CutePDF Writer — The Complete Guide: A Free Virtual PDF Printer for Windows

CutePDF Writer from Acro Software is a virtual PDF printer. After installation a new printer appears in the list, and any program that can print — a spreadsheet, an older CAD program or an analysis package without PDF export — can produce a PDF file. It runs on Windows from Vista onwards, on Windows Server and on terminal servers.

CutePDF Writer

Acro Software Inc.

Lightweight virtual PDF printer for Windows: print from any program to get a PDF file, including on Windows Server.

Get it from the vendor

What you get

Print to PDF — from any program with a print command.
Document properties — editing the title, author and other metadata.
Password protection — 256-bit AES encryption.
Server support — works on Windows Server and terminal servers.
Free for business — with no adware, according to the vendor.

What to know before installing

CutePDF Writer needs a separate PS2PDF converter such as Ghostscript, installed separately and distributed under the AGPL. It has no editing, merging or commenting tools — it only creates the file. CutePDF Professional is a separate paid product. On newer computers, check the built-in Windows PDF printer first.

Related tools

For the converter it needs — Ghostscript. For creating and editing PDFs from documents — LibreOffice. For a toolkit with a virtual printer and more — PDF24.