Best PDF Reader for Windows 7?

Haven't found anything faster yet still feature complete then Adobe Reader Lite 9.
 
criccio said:
Haven't found anything faster yet still feature complete then Adobe Reader Lite 9.
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Where is this "lite" version of Adobe Reader some of you are talking about? I can only find the 30+ MB regular version.
 
I tried PDF-Xchange because it won Lifehacker's PDF HiveFive Vote and have enjoyed using it. I used Foxit on my laptop but the Firefox PDF plug-in kept crashing my browser for unknown reasons. I'm sure this issue is not widespread though since most people have no problems with Foxit.
 
I use Foxit and it works well. Adobe Acrobat Reader is a big piece of bloatware not worth installing. The best PDF viewer I have used is Preview on Mac but Foxit comes very close

As for why Microsoft didn't include PDF, if I remember correctly that has to do with Adobe not being happy about it. In pre Vista days Microsoft had planned to include PDF support but Adobe objected and hence they stuck with only offering XPS

If they include it, they get sued; easy as that
 
Was using foxit for the longest time, but it had rendering problems and the browser plugin crashed a lot. Switched over to PDF-Xchange and haven't looked back. It's fast to open and it is native 64 bit (which was probably one of the biggest reasons for me to switch)
 
anthrex said:
Was using foxit for the longest time, but it had rendering problems and the browser plugin crashed a lot. Switched over to PDF-Xchange and haven't looked back. It's fast to open and it is native 64 bit (which was probably one of the biggest reasons for me to switch)
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Have you noticed any problems with the 64-bit version of it? Do you browser integration with Firefox?
 
No problems whatsoever. I used browser integration on Vista 64 and it worked fine, but after switching back to it launching outside of the browser I enjoy it more especially since I'm running dual monitors.
 
anthrex said:
No problems whatsoever. I used browser integration on Vista 64 and it worked fine, but after switching back to it launching outside of the browser I enjoy it more especially since I'm running dual monitors.
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So I've been trying it out, and it's really nice! I just wish the UI didn't look so damn ugly. That was one nice thing about Foxit; it was very sleek looking.

pdf-xchange.jpg


Other than that, it's pretty damn awesome.
 
Haha yea I have to say it is ugly, but after a while you just ignore it and just appreciate what it does.
 
So I've done something a bit insane, I've gone back to using Adobe Reader. And I can confirm it's gotten a lot better since I've last used it (which is probably like over a year at least). The latest version is pretty damn fast, isn't nearly as bloated as it once was, and the UI doesn't look like balls.
 
You are using the Lite version correct? Its even better then the vanilla version and has none of the horrid security flaws.
 
devman said:
Incorrect: http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=51502

There are plenty of open source tools that can read and write PDFs. Why there isn't built in support for it in Windows I do not know.
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Because MS would likely be sued. Either word 2007 or Windows 7 was going to have the ability to write to PDF files, and Adobe threatened legal action. MS was forced to remove the feature from the product. The irony is that Adobe has always allowed other companies to make PDF compatible readers and editors, with one exception, Microsoft.

That's why it's not in their.

FYI Folks, the problems with Foxit and web browsers is fixed. It disappeared after an update to the plugin (or was it a new version of Foxit) last month.

With that said, I think I'll try some of these other readers. I like the idea of a Ribbon UI, though I'm not sure if it matters, since for a reader.

I know one thing, I'll never go back to Adobe, unless they start over and get rid of the bloat. It's way to big for a file reader.
 
criccio said:
You are using the Lite version correct? Its even better then the vanilla version and has none of the horrid security flaws.
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Negative, because unfortunately (as I was saying in my earlier post) the link you posted just goes to an empty majorgeeks page. :\ Does Adobe themselves make it?

And call me superficial/weird, but I can't stand PDF XChange's UI. I'll deal with waiting a few extra seconds for some other Reader app to start up if it means I don't have to look at the candy-land XP-ish junk.
 
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I use CutePDFWriter attached to Office 2k10 beta, works great.
 
I feel that Adobe Reader v9 is much lighter/faster then the older v8. I tried foxit it 2 years back and it would not display certain PDF's correctly and also would not work with PDF forms.
 
ZzBloopzZ said:
I feel that Adobe Reader v9 is much lighter/faster then the older v8. I tried foxit it 2 years back and it would not display certain PDF's correctly and also would not work with PDF forms.
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Yeah, pretty much what I noticed too. Most of the other readers either don't have certain features, have bloat, or just look like ass.
 
