PCS PDF Creator

PCS PDF Creator is a virtual PDF printer capable of creating PDF documents from any printable file. It supports several preset quality profiles, customizable PDF properties, and password protection.

Install and access the PDF printer

The installation procedure is a fast and easy task that shouldn't give you any trouble. The only notable aspect is that it needs Ghostscript to run.
Double-clicking the application's .exe file after installation results in multiple error dialogs that cannot be avoided. Instead, you can access PCS PDF Creator by bringing up the printing panel of any program which supports this function.
It adopts a clear-cut structure, where you can specify the saving location and name of the new file, as well as instruct the tool to open it on task completion, send it as an email attachment, or do nothing. This window stays on top of other frames, and this cannot be changed.

Create custom quality profiles, edit PDF metadata, and apply passwords

Three predefined profiles are available for the PDF: web (low quality), print (normal quality) and prepress (high quality). A custom profile can be quickly put together by selecting the target PDF version (ranging from 1.2 to 1.6) and resolution (ranging from 72 to 1200), along with settings for color, grayscale and monochrome PDFs when it comes to downsampling (average, subsample, bicubic, off) and compression mode (LZW, JPEG, ZIP, auto, off).
Regarding document properties, you can enter a title, author, subject and keywords, as well as apply this configuration to the current document only, or to the future ones too. Furthermore, it's possible to establish passwords for opening and changing the file, allow users to copy content (text, images and other elements), and enable support for visually impaired people.

Evaluation and conclusion

It created PDFs rapidly in our tests and had minimal impact on the overall performance of the computer, using low CPU and RAM. It didn't hang, crash or prompt error dialogs during runtime.
On the other hand, it includes multiple advertisements for other products made by the same developer, which can be an inconvenient aspect for some users. Otherwise, PCS PDF Creator gets the job done, offering a simple solution for turning any printable files into PDF documents.