PDF enthusiasts have a new Web converter tool at their disposal with PDFmyURL, a simple, one-function site that converts any live Web site into a static PDF file--something handy for offline reading, long-term archiving, and sticking on PDF-friendly e-book readers like Amazon's Kindle. It can also be a lifesaver, if you're on a computer without PDF-making software that would otherwise enable you to "print" a PDF copy of your own.
In every way, PDFmyURL, which launched on Tuesday, is the exact opposite of one of our favorite PDF sites, PDFMeNot (currently down), which takes hosted PDF links and turns them into HTML-friendly Web pages--the big difference, of course, being that when PDFMeNot is done, you have a lean, mean Web page to tear through, whereas PDFmyURL leaves you with, well...a PDF. Not quite as sexy.
The tool does a phenomenal job at maintaining formatting, including correct font sizes and in-line images. Advanced users also have a number of tweaks they can add to the end of whichever URL they drop in that can change how the PDF is created, my favorite being the size of the paper on which you may intend to printing it. This let me turn the front door of CNET News into something that would fit on an 11x17-inch tabloid print. All this without any software required--except that is, to read the finished product.
(via Download Squad)
Below is a standard-sized PDF it spat out of the front door of CNET News:
news.cnet