PDF Impress 2013.23.08.040 has been released. A lot of "issues" were fixed, manual is now included in install and update for 2013 version users is free. Release notes and download is available at:
http://www.binarynow.com/pdf-conversion/pdf-impress-2013-23-08-040-released/

PDF Impress 2013 User Manual is available for download from:
http://download.binarynow.com/PDF_Impress_2013_User_Manual.pdf

PDF Impress 2013 Develoepr Guide is available for download from:
http://download.binarynow.com/PDF_Impress_Developer_Guide.pdf

What a pain, had to restart to install, restart again to uninstall, then I had to go in and remove bits and pieces, very unintuitive, free alternatives much better. Seriously, $100?

Before installing software, I like to know if I will need to restart the computer after the software has installed. That way I can plan when to install it, and when to restart the computer.

Just as I expected.
A mess can happen when you install this.

Some software work and are marvelous.
Some software work and is average so-so.
Some software is buggy but does not damage your PC system.

Some software is buggy and damages your PC system.

Previously I had tried other rogue PDF software that screws up the existing system.

Stick to the tried and proven good PDF software: DoPDF, BullZip PDF and Gios Split and Merge PDF.

@25
The error message - “Failed to connect to server. Please try again later.” - that you are referring to typically happens when IE is in offline mode. The installer uses IE functions that are part of Microsoft's browser. To ensure IE is online, start the IE browser and go to any webpage: that will force IE to go online. Leave IE on and start the GOTD installer. It should install correctly . The issue can arise if you last used IE in offline mode (even if by mistake), or if some other application turns it offline: there are some background (tray) applications out there that have not been fully re-tooled for Windows 8 which do that, for example.

I use FREE LibreOffice which has PDF functions built in. LibreOffice runs under my 2012 Edition of Linux, which is also free. I believe that there is also a port of LibreOffice for people who have Backdoors .... I mean Windows ... installed in their PC.

I can't say this impresses me. Having pretty much no options available and somewhat buggy performance is Not Good for a virtual PDF printer, and even $33 (= $99÷3) isn't justifiable when my personal favourite PDFCreator has almost more options than anyone will ever need, and is free. And pdfforge's companion free product, PDFArchitect, does editing and conversion of your PDFs as well. Both are long established and solid, bug-free freeware products IME.

Also, with Adobe recently making their CS2 suite downloadable (Google for more info), you can download a "free" copy of Acrobat Pro 7.0 which will more than fit the bill for most people (though you should only download it if you have an Adobe license, just to clarify the legal position on that!).

Sorry GOTD, but there are so many free (and bug free!) PDF virtual printer drivers out there that I can't see why anyone would ever pay for one.

Price of $99 is actually for three users, so it is really $33 per user. This product is obviously designed for business/enterprise market with features like custom MSI install creation and developer guide /API to integration with other applications. I would not purchase it for my home use, but I would have no problem to recommend it for any company use. I like PDF Tools which provides more options than usually available in free alternatives. I will keep this on my home PC ...thanks GOTD.

I'm not voting on this as I have no need for it so won't be trying it out. This capability is included in the free Openoffice.org suite of software which does everything that Microsoft Office charges a fortune for. I've been using it for years. You only have to download the modules that you have a use for and there are all kinds of plug-ins to add for specific purposes. You can save your documents in a wide variety of formats to allow nearly universal compatibility with other users. The only things it doesn't do is convert PDF's to an editable document format or save in a couple of newer MS proprietary formats and RTF, though it will read them and allow you to save to other compatible formats. There are no limitation on commercial usage for the Open Office suite and thousands of user submitted templates are available. More information and downloads are available at http://openoffice.org

It now being some 7 hours since my first comment, I'm still getting the same error code: "Failed to connect to server. Please try again later."

I usually don't have such difficulty with items I download from GOTD, although the number of adverse incidents have increased since I was forced to migrate to a new laptop which had Windows 8 pre-installed. (I share Ashraf's and others' contempt for this giant leap backwards by Microsoft, who apparently thinks that it's somehow "progressive" to force high-powered desktop systems to operate under the same operating system that hand-held multi-functional phone systems use.)Said laptop also came with Norton pre-installed as well, which I disable if I have a problem installing anything new. (I know the inherent risks - I always run a scan after re-enabling it from a write-protected USB drive).

