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Table of Contents
Sending Trees by E-mail
The best way to send PediTree output in electronic form whilst preserving the layout is to make a Portable Document Format (PDF) file from it and send that.
A PDF file can be displayed by using a suitable program, often pre-installed on a new computer. The standard program for this is Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is readily available at no cost on many magazine-cover CD-ROMs, with some purchased applications, or by download from http://www.adobe.com/. A faster and smaller alternative is Foxit Reader, which can be downloaded from http://www.foxitsoftware.com/. Both are free of charge.
There are several different ways to produce a PDF file from PediTree output without spending much money. They all involve installing a Windows Printer-driver that either produces a PDF file as output or an intermediate file that can be converted to the PDF form.
The writer uses PDF Creator, available from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/. Once downloaded and installed, this appears as a Windows printer called PDF Creator. If you select this printer to 'print' a Tree or other chart in the usual way, then you are prompted for a filename for the PDF output. Here is a small two-page example.
Other software suggested by contributors to the PUG-L mailing-list is:
- Use a Windows printer-driver to produce a PostScript output file, such as the HP1200PS driver supplied with most versions of Windows. Then use Acrobat Distiller (expensive) or Ghostscript (free from http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost) to convert the PostScript file to PDF. (This is effectively what PDF Creator does in one step, but is more complicated to use.)
- PDF995 from http://www.pdf995.com/ (small licence fee to stop nagging)
- PDFill from http://www.pdfill.com/ (free; small cost for additional PDF editor)
Update December 2014
I have recently encountered some issues with both Foxit Reader and PDF Creator. Until I can resolve these do not attempt to install or update either of these programs.
Other Uses of Print to PDF
As well as providing files for easy sharing, printing to PDF provides a way to check the layout of a proposed Table or Tree without actually spending ink and paper. You can simply view the result on-screen and make changes if needed.
It is also possible to produce PDF files for large-format printing. How would you like a big Tree on A0 paper (841 x 1189mm)? Set that paper-size in your PDF printer, produce the file and take it to a local shop that can print it for you. That is, after you have checked it on-screen first, of course.