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virtual printer. How to install a virtual printer? Free virtual printer

Virtual Printer is a program on your computer that is completely similar to a regular printer, but it does not control a real printer. When printing on such virtual printer this computer program processes the file as if it were printing it on a printer and saves it to a file. Usually this file is pdf format (pdf). The main advantage of such virtual printers to pdf format in that it saves exactly what you see on your computer.

An example from life. It took you a long, long time to make your diploma, essay, term paper or draw a drawing. We were very tired, we did it all night. We numbered the chapters, typeset the diploma, selected beautiful fonts for the title. In short, they made it beautiful. And on your computer it all looked really beautiful. When you brought your diploma to be printed, for example, to us, then SUDDENLY, when you open it, all this layout and beauty disappeared and it is printed completely different from what you wanted. Or not quite what you wanted. The fact is that in the world there are many computer programs for the same purposes. And each program has several versions yet. This is done solely for the personal gain of the software creators. Therefore, when opening a file created in a certain program of a certain version by another program, you can expect not quite correct opening.

In fact, simple documents don't suffer much from this. The main problem with printing abstracts and diplomas is that they "float" through the document. If you made each chapter start on a new sheet, then on another computer this chapter will be in the middle of the sheet. The biggest problems happen with printing blueprints. The fonts of the drawings are replaced by others, they crawl out of the frame, the thickness of the lines in the drawings changes. And we can’t do anything about it, because we don’t know how all this should look like. You have to print as is.

All these problems are easily solved by installing free virtual printer. It can be easily and quickly downloaded from this site (download virtual printer). How to install a virtual printer I don’t want to write, everything is simple there.

This virtual printer is suitable for Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2008/2003/2000 Server (32 and 64-bit). It will appear in the list of printers.

01. When printing, doPDF must be selected as the printer.

02. Go to " Printer Properties". Here you can set up a virtual printer.

03. Here you can choose formats from the standard ones or enter your own one yourself

In the picture above, I have entered the popular A1 format for drawings. If you are confused about paper formats, you can read this.

04. You can also select print resolutions (dpi) for drawings in the program, 150 is enough, if you have photographs in the document or pictures that require high resolution, then set 300.

05. Click OK.

You have a ready-made pdf file that you can print anywhere and are not afraid that it will not be opened correctly.

A program of such a plan may be needed at the most inopportune moment. Virtual PDF Printer is a kind of constructor that allows you to create a full-fledged PDF document from text and pictures. Why a printer? Because it saves files in a ready-made form for later printing. There are many such constructors. There are even online versions. However, it is better to have such a program on your own computer. And the best is DoPDF. It is easy to use and has a lot of settings.

Attention! There is an alternative utility with almost the same name - NovaPDF. Even the developer is the same. But there is a fundamental difference: the latter is paid. It just won't work to use it. Although the two versions are almost identical in functionality.

Opportunities

The principle of the utility is ridiculously simple. After installation, the program is registered in the list of printers. If you need to save any document in PDF format, then you just need to click on "Print" in a text editor and select a virtual printer as a printer. What can the product do?

  • creation of full-fledged PDF-documents;
  • full integration of pictures;
  • the possibility of using several layers;
  • choice of number of copies;
  • preparing a document for printing;
  • full-fledged work with Microsoft Office products;
  • use of watermarks.

Like all "printers", this one is completely in Russian (for nothing that it is virtual). The utility perfectly copes with documents of any size. At the same time, the structure conceived by the author is completely preserved. PDF files can later be used to create an e-book or printed on paper. And the quality will be the highest. DoPDF can be useful to anyone. Therefore, it is important to have this program on your working machine.

Advantages

All programs of this kind have almost similar functionality, so it was not so easy to identify the best one. But it is DoPDF that has the widest possibilities for setting up “printing” parameters and can provide the highest quality. But there are other advantages over similar products.

  • wide customization options;
  • automatic scaling of text when choosing quality;
  • support for resolutions from 72 to 2400 DPI;
  • work with operating systems of the Windows family from XP to 10;
  • OS integration;
  • support for editors such as Libre Office;
  • simple and intuitive interface;
  • fast work;
  • undemanding to system resources;
  • protection of created documents with a password of any complexity;
  • a huge selection of types of created documents;
  • simple installation process.

