Commercial PDF Creation Tools

A number of application software programs support conversion to PDF. Because PDF conversion is handled within an application, the files you convert apply only to files you can open in the program that supports PDF creation. At the high end of software products, programs like CorelDraw, Adobe PageMaker, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and QuarkXPress all support document conversion to PDF. The low-cost, consumer-grade products that support PDF conversion are generally distributed by Adobe Systems. The two most common are Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Photoshop Album.

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Adobe Photoshop Elements is an image-editing program and the junior cousin of Adobe Photoshop. You can purchase Adobe Photoshop Elements either as a stand-alone product or as a companion product with Adobe Premiere Elements.

NOTE

You can download tryout versions for all Adobe software from Adobe's Web site. Open www.adobe.com/products in your Web browser and click the links for the products that interest you. On each product description page, you'll find links to download free tryout versions.

Adobe Photoshop Elements is commonly used for editing photographs and creating Web graphics. If you have digital or scanned photos you want to edit, or if you want to create buttons and icons for Web graphics, Photoshop Elements may be just the program for you. Priced at just under U.S.$100, Photoshop Elements provides you with tools to edit scanned images and digital photographs with a power that comes close to that of Adobe Photoshop. Obviously, not all features found in Photoshop are available in Photoshop Elements, but the program satisfies the needs of many consumer and professional users.

NOTE

As of this writing, Photoshop Elements can be purchased as a single product (U.S.$99.95) or bundled with Adobe Premiere Elements (U.S.$149).

With Photoshop Elements you can save directly to a PDF format. You can convert all screen captures to PDF files, and you can convert a folder of photo images to a PDF slide presentation. You can also open multipage PDF documents and convert them to image files saved as JPEG, TIFF, and a number of other image file formats.

Adobe Photoshop Album

Adobe Photoshop Album is a photo image organizer and a tool for transforming, editing, and sharing photo images, and it's available in Windows only. You can create slide presentations complete with sound and video, and export your creations to Adobe PDF. Photoshop Album is a fun product that offers you many options for creating slides with transition effects, creating postcards, importing video and sound, and burning your creations to CD-ROMs or DVDs. At a price of less than U.S.$50, Photoshop Album is a bargain.