Netbook Network

PDF files are a (generally) universally accepted format – but most applications don’t natively support it. To view PDF files in Windows, you have to get a PDF reader such as the lightweight SumatraPDF. Creating them, though, requires another program. doPDF is a freeware program that allows applications to print to PDF. That means, if you have Word open, simply select the “Print” option, and you can choose to print as a PDF file. doPDF aims to be a no-frills and clean PDF printing solution – ideal for netbook owners. How well does it work? Read the review to find out!

doPDF installs quickly and painlessly and supports a countless number of languages. doPDF will be added to your list of printers – now, you can open any application with a printing capability and you can choose doPDF under the list.

It’s pretty much identical to printing to a real printer – I have doPDF set as my default printer because I don’t ever use the other print options available. If you hit the Preferences box, you can go through advanced options such as selecting dimensions or orientation.

doPDF has so few options that the need for a control panel is unnecessary. The program aims to be clean and simple – so features like watermarking or digital signatures are missing. Note the advertisement at the top – clicking on it takes you to NovaPDF. It’s got many more functions than doPDF, but it isn’t free.

When you decide to print, you’re provided with a few more options.

By default, doPDF will name your PDF the same as the original file name (or web address if it’s a webpage) and choose to open the PDF once created. Again, there are more ads, but they’re not intrusive at all.

doPDF doesn’t really have a standing application – if you run it, it’ll prompt you to select a file to convert to PDF. From there, the application that opens the file will launch and the print function will be automatically chosen. There’s really no purpose for this, because you can always just launch the application, choose the file, and then print and you’ll spend no more or no less time. doPDF doesn’t have a control panel, either. There aren’t that many settings, and each setting is so simple that a control panel is pretty much unnecessary.

doPDF itself takes up very little RAM because it only runs when you’re using it (printing to PDF). When printing out large webpages, it can be a little slow and a blank cmd window will pop up showing that doPDF is running.

In terms of performance, though, it’s not exactly perfect. doPDF had some issues converting complex webpages to PDF – in the example below, I printed out Yahoo!.

It appears that some images are lost during conversion – doPDF does a great job formatting, though. The entire process took a little less than half a minute, but the lack of a loading bar makes it seem like eternity.

Next, I tried converting Netbook Network and seeing how things would go.

Well, what happened here? It appears as if doPDF completely missed the CSS templates for NBNW. It appears that doPDF has trouble with some web pages. As an application, however, I don’t really weigh the capability of converting web pages as much to the ability to converting documents – after all, if you want to share a webpage, just copy the link and send it.

Word documents will convert really wel;. I tossed on a copy of Lorem Ipsum and played around with bits of formatting. I even placed a few images to see how well doPDF would handle them.

doPDF seems to be able to convert Word documents blazing fast, regardless of formatting or the presence of images. It converted the file in the blink of an eye, and it did a pretty good job, too.

Well, there you have it – doPDF, with its super simple set of options and performance. Time to wrap up this review.

Conclusion:
doPDF is super simple and lightweight, and yet does a pretty good job printing documents to PDF. Supporting enough settings for the average user such as dimensions and quality, doPDF is as simple as it gets when it comes to PDF conversion. By integrating with the Print function for applications, doPDF accepts pretty much all formats. If you’re looking to convert web pages, doPDF may not be the perfect solution – but it doesn’t hurt to try, the program is free!

Pros:
-Integrates with the Print feature for applications for almost universal format support
-Lightweight and super clean
-Allows the user to change simple settings such as PDF dimensions
-Does a great job converting Word documents very quickly, preserves formatting and images
-Supports a variety of languages
-Completely free!

Cons:
-Some advertisements, though unobtrusive
-Isn’t perfect (and sometimes performs pretty bad) when converting webpages

doPDF has earned our Silver Award for excellent software! If you wish to try out and use doPDF, simply head over to their webpage which can be found here. The program is free – so it doesn’t hurt to try!