All of the above makes DoPDF the best virtual printer out there. That is why many users choose it. Even professionals often use it. And they do not think to switch to more "serious" paid products. For there is no difference.

Download

So, the DoPDF utility is the best virtual PDF printer that provides the highest quality documents and has the widest customization options. With this program, you can prepare documents for printing or create e-book pages. You can download the program for free from our website. There are definitely no viruses. Checked. Installing the utility will not raise questions even for beginners. Everything is ridiculously simple.

A program for creating PDF documents, installed as a virtual printer, with which you can convert different types of files (XLS, DOC, HTML, TXT and others) to PDF format.

Probably a pdf printer doPDF- the most convenient option for quickly creating documents in this format, since it allows you to create such files from almost any editor that supports printing. Let's take a closer look at this program.

Installing doPDF

To install doPDF, download the archive with the program to a convenient location on the disk, open it and run the installation file with the .exe extension.

The following window will appear first:

The default language is Russian. We leave it if others are not interested. Click "OK" and see the greeting of the Installation Wizard.

Click "Next". In the next window of the License Agreement, put the switch in the position "I accept the terms of the license agreement" and click "Next" - "Next" - "Next" again until the "Install" button appears.

The installation of the program will begin and after a few seconds the installation completion window will appear:

Here we uncheck "doPDF on the Web" if we do not want to visit the developer's site and click "Finish".

Working with the program

If We left the second checkbox checked, the program will prompt you to immediately convert a file to PDF format through the program window.

For example, let's agree to this proposal and convert some document by selecting it using this button:

The selection of the source file is done using the standard Windows Explorer and should not cause you any problems. When the file is defined, click the adjacent "Create" button. The following message may appear here:

Here we will probably refuse, if we are not going to print exclusively through a virtual printer. To do this, check the box "Do not ask for pain ..." (what a mysterious function:) and press the "No" button.

Virtual printing from other programs

We close this window and try to simply open this document in its native editor and start printing as we do with a regular printer.

Open the source file (I have a text file with bearded jokes) and select "File" - "Print" from the menu. The standard print window of this editor opens, in which we indicate that printing will go to our virtual printer:

We launch the document for printing with the corresponding button and see the window of our doPDF virtual printer:

Here you can set the parameters for creating a pdf file:

  • Where will the print result be saved?
  • Remember the specified folder for later printing;
  • Use built-in fonts;
  • Opening a newly created pdf file;
  • The quality of the images in the generated file.

If all the settings suit us (you should especially pay attention to the place where the file is saved so that you don’t look for it later), then click "OK" and see what we got. If you did not uncheck the "Open PDF" checkbox in the print settings, then the newly created pdf file will immediately open in the program that you have associated with this type of file (in my case, this is the STDU Viewer program):

Ready. We got almost what we wanted. Almost - because system information (name of the source file, line numbers, etc.) got into the created pdf-document. To avoid this, it is best to convert from office programs like Writer from the OpenOffice.org package. Although, it is worth mentioning that Writer already has its own built-in document-to-pdf converter.

Perhaps this is all that can be said about the doPDF program. Let's summarize our research:

Advantages and disadvantages of doPDF

  • the possibility of virtual printing from any program that supports output to a printer;
  • ease of operation.
  • when printing from text files, service information gets into the resulting pdf file;
  • the program likes to be chosen as the default printer;
  • not too rich output settings.

conclusions

Based on the foregoing, it can be argued that although the program is not without incomprehensible whims (the desire to be the default printer), it knows its job and regularly creates pdf files. If your partners require documentation in this format, then doPDF can be very useful to you.

P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Bogdanov is preserved.

With Personal License, you can use the software for non-commercial purposes in a non-business, non-commercial environment. That is, you only intend to use it at home for private use and on exactly one computer per license.

With business license, you (individual) can use the software in a business, academic, or government environment. You may use the program on exactly one computer per license.

Installing the software on a server requires a Business License for each user who access the PDF Printer on the server.

With Site License, you are granted a nonexclusive right to install and use the program, provided that this software will be installed only on teams, workgroup or workstations permanently located in the offices, grounds, and/or campus of your company or educational institution. If the company or educational institution consists of more than one non-contiguous physical location, then a separate license is required for each separate location.

PDF Printer for Windows 7

To an application, the PDF Printer looks like a printer and allows the application to write a document as a PDF Document in the same way it would print the document to the printer. When a user prints their document to PDF Printer, rather than sending the file to a laser jet or inkjet printer, the software creates a PDF Document.

