Free PDF Maker Review, Which Should be Your Choice? Here is the Answer
Last Updated on September 18, 2022 by Tina Clark
What is the best free PDF maker to create a fillable PDF form? Whether you need to make a PDF from scratch, convert some Office file to a PDF, or even make a fillable and searchable PDF, you can learn more about the 10 best free PDF creators on Windows and Mac. Just learn more about the special features and choose the desired one according to your requirements.
Part 1: 10 Best PDF Makers to Create PDF Documents
Top 1: PDFelement
Compatibility: Mac/Windows/Android/iOS
Pricing: $79.99/Year and free for Reading PDF
PDFelement is the all-in-one PDF maker that provides multiple methods to make PDF files on different platforms. It not only converts the image-based documents to editable PDF with the OCR algorithm but also creates a fillable PDF with multiple tools, such as checkbox, radio button, combo box, text, image, and others. Moreover, you can share the PDFs between different versions via the Cloud service.
Pros:
1. Provide different modes to create PDF as a profession.
2. Choose advanced toolkits and features to fill in PDFs.
3. Perform powerful OCR features for more than 20 languages.
Cons:
1. Take much time for editing some simple PDF documents.
2. Provide limited Cloud service space for sharing the PDFs.
Top 2: PrimoPDF
Compatibility: Windows
Pricing: $159 for Pro and free for making PDF
PrimoPDF is a popular free PDF maker to turn virtually any kind of file into a standard PDF. It enables you to create PDFs from a wide range of file formats with password protection. Different from the Pro version, it only provides the basic feature in comparison to creating PDF files as opposed to handling all aspects of PDF management. What is worse, you can find the Ads display on the free PDF creator.
Pros:
1. Provide 5 creation profiles for consistent PDF creation.
2. Build and fill to make a simple form in Microsoft Word.
3. Create your own PDF files from virtually any type of file.
Cons:
1. Prone to freezing and random crashing for PDF making.
2. Ads almost cover up to half of the program user interface.
Top 3: PDF24 Creator
Compatibility: Online
Pricing: Free
PDF24 Creator is one of the best free PDF makers online. It not only merges multiple PDFs into a single file but also automatically performs conversion of documents such as Excel, Word, images, and more to standard PDFs. It also has a preview mode for simple and easy PDF editing. Moreover, you can create PDFs from job applications, a camera, invoices, webpages, images, and other document files.
Pros:
1. Make PDF online with stamps and watermarks.
2. Import and convert different file formats to PDF.
3. Split and combine multiple files into a single file.
Cons:
1. Provide the Windows version and online version only.
2. Lack of some essential editing features and filters.
Top 4: SmallPDF
Compatibility: Online/Android/iOS
Pricing: Free, $108/year
As a free PDF maker for Android and iOS devices, SmallPDF is a versatile choice for creating PDFs from other file formats, such as Word, Excel, PPT, or image files. Moreover, you can also apply the batch process after subscribing to the Pro version. But there are some major restrictions, such as the limited editing features, unable to create a PDF from scratch, and difficulty to upload large PDF files.
Pros:
1. Make PDFs online with the files from the cloud service for free.
2. Create PDFs from PPT, Excel, Word, JPG, TIFF, and more.
3. Download the PDF files directly or save them as a ZIP file.
Cons:
1. Lack of some essential text editing and font options for PDF.
2. Difficult to deal with some large PDF files or fill in PDF forms.
Top 5: PDF Candy
Compatibility: Online
Pricing: Free, $48/year
PDF Candy is another free online PDF maker with multiple toolkits. Similar to the other PDF creators, you can convert multiple file formats to PDF, such as Word, Excel, DjVu, MOBI, FB2, and more. But you cannot make a fill-in form or start from scratch. There is another major restriction for the PDF creator. You have to save the files before editing the PDF with other modules within the program.
