pdf writer installs itself as a "printer subsystem".

On Tue, 5. June 2007 18:28:58 lmart wrote:
> New question #7733 on Ubuntu:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/7733
>
> Do you know of utilities like CutePDF Writer and CutePDF Writer Companion
> [http://www.pdf4me.com/], which install as a pinter and can print to PDF
> from any application?
>
> CutePDF Writer (formerly CutePDF Printer) is the free version of commercial
> PDF creation software. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a "printer
> subsystem". This enables virtually any Windows applications (must be able
> to print) to create professional quality PDF documents - with just a push
> of a button!
>
> CutePDF Writer Companion is a powerful add-on to our award-winning free
> CutePDF Writer providing must have features including merge/split,
> security, doc info, stamp and page tools. This free PDF tool can also be
> used alone for processing your existing PDF documents.
- pdf export from print command

You don't need 'workarounds' ala CutePDF in Linux.

Exporting to pdf via the ordinary print command is implemented in all
applications of the KDE desktop Evironment and not only KDE also Gnome offers
pdf printout to a file.

You will find a lot of Linux applications which offer pdf export or printing
to pdf, e.g. openoffice.org, all (not only) KDE applications which use
kprinter. In a lot of applications you may configure the print command, eg.
by replacing the lp command with kprinter. Or if this seems to be to complex
for you just print to ps file and convert it later on with the ps2pdf
command.

- manipulating pdf files

Linux follows the philosophy of many small nested programs to have a wide
range of functionality. So there are a lot of tools which can be used for pdf
manipulation.

You will also notice that 'security' and pdf is not worth talking about. Most
so called pdf security features as crypting, print restrictions, ... have to
be seen more as a fake than a really security feature.

You may have a closer look to the following programms which are only a small
subset of pdf tools linux offers.

pdftk
Description: A useful tool for manipulating PDF documents
 If PDF is electronic paper, then pdftk is an electronic stapler-remover,
 hole-punch, binder, secret-decoder-ring, and X-Ray-glasses. Pdftk is a
 simple tool for doing everyday things with PDF documents. Keep one in the
 top drawer of your desktop and use it to:
  - Merge PDF documents
  - Split PDF pages into a new document
  - Decrypt input as necessary (password required)
  - Encrypt output as desired
  - Fill PDF Forms with FDF Data and/or Flatten Forms
  - Apply a Background Watermark
  - Report PDF on metrics, including metadata and bookmarks
  - Update PDF Metadata
  - Attach Files to PDF Pages or the PDF Document
  - Unpack PDF Attachments
  - Burst a PDF document into single pages
  - Uncompress and re-compress page streams
  - Repair corrupted PDF (where possible)

pdfjam
Description: collection of PDF document handling utilities
 PDFjam is a small collection of shell scripts that work similarly to
 the well known psutils (psmerge, psnup). They provide a simple
 interface to some of the functionality of the pdfpages package for
 pdfLaTeX. At present, the utilities available are pdfnup, pdfjoin, and
 pdf90. PDFjam depends on a working installation of (pdf)LaTeX.
 .
  - pdfnup puts multiple document pages together on one physical page at
    a reduced size
  - pdfjoin concatenates multiple PDF documents
  - pdf90 rotates the pages of PDF documents

pdfedit
Description: Editor for manipulating PDF documents
 Complete editing of pdf documents is made possible with PDFedit. You
 can change either raw pdf objects (for advanced users) or use
 predefined gui functions. Functions can be easily added as everything
 is based on a scripts.
 .
 Scripting is used to a great extent in editor and almost anything can
 be scripted, it is possible to create own scripts or plugins.