What's the best program / API for converting Word docs to PDF that does NOT require Office to be installed?

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What's the best program / API for converting Word docs to PDF that does NOT require Office to be installed?

Well, really the title of the question says it all. There are similar questions on SO already. But here's some differences... I absolutely cannot use Office on the server. I must be able to convert the document programmatically. I don't really care how much it costs. Obviously cheaper is better, but if you have a good suggestion that happens to be pricey, please feel free to include it.

------ Edit ------

I accepted the OpenOffice.org answer because it seemed like the most intriguing. However, I really am curious what other people think. Keep posting answers and voting and I'll accept whichever has the most votes.

You might want to try Aspose, which is also used by Google.

0xA3 2010-09-28 18:44:29

I know I said price doesn't matter... but this is a bit pricey :)

Chaulky 2010-09-28 18:53:35

This may help you get to the answer...

DOCX format is a zipped collection of files. Unzip one (rename to .zip) and look inside.

Chris Adragna 2010-09-28 18:56:23

But this does nothing for me if it's .doc. Even it if is .docx... it would require quite a bit of work to go from XML representation of a Word document to a PDF

Chaulky 2010-09-28 18:57:51

+3 A:

OpenOffice can be run in a GUI-less server mode that. Using it that way, you can connect to it, stream a document to it, and then convert to any type it supports and stream it back.

Lou Franco 2010-09-28 18:59:20

I never even thought of this. I'll definitely look into this one. You mentioned it's "Server Mode". Is that to say its specifically designed for server use and doesn't suffer the same problems as Office on a server?

Chaulky 2010-09-28 20:15:17

It's specifically designed to have that mode, unlike MS Office. The server is single-threaded, so it's not ideal (you have to queue requests). It's essentially just scripting the app, but with a completely suppressed GUI. In my usage, I put a web service in front of it that monitored it, queued requests, and cached documents (in case the same one came through again).

Lou Franco 2010-09-28 22:05:33

+1 A:

If you upload a document (.doc, .docx, .odf) to google documents you can download as a PDF. This is an easy free solution but it might be hard to integrate.

highriseo 2010-09-28 19:04:35

creative, and i'll probably play around with this just out of curiosity, but I've heard from others that it doesn't do such a great job of preserving all the format (just hear-say though)

Chaulky 2010-09-28 20:14:25

+1 A:

IMO, PDFCreator (open source) is the best bet for your pupose. Install PDFCreator, then have a look at the COM subfolder, there you can find examples of how to use its API.

Vantomex 2010-10-04 03:36:34

Does this require Office on the server? I can't find information either way.

Chaulky 2010-10-04 14:16:48

No, PDFCreator doesn't require Office in any form, it can even convert *any* document (created by any program) that are possible to be printed.

Vantomex 2010-10-04 23:48:17

Thanks vantomex, i'll definitely check this out.

Chaulky 2010-10-08 17:19:12

PDFCreator does require something capable of printing the document, whether this be Microsoft Word, or OpenOffice, or something else. It just functions like a printer.

Yuliy 2010-10-08 17:24:49

ansaurus

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What's the best program / API for converting Word docs to PDF that does NOT require Office to be installed?

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