cups-pdf
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How-To: Create PDFs from your iOS device
AirPrint may not be officially implemented in Mac OS X yet, but the feature remains present in the latest iOS 4.2 GM available to developers. For those who do have iOS 4.2 GM installed on their iDevices and are hoping to enable AirPrint, we've got a handy guide for you. Or you can also can use the AirPrint Hacktivator to get the job done. That all covers printing to paper from iOS, but I've decided to take it a step further for those who want to "print" but remain paperless: Print to a PDF. And not only print to a PDF, but then immediately have that PDF accessible to the same device. Here are some rather simple steps to get your PDF on.
Ask TUAW: Syncing photos, compressing and transferring large files, virtual printers, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about syncing photo libraries, compressing and transferring large files, creating a virtual PDF printer, increasing screen readability, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify).
CUPS-PDF for OS X: Make a PDF "Printer"
Sometimes my students annoy me, particularly when they turn in papers as Microsoft Word documents (but not just then). I have to open each one and go through the Save as PDF dialog over and over again. It occurred to me, however, that computers are good at doing repetitive tasks (that's why I'm the instructor, it only took a couple of years for me to come to that realization). A search yielded this tip from macOSXhints on batch converting Word files to PDF, which in turn lead me to discover the CUPS-PDF Package for Mac OS X, a nice little utility that wraps the CUPS-PDF module in a standard Mac installer. Once you do this you'll have a new "virtual printer" which, when you send it a standard print job, will automatically spit out a PDF to ~/Desktop/cups-pdf/. It's like "Save to PDF," but without having to name the file and choose the location, etc. You can even create a Desktop Printer (as we showed you earlier) and leave it on your Desktop or in your Dock for drag and drop converting.So if you just want to save a few clicks, or you're interested in automating print to pdf tasks, CUPS-PDF is very handy. It is a free download from Adam Knight at codepoetry.
