PDF Readers/Viewers

Without turning this into an A Vs B session, I am looking for a pdf viewer, however the only one I can see is Foxit.

-are there others besides foxit
-do any of Ya'll have any experience with any others except foxit?
-am i just paranoid and foxit is a good choice

I'd like to try and compare by myself but I do not see many suggestions hence the thread. I just want to be able to open PDF'S in Firefox & Opera.

Matt

 

Nitro PDF reader
http://www.nitroreader.com/
PDF exchange viewer
http://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer
Adobe reader
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/

 

Does anyone have any experience with nitro?

I had forgotten Adobe..one I won't consider cause it still seems pretty large.

I'll take a look at nitro.

 

nitro was ehh when i tested it. i keep trying everything else and always end up back with foxit. pdfxchange viewer is prob the only other one i would personally use. nitro did not display things properly when i used it and it also uses a LOT of ram compared to foxit or pdfxchange. when i tested it it got up to almost 100mb at times where foxit and pdfx used hardly anything at all.

 

Im using Nuance PDF reader.

I was using Foxit, it had vulnerabilities that were unpatched according to Secunia so I made the switch.

 

I've used Adobe, Foxit, and XChange Viewer, and finally settled with Sumatra for a simple, no-nonsense, no toolbar/search extras, albeit somewhat spartan and barebones PDF Reader...but it renders nice and "does what it says on the tin".
http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/download.html

 

Perfect PDF Reader 5

 

Perfect PDF Reader, without me downloading, any positives compared to Adobe Reader, speed etc?

The export PDFs as plain text, great feature. Does it work as it says?

 

I've tried and used a lot of the PDF Readers because that's the default format for my work related documents and presentations. I always come back to Adobe Acrobat because (1) it's the most capable when it comes to more advanced stuff (e.g. 3D formats, animations on pdf slides, and such), and (2) it's the industry standard; since everyone else uses it, I also have to use it to ensure that the pdfs I send/receive look the same on my screen as on the other person's screen.

That said, I hate the bloat inherent in Adobe products, all the add-on processes, and slow loading times (especially in older versions - the "Adobe Acrobat Speed Launcher" helps albeit at the cost of another autostart process). If I just needed a pdf reader for basic personal stuff only (web documents, invoices, etc.) I'd probably use Foxit or Sumatra. In fact, for BartPE (my recovery disk), I went with Sumatra because it was the smallest but still gets the job done.

If you need to create (print to) pdf format you can try GIRDAC Free PDF Creator or PDFCreator, although I cannot vouch for either since I don't actively use them.

 

That Perfect PDF looks nice. I wonder how it compares to PDF-xchange and if it works ok with Google Chrome. I'm also looking at STDU viewer. Anyone use it before?
http://www.stdutility.com/stduviewer.html

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Other-Office-Tools/STDU-Viewer.shtml

http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/STDU-Viewer-Review-102240.shtml

 

Hi;

I've used Adobe, Foxit and now PDF Exchange Viewer at the moment. Foxit was okay until I had problems with annotations and call-out tools not showing after I attach/save them. PDF Exchange Viewer is okay a bit slower than Foxit but the annotations/text boxes/callouts are okay. They show even if I open them in Adobe or Foxit. I think PDF-EV has more added features than Foxit though Foxit is I think more lighter. I'm inclined to use either Foxit ot PDF-EV.

One thing I want to see in free PDF viewers are an option to insert/add and delete pages. Foxit/PDF-EV has this option but will stamp a watermark on it.

How about Sumatra PDF? Seems a lot are using it...does it have the features of insert/delete/add pages without the watermark?

 

I'm taking Sumatra for a test spin & will let you all know.

 

Don't think Sumatra can do as you enquire Dundertaker, it's pretty basic, here's
the manual showing a bit more:
http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/manual.html

 

The one thing I liked about Nuance was that it was very light. The issue with it was however that it cant combine multiple PDF documents into a single one without upgrading to the paid for version.

Anyone else experience this and maybe its just a quirk on my end?

 

i dont like that nuance sends out some documents to them to be modified and then they get sent back to you...

 

The only thing that needs to be sent out is document conversions from 1 type to another. Other than that program updates and registration use the net.

Its odd that needs the net for document conversions between file types, but not something to freak about. It basically allows for a smaller installation and faster performance by allowing those to happen in the cloud rather than on the PC.

 

Why anybody seems to look for alternatives? I mean ok, if you are looking for a free versus premium software, than yes, but we are talking about PDF, an open standard based on file format created by Adobe. Acrobat Reader is a free PDF reader... so you shoud use it

 

Probably because Adobe has a horrible track record for exploits, bugs, and inconsistencies. Who wants to use an obviously insecure program?

 

Yes it should be used- unless huge, slow and limited features is not for you.

 

Me thinks Johnny needs to spend some time here.

 

Johnny Acrobat Reader is one of the most exploited programs ever, I can't constantly check up on how vulnerabilities it has and have to update it constantly, its also way to bloated for those of us that occasionally need to simply open a pdf file to read. Sumatra works much better for my purposes.