I did a bit of research and found that it is rather simple to create your own PDF files without needing to purchase Acrobat. This is something I only need to do once in a while, however, having the ability to do it easily is very handy.

The directions I found weren’t the easiest to follow so here are my notes from my install.

What you need:

Ghostscript

RedMon

What to do:

Install Ghostscript

Install RedMon

Create a GhostScript device to use to write the PDF files. Create a new text file called pdfwrite.rsp and place it in the GhostScript install directory. On my system this was: C:\Progra~1\gs

It should contain:

-IC:\Progra~1\gs\gs8.00\lib;C:\Progra~1\gs\fonts
-sDEVICE=pdfwrite
-r300
-dNOPAUSE
-dSAFER
-sPAPERSIZE=a4

Note you may need to update the paths to suit your particular install of GhostScript. Essentially you want the -I flag to have the path of the GhostScript lib and fonts directories.

Install a printer driver for a color PostScript printer. I used the Apple Color LaserWriter 12/600 driver as suggested in the RedMon documentation. When installing the new printer select “create (add) a new port” and select the Redirected Port. You might want to name the printer PDF writer or something else memorable.

Once the printer driver is installed open up its properties dialog. Configure the port it is attached to (properties -> ports -> configure port) and use the following settings.

Use the following program (the command line GhostScript) for the redirected port program. Note you may need to edit your paths to suit your install:

C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.00\bin\gswin32c.exe

For the arguments for the program use the following. Note you need to pass it the path of the pdfwrite.rsp file you created above (edit to suit your install). Also note it is important you have the trailing – at the end of the command.

@C:\Progra~1\gs\pdfwrite.rsp -sOutputFile="%1" -c save pop -f -

Change the output to be “Prompt for filename”

Say ok and you should be set.

You can now create PDF documents from any program you can print from.