PDF Printer Driver User Interface:

Features:

Easy to create Adobe PDF documents
Easily create Adobe PDF documents from Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, Project, Visio, Publisher, Internet Explorer, AutoCAD, Lotus Notes, Quark Express, Xpress or any application that prints.

Convert email to Adobe PDF files
Convert e-mail in Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, or IBM Lotus Notes to Adobe PDF documents by printing from within e-mail message.

Archive web pages as Adobe PDF files
Convert web pages to Adobe PDF documents to easily archive or share.

Optimize Adobe PDF output
Select from multiple quality settings for text and graphics to optimize PDF output for your intended purpose, such as CMYK compliant output, ICC profiled output.

Quickly regenerate a PDF file
Regenerate a PDF document by printing that document for your intended purpose.

Embed fonts of your choice
Automatic and manual settings for font embedding and subsetting. To embed all fonts can be done with a click.

Apply passwords and assign permissions
Control access to and use of Adobe PDF documents by applying password and assigning permissions to help restrict who can print, save, copy, or modify a document, and maintain document integrity.

Remove sensitive and hidden data
Permanently remove sensitive metadata, hidden layers, and other concealed information.

All products support Microsoft Windows 7 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64), and are backward compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows Server 2008.

Since in recent years there has been a rapid computerization of almost all branches of industry and the national economy, problems that until now almost no one has thought about are increasingly appearing on the scene. In particular, the issue of printing documents is of decisive importance.

And the problem here is often that I would like to send photos and graphics, text documents and tables for printing from all your devices, and not just from your computer. It's even better when you can do it even when you're away from your main workplace. A virtual printer will help you.

Difference from network devices

If you have ever encountered network devices, then you already know about it. The network can be not only a printer, but also a scanner, as well as other office equipment. An entire work department can use only one scanner connected to the general network of the enterprise!

Why is a virtual printer so unique? As we have already said, the rapid pace of modern life implies the ability to access the device from anywhere, not only in a particular building, but even in a city, or even the whole world. Unfortunately, a regular local network will not help you with this.

As in many other cases, the pioneer in this matter was the corporation "Google". For example, Google Cloud Print was the first to enable users to use their printing devices while being millions of miles away.

What it is?

In fact, it is a printer connected to the Internet. If everything is in order with the connection, you can print documents and photos at any time of the day or night. By the way, about the pictures. You can print them not only from a computer or laptop, but even directly from your smartphone. Being in another country on vacation, you can easily send photos to print in order to please your household with them.

Business Benefits

Think for yourself: you won't have to spend time and money on laying a local network in the office itself, you won't need to configure capricious network devices. All you need is an internet connection.

In addition, such a solution allows you to increase labor productivity, as employees can send you important documents, even while on a business trip around the city, or even across the country.

General setup information

Before you get access to all the benefits of this technology, you must associate a physical printer with its "cloud" counterpart. Consider this procedure using the same technology from Google as an example, since we touched on this topic earlier.

Before installing a virtual printer, make sure that the real device is connected to a specific computer or local network. Of course, you must install all the necessary drivers in advance, since the performance of all equipment largely depends on them.

The easiest way is for owners of Chromebooks of various modifications, since Google Cloud Print is natively supported in Chrome OS, and therefore it does not need any configuration. However, it's better to talk about ordinary computers and operating systems, since in our country this product from the search giant has very vague prospects.

Important! The Google Chrome browser must be installed on the computer, since it is its API that is used by this technology.

Connection order

Once you install the browser, you can connect the virtual printer connector. It's easy to do.

  • First you need to enable the physical printer.
  • Start the computer, wait for the operating system to load.
  • Launch the Google Chrome browser.
  • Click on the icon in the form of three horizontal dashes in the upper right corner of the program, after which the settings will open.
  • Select "Settings".
  • Then click on the "Show advanced settings" link.
  • Find the "Google Cloud Print" section. It has an item "Add a printer", on which you need to click the left mouse button.
  • If you are asked to do so, you must also sign in to your Google account, or create one (if you didn't have one).

After that, you should find your printer in the list that appears, select it with the left mouse button, and then click on the "Add device" button. After that, the procedure can be considered completed. Your virtual printer is ready to use. To verify this, try sending a test document for printing.