It also strikes me as strange that a relatively "simple" virtual print driver would have an overhead of nearly 50 megabytes. I can't help thinking there's something strange going on there as well.)

I'll monitor these comments to see if any solution is posted, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I can live without this overweight, over-priced, and apparently over-hyped print utility that I can't really use anyway since the only PDFs I create are for commercial purposes, which would be forbidden under the terms of use by GOTD anyway.

Okay main interface has a small theme problem.

Fire up main interface.
Select TOOLS

Hover the mouse over any of the CIRCLE SHAPED buttons.

The pop-up msg on mouse hover is BLACK; like black text on Black Background for these Round Command Buttons' Captions" I'd assume.

Back | Open | Save/Save As

If they had TEXT instead of Images this wouldn't be an issue, then again one can just fly blind and Click away at it.

That's one problem.

Another problem.

Start Main Application
Click Settings
Click "Create MSI package"

results with...

Popup MsgBox "MSI file may be opened in another application."

Click OK
Do you want to debug?
Sure...

> msvcr100.dll!78b2c09c()
[Frames below may be incorrect and/or missing, no symbols loaded for msvcr100.dll]
msvcr100.dll!78b2a3c8()
msvcr100.dll!78b2cb95()
kernel32.dll!7c812fd3()
kernel32.dll!7c80b50e()
ntdll.dll!7c90d80a()
ntdll.dll!7c913308()
ntdll.dll!7c910041()
ntdll.dll!7c91005d()
ntdll.dll!7c912e7b()
ntdll.dll!7c910041()
ntdll.dll!7c91005d()
ntdll.dll!7c91005d()
PDFImpress.exe!004de060()
PDFImpress.exe!004ddda1()
PDFImpress.exe!00423cca()
PDFImpress.exe!00412aad()
PDFImpress.exe!00421f42()
QtCore4.dll!6710c54b()
QtCore4.dll!6714b9f2()
QtGui4.dll!65020a7b()
QtGui4.dll!650783e0()
QtGui4.dll!6501f3ad()
user32.dll!7e4318d1()
user32.dll!7e43e1ad()
user32.dll!7e43e18a()
LGMSGHK.DLL!03122bba()
user32.dll!7e431923()
user32.dll!7e42b317()
user32.dll!7e4278d0()
user32.dll!7e4278e0()
ntdll.dll!7c90e473()
user32.dll!7e4318d1()
user32.dll!7e43e1ad()
user32.dll!7e43e18a()
QtCore4.dll!6711e090()
user32.dll!7e42b372()
user32.dll!7e418734()
user32.dll!7e418816()
user32.dll!7e4189cd()
user32.dll!7e418a10()
QtCore4.dll!671203e1()
ntdll.dll!7c90df1a()
ntdll.dll!7c9177d5()
ntdll.dll!7c9131db()
ntdll.dll!7c9131db()
ntdll.dll!7c9131db()
ntdll.dll!7c9131db()
ntdll.dll!7c9131db()
ntdll.dll!7c910041()
ntdll.dll!7c91005d()
uxtheme.dll!5ad72e36()
gdi32.dll!77f17002()
gdi32.dll!77f16fea()
uxtheme.dll!5ad76171()
user32.dll!7e4184ba()
user32.dll!7e4186be()
uxtheme.dll!5ad7650f()
uxtheme.dll!5ad8c4b9()
uxtheme.dll!5ad73935()
uxtheme.dll!5ad71adb()
user32.dll!7e42a913()
QtGui4.dll!650785ce()
user32.dll!7e418bd9()
user32.dll!7e428dac()
user32.dll!7e428dd9()
uxtheme.dll!5ad71af6()
uxtheme.dll!5ad71b3d()
user32.dll!7e418bd9()
user32.dll!7e428dac()
user32.dll!7e42be4b()
ntdll.dll!7c90e473()
uxtheme.dll!5ad77ce8()
QtCore4.dll!671612a3()
QtGui4.dll!6506413c()
uxtheme.dll!5ad77d8e()
uxtheme.dll!5ad77bd6()
QtGui4.dll!652f0e7d()
QtGui4.dll!6501fc29()
uxtheme.dll!5ad76618()
uxtheme.dll!5ad73935()
uxtheme.dll!5ad73a49()
user32.dll!7e42be0a()
user32.dll!7e418bd9()
user32.dll!7e41885a()
user32.dll!7e41882a()
QtGui4.dll!6515d1b0()
QtGui4.dll!651b6840()
QtGui4.dll!651b6dcf()
msvcr100.dll!78ab02b9()
QtCore4.dll!67108965()
QtGui4.dll!6507a20f()
QtCore4.dll!670f881d()
QtCore4.dll!670fccf6()
PDFImpress.exe!004907d6()
PDFImpress.exe!004deaab()
PDFImpress.exe!004dd689()
kernel32.dll!7c81776f()
PDFImpress.exe!00410072()
PDFImpress.exe!00410072()
PDFImpress.exe!00410072()
PDFImpress.exe!00410072()


