News :: 15MR: A-PDF PPT2PDF v1.0.1
Welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is A-PDF PPT2PDF version 1.0.1 by A-PDF—An application to turn PowerPoint presentations to PDF files.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“A-PDF PPT2PDF is a software utility program that converts PowerPoint files into .pdf files which are compatible with Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 5 and above. Features of the software include the ability to change the visual quality (compression) of the output pdf file, change the output file properties, and add password protection to the output file. In addition, pdf document permissions can be set to allow users various degrees of control of the document.”
Samples
I’ve used this on a couple tests in the past and know it to be a good file. I did a few other tests, but this one is good to show the good and the bad. Purpose of use of file is for demo purposes on this site only. Thanks goes out to UBC for this one.
Quick Pros
- Blazingly fast
- Quality is generally good
- While not massively feature-rich, it provides all of the features most could need
- File size at 100% still less than half of original PPT files
- Does not require PowerPoint or Acrobat
Quick Cons
- Text quality, especially with white-on-dark text, is lacking
Expansion
Not a great deal to expand on. While this application is deceptively simple, it is quite powerful. Fast, decent quality for the most part, and a decent file output size makes this lucerative to those who have a PPT collection and would like to convert for the web or similar. File size is also a plus as well; All of my tests ended up resulting in a file under half the size of the original PPT, at 100% quality. The fact that this application does not need PowerPoint or Acrobat, means that someone could be set up to go through a school archive and convert them all on a basic system.
My biggest quirk is text quality. If you’ll look to the sample above, the text is not greatly smooth; not a big deal. However, if you flip to page 16, you will see an issue; The text that is white-on-blue there is almost unreadable and looks very poor; It’s nowhere near the original file quality.
Final Verdict
If you have any need to put your PPT files online, this may be a good way to do it. Granted, I would not state this is print-quality, it is still a good way to get your PPT files online and conserve space and bandwidth. What is nice is that it does not require Acrobat, and as such makes this a cheap alternative to those looking to PDF-ify their PowerPoint files, either for security or otherwise. It may be worth $27 to those who are looking for this kind of effect; It would definitely be worth $27 if the text quality issue could be fixed and then be a good way to archive your PPT file for revisioning or otherwise.
Posted by BladedThoth on Thursday, March 15, 2007
