Smallpdf

Pros

• Edits and saves documents with just a few clicks
• Relatively lightweight compared to most office solutions
• Converts DOCX files to PDF
• Merges multiple documents together
• Uses a simple drag and drop interface
• Processes documents in a very short period of time

Cons

• Struggles to convert some older word processing formats
• Compression algorithm is very aggressive
• Relies on proprietary technology

SmallPDF is a conversion utility that allows users to freely swap between several word processing file structures and the nearly universal Portable Document Format. Since PDF files are so common online, they're essentially considered the lingua franca of web publishing. Webmasters can't always be sure about whether or not their clients are going to be able to read a certain document. By running it through SmallPDF, they won't have any further doubts.

Each document SmallPDF creates should be fully compliant with all of the relevant standards, meaning that they can be read on a wide variety of devices. Some users might turn to it as a way to convert eBooks for use with their phones for this reason. Most users will probably fall in the business category, however, because PDFs are extremely common for giving presentations. Fortunately, SmallPDF supports a number of different input formats that are equally popular in this space.

Individuals who are tasked with making business presentations on the Windows platform are probably going to end up working with Office 365 in some way, which is why SmallPDF comes with support for its native formats out of the box. Word documents, formatted as DOCX files, can be easily converted to compliant PDF files. You're also free to make PPT presentations into PDF files easily, which is good for those who want to showcase their presentation deck on some machines that doesn't have PowerPoint installed. Simply convert it to a vendor-neutral format using SmallPDF and then move it to a USB stick. You'll be able to show your pitch slides off to an audience even if the only machine in the presentation hall runs an open-source operating system.

Support for a number of other popular formats also comes bundled with the software. JPG, PNG and GIF are probably the most used image file types on the web today. Online postmasters, such as those who have to manage a local email server, work with these all the time as do web designers and the like. Any of these formats can be turned into a single-page PDF, which preserves the entire fidelity of the original document unless you elect to employ compression.

Ironically, document compression is perhaps the most promising tool provided by SmallPDF. This takes an existing PDF file and tries to remove some of the redundant data from it so you end up with a smaller file size. At times, this tool can be rather aggressive and you might end up with a lower quality document as a result. In some cases, though, this can be quite useful since file size might be the most important consideration when transferring documents online.

Online producers and serious publishers often have to work with even higher fidelity formats, so compression won't work for those in this space. SmallPDF has them covered, however, since it can convert full-sized documents saved in the tagged image file format. TIFF documents, as they're often called, are usually massive and might not have any compression applied to them at all. That makes them uniquely useful for those who have to preserve layout information when making a digital magazine or an electronic book.

Device independent bitmap images are also supported. These are commonly known as BMP files on the Windows platform, and are among the most common file types for those working with basic paint software on PCs. Since they don't do anything that could compromise the fidelity of a picture, they're again one of the more popular options with online producers. Webmasters, however, might balk at the fact that nearly no modern browsers support the format, so SmallPDF offers the option to convert these into standard PDF documents that anyone could share across the web.

The software provides support for both monochrome as well as color images, which is good news for those who do a lot of work with documents that they scan into their computers from a traditional print source. Importing photos from a digital camera or a smartphone will work just as well, though these usually come in the form of JPEG documents.

Layout design is a bit outside of the overall purview of SmallPDF, but it does support grid unit specifications for those who want to cite exact measurement numbers for their documents. You can therefore generate a sophisticated presentation broadcast using the software, which can then be shared over a network connection. An average individual user might not rely on it to do sophisticated layout work, but these features are nice for presentation broadcasters who have to regularly put their slides online and want to be able to share a small PDF version for easy download.

Embedded typefaces and other addons can always be included with any document that SmallPDF creates, which ensures that they will render at least very similarly on every machine they're loaded on. There's always a chance that some edge cases won't work as well as others, but the files that SmallPDF generates are neutral enough that they should work with an overwhelming majority of modern PDF reader applications available today.

File names feature no restrictions beyond those already present in the Windows namespace. As a result, you can add some Unicode characters to an output file if needed in order to provide additional support for localization efforts. This same degree of internationalization support exists inside of the software as well, thus giving publishers the freedom to convert any document into a PDF file regardless of what language it might have originally been written in.

Pros

• Edits and saves documents with just a few clicks
• Relatively lightweight compared to most office solutions
• Converts DOCX files to PDF
• Merges multiple documents together
• Uses a simple drag and drop interface
• Processes documents in a very short period of time

Cons

• Struggles to convert some older word processing formats
• Compression algorithm is very aggressive
• Relies on proprietary technology