Well... There's that... ;o)

These tests were on XP SP3 (current updated)

What makes this any better then the FREE utility from PDF24.org?

An update to the Disaster.


Turn the print spooler service on when installing or the virtual printer driver won't install.

net start spooler

That's what all that nonsense above was.

print setup | Printer Name | list shows...
Adobe PDF
Cannon iP1700
Microsoft XPS Document Writer
Nova PDF lite
* PDF Impress
SnagIt 7


After selecting PDF Impress as my Printer and hitting print I was left with a nice PDF... not sure what else to say. IT works.

Anyway, if you can't INSTALL, get your printer service running.

Have a nice Saturday now.

PDF-Xchange Lite. Always free for non-commercial use. No need to look elsewhere, IMHO.

http://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-lite

#11. Though they don't come about very often, I always enjoy the challenge of Fubar's posts in the way that I enjoy reading Finnegan's Wake. Somewhere in there, I feel certain, are fascinating nuggets of information; whilst the stream-of-consciousness adds an engaging exercise in creative reading.

I don't often entirely pass a giveaway over, but I'm skipping today's on the basis of installation size and the sheer proliferation of free and effective alternatives. Thanks to the developer for offering it. PS. Why is Terminal Services a prerequisite?

What a Disaster.

There's several errors in the msi install, finally enough of them and it kicked into rollback mode, thereby never installing.

Here's the errors

The description for Event ID ( 1033 ) in Source ( MsiInstaller ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: PDF Impress 2013, 21.23.032, 1033, 1603, (NULL), , .

The description for Event ID ( 11708 ) in Source ( MsiInstaller ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: Product: PDF Impress 2013 -- Installation failed., (NULL), (NULL), (NULL), (NULL), , .

The description for Event ID ( 1042 ) in Source ( MsiInstaller ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: C:\Documents and Settings\xxxUserxxx\Application Data\Downloaded Installations\PDF Impress\$(PackageCode).msi, 2348, (NULL), (NULL), (NULL), , .

The description for Event ID ( 1040 ) in Source ( MsiInstaller ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: C:\Documents and Settings\xxxUserxxx\Application Data\Downloaded Installations\PDF Impress\$(PackageCode).msi, 2348, (NULL), (NULL), (NULL), , .

The description for Event ID ( 1033 ) in Source ( MsiInstaller ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: PDF Impress 2013, 21.23.032, 1033, 1603, (NULL), , .

The description for Event ID ( 11708 ) in Source ( MsiInstaller ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: Product: PDF Impress 2013 -- Installation failed., (NULL), (NULL), (NULL), (NULL), , .


Maybe I try to re-download later..
I don't want to speculate why this happened.
dumping the Errors for ya..

Have a nice Saturday now.

Geoff (7) - try PDF Redirect for merging as you print. You echoed my thoughts exactly.

