Free PDF Printer Review – 10 Best Methods to Print Documents on Windows and Mac
Last Updated on September 21, 2025 by Tina Clark
When you need to save the Word/Excel files to PDF, or simply print the PDF files, what are the best free PDF printers on Windows/Mac? The PDF printer software is also known as a virtual printer, which prints to PDF files rather than to physical paper. You might familiar with Adobe PDF Printer, but is there a free alternative to create PDF files with various resolutions, print PDF files through commands, and convert PDFs from MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint? Here are the 10 best free PDF printers you should know.
Top 1: PDFelement
As a versatile PDF printer, PDFelement enables you to create, secure, and organize documents. It can convert Word, Excel, PPT, texts, images, DWG, SVG, and others to PDF, or vice versa. Moreover, you can use the advanced OCR algorithms to convert image-based files to editable PDF files.
Pros
1. Support more than 20 file formats, including Office files, texts, images, etc.
2. Tweak the printing settings, duplex printing, gray-scale, booklet, and others.
3. Save Office files, images, and others to PDF, or vice versa within clicks.
4. Provide multiple printing features for double sides, black-n-white, and more.
Cons
1. It is not a free PDF printer, which subscribes to services to use all features.
Top 2: PrimoPDF
PrimoPDF is a free PDF printer to make high-quality PDFs. The virtual PDF printer provides advanced conversion features to turn various file formats into PDF versions with the original quality. Moreover, it supports optimizing PDF output for screen, print, e-book, and prepress and secure PDF.
Pros
1. Convert PDF into editable Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office files.
2. Make PDFs with 5 profiles, Screen, eBook, Print, Prepress, and Custom.
3. Add encryption and password to protect the converted PDF during printing.
4. Provide the page range, scale to paper size, pages per sheet, and more.
Cons
1. The interface looks outdated and unappealing and displays Advertisements.
2. Provide the limited features, lack combining multiple PDF documents.
Top 3: CutePDF Free PDF Printer
CutePDF Writer is a frequently used free PDF printer that creates PDFs from almost any application. It also enables you to change the document properties, and add passwords with password settings. Moreover, you can also edit the PDF and share the output PDF files to your Email directly.
Pros
1. Adjust the settings for location, auto filename, or email after creation.
2. Integrate PDF creation ability into any application, solution, or service.
3. Offer PDF writer and printer to custom and make PDF with an own title.
4. Provide password protection to PDF files with 256-bit AES encryption.
Cons
1. Cannot save the protected PDF without subscribing to the Pro service.
2. The PDF quality is not very good and lacks text-editing features.
Top 4: NitroPDF PDF Printer
NitroPDF PDF Printer is far more than a simple free PDF printer that makes PDF from web and Office files. It virtually prints PDF files from any Windows application, such as Word, Excel, MS Print, etc. Moreover, it converts PDF files to searchable and editable files.
Pros
1. Equip Office-style interface to print PDF from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
2. Offer a variety of different tools to help you tweak your PDF documents.
3. Edit PDFs, custom pages, and tweak PDF properties after printing PDFs.
4. Provide different conversion qualities, such as web, Office files, and custom.
Cons
1. It lacks the NitroPDF PDF editor to touch up the PDF document on mobile.
2. Do not support other file formats except for the Office files for conversion.
Top 5: Microsoft Print to PDF
Microsoft Print to PDF is the built-in free PDF printer feature on Windows. It allows you to turn a document into a PDF in a few minutes. Moreover, you do not need to install any extra software. It is the easiest way to print PDFs from other files for Windows operating systems.
Pros
1. Print PDFs from multiple file formats with the original file quality in clicks.
2. Provide auto-rotate, auto center, page setup, page size, and other filters.
3. It is a built-in and free PDF printer to save and print PDF documents.
4. Save web pages in PDF, extract pages from PDF, and convert files to PDF.
Cons
1. Cannot combine different formats into a single PDF without a 3rd party app.
2. Work with Windows 10 only and do not have creative controls for printing.
Top 6: SwifDoo PDF
SwifDoo is an all-in-one free PDF printer, which enables you to create, edit, and manage PDF documents. You can alter the font size, style, and color of the text and other aspects. Moreover, the virtual PDF printing driver merges multiple files to create an individual PDF.
Pros
1. Include a wide range of tools, creating, converting, merging, and more.
2. Guarantee your PDF security with two-level PDF password protection.
3. Compatible with Google Drive or Dropbox to share files via the cloud.
4. Convert PDFs into commonly used Microsoft Office files, or vice versa.
Cons
1. It lacks mobile support, advanced editing features, or an OCR algorithm.
2. Trial version by day and provide a monthly subscription to get full features.
Top 7: PDFCreator
PDFCreator is another free PDF printer program on Windows. It provides advanced options such as creating multiple page docs, setting the quality of the PDF, and even inserting watermarks and signatures into the output files. It supports MS Word, Excel, and other files.
Pros
1. Print PDF files from any program, including documents and web files.
2. Encrypt PDF and protect the content with passwords and watermarks.
3. Create PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, Word, Excel, and EPS files.
4. Save the converted PDFs to your computer or share them with others.
Cons
1. Limited features to use the program and need for the subscription plan.
2. The PDF editing features are limited, such as the advanced algorithms.
Top 8: BullZip PDF Printer
If you intend to create PDF files from other apps on PCs, BullZip PDF Printer is the optimal virtual PDF toolkit. Tech savvy prefers the free PDF printer due to the support of print command. Moreover, it acts as a Windows printer and can write PDF documents.
Pros
1. Include a variety of custom options for printing and editing PDF files.
2. Decide the quality, file size, author note, watermarks, and even keywords.
3. Improve speed and lower overall carbon emission and save a lot of paper.
4. Support Microsoft Terminal Server and Citrix Meta-frame environments.
Cons
1. Cannot convert to searchable and editable PDF files without plugins.
2. Some settings are complicated and need to use GPO with MSI package.
Top 9: PDF Candy
As its name indicated, PDF Candy is a popular, simple, and free PDF printer program. Although the other PDF printing apps are too simple, it comes with advanced features. Moreover, it works based on the cloud and allows you to do PDF making and editing online.
Pros
1. Import and export the PDF files from a computer, Google Drive, or Dropbox.
2. Convert a whole variety of popular file formats into a PDF file, or vice versa.
3. Offer top-shelf scanning, OCR capacity, and other 44 excellent PDF tools.
4. Compatible with various editing and formatting tools is easy and intuitive.
Cons
1. Require a good Internet connection, especially for some large PDF files.
2. The free version limits to one task per hour and waits much time to print.
Top 10: PDFescape
PDFescape is more than an online free PDF printer that works on your PC and Mac as well. Both of them are packed with a lot of tools, such as a PDF editor, PDF reader, PDF password protection, PDF printer, and a lot more. Moreover, it offers cloud storage to save PDFs.
Pros
1. Offer a free account to save the PDF with the virtual PDF printer.
2. Create PDFs from various files online, such as Word, Excel, and more.
3. Provide features to edit, annotate, fill out, create, and share PDFs.
4. Offer cloud storage and services to save and export PDF files.
Cons
1. Providing the full version requires a monthly subscription with Ads online.
2. Subscribe to the services for converting, editing, and adding PDF pages.
Conclusion
A virtual PDF printer is indispensable if you need to create PDF files from a variety of files. It lets you convert and turn your documents into PDFs. The article identified top the 10 best free PDF printers. Some of them are completely free of charge. Others require a license or subscription plan. Just find an appropriate tool according to the review, such as PDFelement.