Today I'd like to introduce a new feature to the blog - Things I Love. These posts will focus on items that I find helpful in a knitting and/or blogging context despite not being intended for that purpose. I hope that you may find them useful as well and I welcome any ideas for future posts.
Today's
"Thing I Love" is
CutePDF. CutePDF is a free post-script printer that will create a .pdf file from virtually any printable document. In this case, "free" doesn't only refer to the cost, but it's also free of spyware, popups, and advertisements.
This is a very simple program to use. To create a .pdf of a file or webpage, pull up the print menu, and select "CutePDF" instead of your normal printer.
All that's left is to name your file and you're done. When you open the file, it looks exactly as it would had you printed from your printer. If you have saved a webpage, the URL will be at the top of the page, in case you need to go back to the page later.
This has quickly become my preferred method for saving the knitting patterns (and recipes, articles etc.) I find on the internet. When I save patterns, I also save a .jpg of the finished item as well. By setting the folder that these files are in to "Thumbnail" view, it's really easy to see what patterns I have saved.
Using CutePDF means that you neither have to worry about printing, saving or filing printed patterns, nor do you need to worry about a link to a pattern breaking (or your internet being down). If you keep patterns on your PDA, the .pdf file will be easy to transfer to your PDA for on-the-go knitting.
While this program makes it a lot easier to share and distribute free knitting patterns, please take care to include (and respect) any copyrights already existing on the pattern.
