I'm looking for recommendations for an inexpensive and easy to use PDF writer I can tell inexperienced clients to install to generate well-behaving PDF's for me. Acrobat is fairly expensive so some of my once-a-year customers don't want to buy it, but it sure would be nice to get PDF's instead of so many native formats which often don't have the fonts or have other shift issues.

Any recommendations for an inexpensive but really easy to use PFD writer I can recommend to clients, something that with one or two clicks will let them print to generate a PDF from any application just like Distiller with 300 dpi color and grayscale, 2400 dpi line, all fonts embedded, etc... but without Distiller/Acrobat's cost?

How about the free CutePDF PDF writer < CutePDF - free >

I haven't used the free version but the $49 cute pdf pro version is handy for its PDF booklet and PDF imposition features.

The free version of Cute PDF has two limitations:
1.) customers must install two programs, the cute pdf writer and the ghostscript converter.
2.) I don't see any rgb -> cmyk options; if customers are working in rgb it appears you will get pdf files with the colors off.

How about PrimoPDF

For a 'proper' PDF try this (you get 5 free shots) http://createpdf.adobe.com/