#7 Geoff: by installing the PDFill (trial) Editor and (free) Writer referenced by #3 Mykee, you will also install "Free PDF Tools" -- which will allow you to merge PDF files, and much more. I have used these excellent tools many times.

Also, see Gizmo's page (http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-free-pdf-tools.htm#General-Tools) for more free PDF tools.

HTH

There are several free alternatives which are more stable than this program (ie. cute pdf, I'm using it for years!!!)... I don't see any worthy advantage in this program (100 bucks??? c'mon :D )

I can only guess that the high price has to do with the companies need to pay for a PDF license because there isn't any other reason I can think of. But since I work in OpenOffice which has a built-in PDF feature (export as PDF) I have no need for it.

FOXIT Printer and DO PDF are much more simpler and easier to use than this free giveaway. and they are free too...

How come they want $99 for a buggy program. there are so many free programs and sites that already do this.

If it gets some more development and features that work it will be worth something but i think $99 is way too ambitious.

Try http://global-ss.co.uk/free%20online%20PDF%20creator.php

You can create or convert a complete PDF , Word doc or Open Office doc from your mobile, PC or I Pad etc and download or print your finished document without advertising or watermarks.

With stuff this good available they need to tidy up the program and tidy up the price.

Thanks as always to the GAOTD Team but this one is not for me today.

Pete (UK)

I'll just add to some of what's been said. PDF Impress 2013 installs quite cleanly for a PDF printer. It uses the horrible Windows 8 (a.k.a Windows for Dummies) interface, apparently without Help. The PDF printer will work without rebooting, but the main interface won't do much until you reboot, and installation was outside my reboot window, although I could tell what it was supposed to do. I found the main interface cumbersome, and there's a surprising lack of options in both the main interface and the printer. It does have some interesting features, like removing all sorts of things from PDF files. I don't use PDF printers anymore, some applications will directly output PDFs. I used to use
http://www.bullzip.com/ (also has other PDF utilities)
but most PDF printers have horrible installs and can mess up your other printers. PDF Impress 2013 is quite large, I don't know if it's carrying a lot of special-case code to handle particular input formats or if the large size is typical for Windows 8 apps.

FYI, Windows 8 Storage Pools are your typical half-designed and implemented Microbrain disaster, I recommend against using them. You can just use Libraries and mirror drives yourself using your preferred synchronization software. MS SyncToy 2.1 has nice features, although it doesn't handle alternate data streams. GOTD goes out of their way to make this site as useless as possible, and most people never check posts which moderate late. While all of you were whining about Sketch Drawer, I waited until the author (not GOTD) posted a fixed version, which does work. There's some programming sloppiness which is typical of the author, but it's no big deal and most people will never know. Adobe might not install a PDF iFilter, x64 users can download and install Adobe PDF iFilter 9 for 64-bit platforms if they don't have one. You can check Indexing Options, although I don't think it tells you whose iFilter it's using. NirSoft SearchFilterView v1.00 appears not to list much of anything, at least on Win7x64, but it will list the PDF iFilter.

By the way - when I attempt to install this package, when the installation wrapper attempts to connect to your verification system I receive an "Unable to connect to server - Please try again later" error display and the installation stops.

I'm sure that this problem will be corrected soon, but on the off chance that I'm the only one experiencing this problem, I thought I would let you know. FWIW, I'm running Windows 8 Professional on an HP Pavilion g7 laptop with 6GB of RAM and 640GB HDD.

(No need to publish this comment if you'd prefer not to - my feelings won't be hurt if that's the case...)

No right click conversion? Why jump through hoops to do something as simple as "Save as PDF". I am floored by the price too. Could they possibly have sold any at this price, I think not.

I have to agree with all of the commenters thus far (only 4 at the time of this writing) - While I'm sure a great deal of effort and resources were applied to the process of creating this software, the price is way out of line when compared to that of other manufacturers providing the same or similar capabilities. (And I should point out that Giovanni hasn't added his insight yet either!)

