Do you Want to Create PDFs from Firefox for Free?
Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed
Just today, the PDF became an official ISO standard. You’ll see PDFs show up in a lot more places. It will be the document format to beat, basically. I happen to have stumbled across an invitation-only Beta earlier for a new Firefox plugin… to make PDFs. If Firefox were my default browser on Windows, I’d definitely be using this.
PDF Download will add an icon to Firefox in Windows. By clicking that icon while on any web page, it will save the page out as a PDF for you. It’s that easy.
PDF Download by Nitro PDF Software lets you regain control over PDF files in Firefox. When you click on a PDF file, PDF Download lets you know, can tell you how big it is, and can then give you the choice to open, download, or convert it to HTML. The add-on for Firefox lets you decide what to do with the PDF files you click on and customize and automate how they should be handled.
The beauty of the PDF is that if someone creates it, it will retain the same layout no matter what computer or operating system it is opened on. Most manuals you can download from the Internet are in PDF format for just this reason. If you create something in Microsoft Word and try to open it on your Mac… yeah. You know what I’m talking about. The PDF format is just much easier to manage and use.
If you know of any other Firefox extensions or PDF tools that you’d like to pass along, let me know! I’m always happy to share new things with the rest of the world.
Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:
Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.
15 Comments
PostLeft.com -
July 9th, 2008
at 6:31pm
blog
Mohammad Irshid
July 7th, 2008
at 10:26pm
Thank You Chris…
It’s Powerful Plug-in
vistageek
July 7th, 2008
at 11:00pm
i love your website chris pirillo
Jonathan Cohen
July 7th, 2008
at 11:12pm
[Edited since I didn't realize the 2.0 beta has Save to PDF as a new feature...]
I use XP, and there are several free/shareware programs that install as printer drivers so that you can print to PDF from Firefox or most other programs. Check out PrimoPDF and PDFCreator.
Since I know you use a Mac, Chris, I thought you could save any document/page out directly as a PDF as part of OS X…or am I wrong?
Dylan
July 7th, 2008
at 11:21pm
I think that woud be awesome because i’ve always wanted to make some e-books to sell on e-bay.
alphaxion
July 8th, 2008
at 1:07am
I rolled out cutepdf to the company I work for in order to give them an option of printing to PDF. Works beautifully.
Svetlana Gladkova
July 8th, 2008
at 2:13am
Now the remaining question: when I want to send someone a file as a PDF (which is fairly often), which software do I use to create this document? The answer is mostly MS Word (or another text processor of choice) or some presentations. If I figure out how to get this document to be displayed in my Firefox, I think I could agree this is a much-needed platform. Until then I’ll stick to virtual PDF printers available.
Dean
July 8th, 2008
at 3:14am
Finally, PDF’s a standard. This has been long due, IMO. One question: why isn’t Firefox your default browser in Windows?
FJackie
July 8th, 2008
at 6:14am
I don’t see where this allows you to save HTML pages as PDF.
It appears to allow you to save PDFs as HTML but not the other way around. Or did I somehow miss that?
Reid
July 8th, 2008
at 7:01am
What I’d like to find, but haven’t so far, is something that saves a web page as one tall PDF page, not several pages.
Anyone seen something like that?
While I’m at it, how about something that prints web pages in two columns per page? There seem to be an infinity of pages that are about 2 inches wide, hard-coded (even for media: print!). It would be nice to print those pages in multiple columns.
techman224
July 8th, 2008
at 4:41pm
Who would want to create PDF from web sites?
Richard
July 8th, 2008
at 6:10pm
I’d just like to clarify a couple of things.
* Our PDF Download 2.0 beta works on Linux and Mac — not just Firefox for Windows.
* The web-to-PDF conversion PDF Download is quite different to the simple print drivers that are included on Macs and are free for Windows users (such as PrimoPDF). The conversion method results in PDF files that look almost the same as the webpage — the kind of accuracy that’s not really possible via the standard ‘print to PDF’ tools out there.
ZoNi
July 9th, 2008
at 8:38am
I guess that much better solution are programs, that can be used as virtual PDF printers from ANY program, not just Firefox.
My suggestions are PDFCreator, doPDF and TinyPDF (all freeware!).
JCgeekGirl
July 11th, 2008
at 6:17pm
I have tried may different PDF programs over the years, and my favorite is CutePDF. It works as a printer driver, so you can create PDFs from ANY program that prints. I use this on a daily basis at work to copy and distribute our company info.
CutePDF is FREE and can be downloaded from Download.com.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and insight for the rest of us, Chris!
ZiggyFish
July 12th, 2008
at 2:10am
One extension that I can not live with out is firebug. It allows me to not only see the server responses of a particular page, but also allows me to debug (step though JavaScript code, view scope variables as it happens, and also print debugging information without the user seeing it) JavaScript and analyse page elements such as div tags, dynamic html content, and CSS.
A bit OT, I’m creating a new website called linuxmadeeasy.org, it’s a website that teaches people how to use Linux in an easy to understand way and we have a live chat. Also anyone can contribute, by registering. Check it out.