comparing different pdf readers

May 2nd, 2007 by jose

There is a nice pdf reader comparison  at donationcoder.com. Since most academics rely on pdf quite a lot, choosing the right tool may save a lot of time and frustration.

The idea here is to have a tool that opens up as fast as possible, uses as little memory as possible, and lets you move around the pdf conveniently with the best rendering quality.

Some of the tools are obscure (great finds!). Most of them are tiny compared to the standard Adobe Reader, but do suffer quality- and feature-wise.

Adobe Reader 8 has the nicest quality of text, it is beautifully crisp; but even with the speed increase of version 8, the program is still something of a monster.

Foxit is very well known as the freeware alternative, it is not the smallest application of those tested, but it does use the least memory; however, the quality of its output is by far the worst!

Adobe’s new comer Digital Edition is still in beta, and has some annoyances (no custom install, all files added to library) but it is a fraction of the size of its big brother. Sadly the render quality does suffer; though not as poor as Foxit all the other applications tested produced more legible text.

 

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3 Responses to “comparing different pdf readers”

  1. Essay EditingNo Gravatar Says:

    Have to say that I prefer to use Adobe’s professional software to be honest. Have tried some other programs such as Foxit and I just don’t think that their integration is fantastic to be honest.

    And for academics, the need to have numerous programs interlinking with one another is a must, isn’t it?

  2. Adobe Reader 8No Gravatar Says:

    Now version 9 is out but frankly speaking I don’t like it at all. The flexibility offered by version 8 is excellent and I still use the very same version. Only thing I would like to know about it is how to integrate flash videos into it.

  3. Kids wall artNo Gravatar Says:

    I still prefer the standard Adobe Reader.

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