Another variant

However, under this concept, many of our users understand the technology that allows you to "print" PDF documents. By the way, in our country, until recently, this was completely irrelevant, but recently the popularity of this has been growing at an alarming pace. What is the reason for such "people's love"?

The fact is that PDF is a standard. A standard that implies the absolute immutability of the document, on whatever machine and in whatever program it is opened. If you have ever encountered a blurry table in a .doc file, then you yourself will be able to understand all the magnificence of this characteristic. In addition, a huge amount of multimedia information can be embedded in such documents, which will not look like a “foreign body”.

Remember how ridiculous the pictures look in the same Word, and you will understand what we are talking about.

How to create?

Oddly enough, but a free virtual printer of this class is a rarity, and therefore you have to spend a lot of time choosing the right program. Professional applications of this quality rarely strike the imagination at a modest cost, but in recent years you can find a lot of virtual PDF printers whose developers do not suffer from greed.

By the way, what does the concept of "virtual printer" mean in this case? Word is a wonderful program, and in the latest versions, the creators from Microsoft still taught it how to save documents in PDF format. The only problem is that you cannot configure their default settings.

For this purpose also it is necessary It deduces the text on virtual "seal". And at the output you get a document with professional formatting. By the way, why is such a “printer” better than numerous specialized applications for creating PDF documents?

First, almost all of them are completely free. Secondly, their interface is as simple as possible, but the functionality is very high. This allows even beginners to create documents with complex formatting and precisely defined parameters. Let's look at a few of these utilities.

"PDFCreator"

In fact, in its segment, this particular program is the standard both in terms of functionality and ease of use. The good news is that all the "buns" fit in just 15 MB. The program is completely free, so domestic users will surely like it. The installation process is as simple as possible: you only need to click on the “Next” button a couple of times.

Attention! Before installing a virtual printer, in the main dialog box, select the "For advanced users" item. So you can prevent the installation of all kinds of "Yandex browsers" and additional panels in the browser.

How to use the application correctly? There are not the slightest difficulties here: as soon as you install the program, the PDFCreator printer will appear in the print menu in all text editors. As in the case of physical printing, you can set the main document parameters (DPI, margins, and others).

Adobe PDF

The Adobe corporation is not known only to those people who have not had anything to do with a computer. The legendary Photoshop alone is worth something! Equally useful is its JPG virtual printer.

The program has a huge number of various settings. There are so many of them that you can easily create a professional-quality document or image. As you can imagine, the program is paid, so we can only recommend it to those who are really interested in first-class working tools.

"Cute PDF 2.7"

In this case, no money will be required from you. In addition, the size of the program is 1.5 MB, which is ridiculous for our times. But without the “Ghostscript” add-on, the utility will work in a truncated mode, and its size is five megabytes. However, the owners of even a GPRS modem will be quite capable of the final 6.5 MB.

Unfortunately, the possibilities of the program are also very modest. In particular, the “printing” itself occurs immediately, without the appearance of any settings dialog boxes. In defense of the utility, we can only say that it provides excellent compatibility with all currently existing PDF standards.

doPDF 6.0

This free virtual printer has a great balance of functionality and simplicity. It's no joke - the entire installation package takes a miserable 1.5 MB, and without any additional elements! This volume fits a great application that allows you to create beautiful, high-quality and standardized documents.

Before setting up a virtual printer, you should familiarize yourself with its main features. In particular (which we have already talked about), you can adjust the size of the margins, change the DPI pages, set certain standards for the PDF format itself.

Important note

Whichever "virtual printer" program you use, there are some important things you should know. Even in the FAQ of the most popular (and paid to the same) software products, intelligible technical specifications for a particular PDF standard and its compatibility are extremely rare, so you often have to look for relevant information on thematic forums (or in the English version of the help, where this data is often found). ).

Also, do not get carried away with high resolution: set exactly the DPI value at which the document is comfortable to read. If you set the percentage too high, then the file will be difficult to open on tablets and other mobile devices. This is all the more fair, the more widely such gadgets are distributed in everyday life.

That's what a virtual printer is. We hope that you have learned about all its advantages and applications.

Such technologies are very relevant in recent years, as businesses and ordinary users are increasingly in need of not only ubiquitous access to printers, but also the maximum standardization of the formats used.

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