I realize it can be difficult to assign a price to an intangible item such as a software program, especially if you've put a lot of effort into it. There are no hard and fast rules concerning how to go about that task. Such factors as the number of potential users of the software, coupled with the investment made - in terms of material costs as well as time resources dedicated to its creation - must be taken into account. Indeed, in some cases, such items may even be given away as a "loss-leader" that will incite people to buy other associated products from you.

It is interesting to note some of the "suggestions" provided so far in the "suggestion box" area above these comments. While there are some truly good ideas, there are also quite a few other suggestions that are almost laughable because they ask for "features" that are either completely unrelated to the function of the original software, or would require more effort and coding than the original software did!

Of course, when you place an open invitation for people to write their opinions in a place where something is being given away for free, you're going to receive a lot of input from what I call "freeloaders" who think that the world owes them everything their hearts desire completely free of charge, and no strings attached whatsoever. They complain about having to provide their email address, yet many of them have no problem with forwarding a bunch of idiotic Facebook game requests to everyone on their friend list (which I'm sure shrinks considerably every time they do it). Still, it's fun and helps a semi-retired disabled tech like me to pass the time...

Oh - that brings up one final thought...

Within the circles I tend to travel online, most people would like to have a software such as this to write and distribute their own e-books (for sale, and therefore their use would be considered "commercial" in nature - which is BANNED under the terms of this and most other giveaways on this site). I might suggest that the powers-that-be consider REMOVING that restriction, since the software would then get into the hands of a greater number of people who not only have a tighter set of standards, but also a better understanding of what business is about in the first place.

Thanks for your generosity, and for tolerating the ramblings of an "old-timer" such as myself, who has far too much time on his hands!

100 bucks for a buggy virtual printer?!?! Get real!

It does not properly create PDFs out of PowerPoint (slides/pages are horizontally truncated), sometimes it fails to create the printed PDF file altogether and more than once it forces the name of a previously printed file over to the next one even if the names are totally different from each other!

Thanks, but no thanks!

My experience is that most most of the free PDF virtual printers do not allow you to merge PDFs from several sources. I often want to print a document and a spreadsheet and have those in the same PDF. So, that's a valuable facility in this software.

The only one of the freeware PDF writers that does this (as far as I know) is PDF Creator, which is quite frankly a little bit clunky.

My take on the price:

99.95--in Indonesian rupiah, a decent deal.

In USD, a steal, from the consumer. Why, because there are some nifty alternatives for free or a pittance. Plus the list of cons Ashraf has already mentioned up top.

Apart from the annoying windows8 layout, the main problem is that it does not save the link on created .pdf
It's also complicated to extract/merge pages from a pdf file.
I'm perplexed about this program. It also creates 2 .msi installer files in the program folder (166 MB) that can be deleted.

$99.95? For what? There are tons of free alternatives that do the same thing. I've been using PDF995 for years, pdf995.com, and find it all of their software so helpful that I've donated to help support them.

I can see nothing in this software that could possibly justify that kind of pricing.

This price and license is a joke. These preferences found in free PDFill Writer:
http://www.pdfill.com/freewriter.html

Enable the retrocode to grant non-users access & authority to override the default mode when offline.

Pros
*Is a virtual PDF printer, so it allows you to create a PDF out of any document, file, website, image, etc. that can be printed
*Has the ability to create PDFs in batch
*Has basic PDF editing capabilities
*Has the ability to monitor select folders and automatically convert existing and new files in those folders to PDFs
*Via ‘Profiles’ allows you to control output settings of PDFs, such as compression level, DPI, page size, page orientation, and more
*Well-designed interface

Cons
*Only partially preserves links in output PDFs
*Does not properly create PDFs out of PowerPoints
*Not 100% bug free
*There are no output customization options when you directly use the printer (via ‘Print’ in any file or page). You can only take advantage of the ‘Profiles’ feature if you create PDFs through the main program interface.
*Default settings are not conducive to batch processing; you need to manually modify them to make them better
*Requires you to restart your computer after installation (annoying!)
*You need specific programs installed to use the batch processing and ‘Watchers’ feature with certain file types

Free Alternatives
11 free PDF printers/creators

Final Verdict
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