ZzBloopzZ said:
I feel that Adobe Reader v9 is much lighter/faster then the older v8. I tried foxit it 2 years back and it would not display certain PDF's correctly and also would not work with PDF forms.
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I agree that foxit had problems 2-3 years ago. I still used it, but I kept Adobe installed for documents that didn't display correctly.

I haven't had that problem in well over a year. It's worth giving it a try. I can load bring up a document in 3 seconds (including starting Foxit). If adobe has cleaned up that much, then maybe it's worth trying it again, but last time I used it, it was a huge program (at least 10x the size of foxit), which made it very slow.
 
nilepez said:
I agree that foxit had problems 2-3 years ago. I still used it, but I kept Adobe installed for documents that didn't display correctly.

I haven't had that problem in well over a year. It's worth giving it a try. I can load bring up a document in 3 seconds (including starting Foxit). If adobe has cleaned up that much, then maybe it's worth trying it again, but last time I used it, it was a huge program (at least 10x the size of foxit), which made it very slow.
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Adobe 9 is speedier than 7 or 8, but there's no question that Foxit is quicker to open PDFs...especially the first time. I also like the minimalist interface, and haven't noticed any rendering problems. The fact that it's a tiny, portable app is a plus too.

But Adobe 9 is a welcome change from previous versions, for sure.
 
I may try Foxit again.

Does the free reader version support highlighting and/or bookmarking certain pages?
 
ZzBloopzZ said:
I may try Foxit again.

Does the free reader version support highlighting and/or bookmarking certain pages?
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Not sure, though you can get some extra features if you install an ask.com firefox plug in (which you can simply disable after it's installed).

I installed it once, but I'm not sure if that was on this build or not.
 
My two cents... I also hate Foxit. The annoying ad/buyme crap gets annoying after using it for one day.
And of course this is personal preference, but the GUI just sucks.

That said, I have Acrobat Pro I have that open everything. With Windows 7, Superfetch takes any extra slowness out of launching it.

For computers at the office: I still use Acrobat Reader. Yea, it might be a bit too big of a download, but it seems Adobe has resolved most of the sluggishness. That and it's not annoying with updates, ads, and asking me to buy the Pro version. Updates stay in the taskbar out of the way.


Torquemada XP said:
Seems that in your world, up is down, black is white!
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You've got this all wrong, up is white, black is down! (I love Family Guy)
 
TechieSooner said:
My two cents... I also hate Foxit. The annoying ad/buyme crap gets annoying after using it for one day.
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Huh? I've can't remember the last time foxit asked me to buy the pro version. I just opened up a handful of PDFs, and there's no indication that there is a pro version on the screen or upon start up. It does let me know when security updates are available, but it's not meaningfully different from the way Adobe worked when I last used it (about 2-2.5 years ago).

And of course this is personal preference, but the GUI just sucks.
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I've never used Foxit Pro, so I'll take your word for it. If I needed a PDF editor, Acrobat would certainly be on my shortlist. I'd probably look at Foxit Pro, since I like the reader, but I'm sure that you get more functionality from Adobe. Presumably they have a better UI as well, never mind tight integration with all of their other tools.
 
nilepez said:
Huh? I've can't remember the last time foxit asked me to buy the pro version. I just opened up a handful of PDFs, and there's no indication that there is a pro version on the screen or upon start up. It does let me know when security updates are available, but it's not meaningfully different from the way Adobe worked when I last used it (about 2-2.5 years ago).
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That's when it bugs you about it... Instead of showing you just the update- it'll show you all the stuff you "should" be using.

nilepez said:
I've never used Foxit Pro, so I'll take your word for it. If I needed a PDF editor, Acrobat would certainly be on my shortlist. I'd probably look at Foxit Pro, since I like the reader, but I'm sure that you get more functionality from Adobe. Presumably they have a better UI as well, never mind tight integration with all of their other tools.
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I've never used Foxit Pro... I have Acrobat Pro.
 
TechieSooner said:
That's when it bugs you about it... Instead of showing you just the update- it'll show you all the stuff you "should" be using.


I've never used Foxit Pro... I have Acrobat Pro.
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I guess that doesn't bug me, because Adobe's reader always asked me to install stuff I had no interest in. Just like with the reader, i select the update and move along. To me that's not a nagging issue. If it popped up every time I ran the program, then I'd get annoyed.
 
nilepez said:
I guess that doesn't bug me, because Adobe's reader always asked me to install stuff I had no interest in. Just like with the reader, i select the update and move along. To me that's not a nagging issue. If it popped up every time I ran the program, then I'd get annoyed.
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Like what? Adobe reader never did that, the Adobe Updater selects everything you have installed and updates it. Pretty simple. Whereas the Foxit stuff would pop up even if there wasn't an actual update to the product that was installed.
 
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