So how the heck did I get Acrobat PDFWriter?

I’ve got a notebook that nobody else ever uses. I’ve never had reason to print off of it, so I’ve never really looked at the printing options in my various apps.

Well yesterday I set up a NetBEUI peer to peer network with my girlfriend’s computer for file and print sharing. While printing out test pages from my notebook, I noticed that I have Acrobat PDFwriter set up as one of my printers.

I have Acrobat Reader 5.0, but I don’t have a copy of the full version of Acrobat, and I was under the impression that you have to purchase Acrobat to get PDFwriter.

I’m not complaining, but I would like to know how I got it so I can get it back the next time I reinstall Windows. I swear I haven’t downloaded a pirated copy or anything.

It appears to be a full version… no watermarks or anything. I’ve only made a couple of PDFs, though, so I don’t know if it’s gonna ask me to buy it after thirty uses or something.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Did you install a scanner? Acrobat PDF writer is often bundled with scanner software. It’s just the writer – you can’t edit the files – but that works just fine.

I did indeed… Umax Vistascan, about a year ago. I ended up giving the scanner to my dad, and he’s got the CD. Damn.

That’s the answer – UMAX does include Acrobat on the CD.

For your information, if you convert all of your files to dvi files, you can write them all (for free) to postscript or pdf. No “AcrobatWriter” required.

So TeX does PDF too?

For that matter if you print to file after selecting a postscript printer, you can then use the freeware GhostScript to convert it (or any other raw postscript file) to PDF. (Works for any platform).

Urban Ranger,

dvipdf converts from .dvi to .pdf.