Pros:
1. Provide a wide range the file formats to make standard PDFs from.
2. Offer top-shelf scanning, file-conversion options, OCR capability, etc.
3. Queue all the tasks, which enables you to download them at one time.
Cons:
1. Limited conversion of PDF files and other editing features per hour.
2. Present as a slate of individual apps accessible from a single page.
Top 6: Apple Preview
Compatibility: macOS
Pricing: Free
As for the built-in PDF creator for Mac, Apple Preview is not limited to photo management but also enables you to make some basic PDFs. It has a full-featured PDF creator design. It can create some PDFs that are fillable and shareable. Moreover, there are some other features to sign the PDF files and fill-in forms. When handling sensitive documents, you can password protect and encrypt PDFs in Preview.
Pros:
1. Create the fillable and shareable PDF to iCloud or OneNote directly.
2. Preinstalled free PDF maker to handle photos, RAWs, and PDFs.
3. Provide the basic features, such as PDF editing, adding signatures, etc.
Cons:
1. Limited for MacBook only, cannot sync the file to Windows/Android.
2. Lack of some complicated and essential features, such as OCR.
Top 7: PDF Creator
Compatibility: Windows
Pricing: Free, $16.90/year
PDF Creator is another free PDF maker to create standard PDFs and PDF/A files easily. It supports the use of tokens, which can improve and speed up your workflow. It not only merges multiple PDFs but also creates shareable PDFs from PNG, JPG, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. Moreover, it also comes with a COM interface that allows you to control it from your application or script.
Pros:
1. Provide an open-source PDF creator to make PDF/A or standard PDF.
2. Implement a custom script in C# to process the print job for PDF files.
3. Automate your PDF workflow even more with the help of user tokens.
Cons:
1. There are multiple Ads on the free version during the making process.
2. Add watermarks to the output PDF without a subscription to the service.
Top 8: PDF4Free
Compatibility: Windows
Pricing: $49
PDF4Free is not only a free PDF maker and PDF converter for Windows, which provides full hyperlinks support, makes up to 2540x2540 DPI printing resolution, and customs paper size. Moreover, you can also make PDF files with title, subject, keyword, author, and keywords. Moreover, it installs itself as a print driver. All you have to do is to click the Print from your application to create PDF files.
Pros:
1. Embed fonts, metadata, and others to make some standard PDF files.
2. Install automatically for creating PDFs with tags and keywords easily.
3. Create PDF files from any Windows application that supports printing.
Cons:
1. Enable you to make a free PDF file via the virtual PDF printer only.
2. Cannot adjust page frame and other parameters for PDF creating.
Top 9: Nitro Reader
Compatibility: Windows/Mac
Pricing: $143.99
Nitro PDF Reader enables you to make your PDFs universally compatible. It is an ideal free PDF maker to convert to and from PDF files, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. It enables you to create searchable PDFs with its text recognition technology. Moreover, you can also create ISO-compliant PDF/A files, which differ from PDFs in that they are specially designed for long-term archiving and file storage.
Pros:
1. Provide advanced OCR technology to extract the texts and images.
2. Combine with some featured collaboration tools and editing features.
3. Create standard PDFs and PDF/A files are shareable through email.
Cons:
1. Lack the more advanced features of its premium counterpart.
2. Unable to convert form fields, comments, and other elements.
Top 10: 7-PDF Maker
Compatibility: Windows
Pricing: Free
7-PDF Maker is the last free PDF maker but not the least, which enables you to create barrier-free PDF files or Tagged PDFs. Instead of the pure PDF file converter, you can convert over 80 files and image formats like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. It can automatically create a PDF where the original file is located. With its built-in Command Line, the PDF converter can easily create and converts all Doc files to PDF.
Pros:
1. Support more than 80 files and image formats for PDF conversion.
2. Does not require any ghost script or codec skills to create PDFs.
3. Provide the batch process features to make multiple PDFs simultaneously.
Cons:
1. It is for the Windows version with the basic editing features only.
2. Need basic knowledge about the command line for PDF files.
Part 2: FAQs about PDF Creator You Should Know
Conclusion
Creating a shareable and fillable PDF should not require complex downloads and installations of programs. These reviews on Free PDF creators will help you learn more about the best programs and their features. Through this, you will be able to make the right choice when it comes to making the desired PDF files easily.