can therefore produce a PDF file. The program works the same way from a word processor, a spreadsheet, a browser or a graphics tool. The source application sends the document to doPDF as if it were going to a physical printer. doPDF writes a PDF instead of producing paper output.
Printing documents to PDF
After installation, doPDF appears alongside the system’s other printers. Choosing it from any program’s print dialog sends the current document through the driver, which renders each page and saves the result as a PDF. Because the conversion happens at the printing stage, doPDF does not need to understand the original file format itself. It captures whatever the source application sends to print. This is why it handles so many document types without dedicated import filters.
Conversion wizard
A separate startup window offers a more direct route for people who do not want to open each file first. From this wizard you select a document and a destination folder, and doPDF converts it and opens the finished PDF in the default viewer. An option to always use the same output folder keeps converted files in one place regardless of where the source documents are stored.
Microsoft Office add-in
During setup, doPDF can install an add-in for Microsoft Office that places a conversion button inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Visio and Outlook. This one-click route carries structural elements that a plain print job would flatten. It can therefore preserve bookmarks and links from the original document in the resulting PDF.
Output quality and page setup
doPDF offers presets that trade file size against detail. A high-quality setting targets printing, a smaller-file setting suits web use, and a middle option balances the two. You can choose page dimensions from a large list of predefined formats. These include the A and B series, Letter, Legal, Executive, envelope sizes, and ANSI and ARCH engineering sizes.
Fonts, searchable text and metadata
To keep a document’s appearance intact on computers that lack the original typefaces, doPDF embeds the font subsets used in the source file. The PDFs it produces contain real, selectable text rather than page images, so the content can be searched and indexed. Before conversion, you can fill in document properties such as title, subject, author, keywords and creator. doPDF stores them in the PDF’s metadata.
Free version and Premium
doPDF is free for both personal and commercial use. The free version covers printing to PDF, font embedding, the output presets and the page-format choices described above. A paid Premium tier adds password protection for the generated files and removes the advertisements shown in the free product. For more advanced needs, Softland points users toward its commercial sibling novaPDF, which adds options such as watermarks, digital signatures and configurable profiles.
