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Quality Comparison: 8 x freeware PDF Readers / Viewers

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urlwolf:
When you think adobe could not suck more:
"Preference "Show each document in its own window (requires restart)" no longer available in Acrobat/Reader 9.0"
So now if I want to have several pdfs open, I will waste memory and taskbar space. Go adobe. All your competitors use tabs!
And memory usage is comparable acrobat 9/pdf-Xchage (!). Both are hogs.
I actually find the rendering in pdf-Xchange better.
The only problem with pdf-Xchange is that moving around in the doc feels sluggish; you can see pages redrawing. Not in adobe. It makes a big difference (I browse, mostly).

Adobe has an option "enable 2D acceleration". If pdf-Xchange could do that too (assuming it's the explanation for the difference), it'd have found the perfect reader. They would march on!

Darwin:
The only problem with pdf-Xchange is that moving around in the doc feels sluggish; you can see pages redrawing
-urlwolf (October 26, 2008, 05:34 AM)
--- End quote ---

I have this problem with Adobe Acrobat Reader (7 through 9) as well, with 2D acceleartion enabled. Happens with larger, searchable pdf files that I have generated (or modified) from image files. For example, I get a pdf that I can't copy selected text to the clipboard from and use PDF Converter Professional 5 to convert it to a searchable pdf. Often, I can watch each individual page redraw as I scroll through it. Very annoying.

Regarding resource usage and performance, have you tried using one of the Acrobat speedup applications such as Adobe Reader Speedup? I used to run Fox-It Reader because of the drag on resources from Acrobat Reader, but discovered Adobe Reader Speedup and have never looked back...

J-Mac:
When you think adobe could not suck more:
"Preference "Show each document in its own window (requires restart)" no longer available in Acrobat/Reader 9.0"
So now if I want to have several pdfs open, I will waste memory and taskbar space. Go adobe. All your competitors use tabs!
And memory usage is comparable acrobat 9/pdf-Xchage (!). Both are hogs.
I actually find the rendering in pdf-Xchange better.
The only problem with pdf-Xchange is that moving around in the doc feels sluggish; you can see pages redrawing. Not in adobe. It makes a big difference (I browse, mostly).

Adobe has an option "enable 2D acceleration". If pdf-Xchange could do that too (assuming it's the explanation for the difference), it'd have found the perfect reader. They would march on!
-urlwolf (October 26, 2008, 05:34 AM)
--- End quote ---

I have a few earlier versions of Adobe Reader.  Not sure all of which I have, but I just looked on one backup drive and saw V. 7 and 7.09. Pretty sure I have some even older also; 4 and 5. I have 8.1 installed currently, I think, so I must have that around here also.

Let me know if you want any, though I am positive that oldversion.com and filehippo.com have older versions also.

Jim

urlwolf:
Thanks J-Mac,
I'm talking about acrobat, not reader. That's the paid version, so no luck.

And acrobat 8 is not worth paying either when pdf-Xchange does all the things I need for free (almost all: cropping needs a paid version).

I suggest getting a discount on Xchange; what do you think? advantages:

* fast
* portable, only 4Mb
* rendering quality is excellent, better than adobe's in my view. Scroll is faster and smoother with arrow keys.
* can do highlighting and notes; it has assignable shortcuts for everything. Very well done app
What do yout think? Foxit may get shortcuts one day (they are really slow implementing user requests though). The main advantage is that foxit uses less memory, but display quality is not as good.

Darwin:
Ah... hadn't realized that you were talking about the full version - sorry urlwolf!

I'd be interested in a discount on Xchange as my licence for PDF Converter Pro 5 is only good for one machine.

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