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Quality Comparison: 8 x freeware PDF Readers / Viewers

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KenR:
Just out of curiosity, are any of these programs better than Acrobat? I have Acrobat v7 Standard, which I got with a scanner. Is there any reason I would WANT to use anything else to work with my PDF files?

Thanks, Ken
-KenR (June 22, 2007, 05:06 PM)
--- End quote ---
Ken,

Scansoft's PDF Converter Pro (Current version is 4, though I have version 3) is very good working with PDF files, when it works.  But it is pretty buggy IMO. Actually quite a few users are having ... $300 is too much for me to pay for occasional home use only, so I sought less expensive alternatives.
-J-Mac (June 22, 2007, 11:09 PM)
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J-Mac,
Thanks very much for the response. Certainly if I had needed to create PDFs before I got the scanner, I would have bought an alternative too. It's amazing to me they sell any copies at the price they charge.

Ken

Darwin:
Scansoft's PDF Converter Pro (Current version is 4, though I have version 3) is very good working with PDF files, when it works.  But it is pretty buggy IMO.
--- End quote ---

I upgraded to version 4 (of PDF Converter Pro) and it is a quantum leap over version 3 in terms of speed and stability. I find it very useful.

SKA:
Darwin

Can PdfConverter Pro 4 edit pdfs ? Which do you think best for editing pdfs (that dont have any password etc)-apart from Adobe Acrobat 8.1 Pro? Which is next best ?

My main needs are: to extract /cut pages from multipage pdfs/ amend text in same or similar fonts eg price quotes etc. /and possibly convert the pdf into MSWord/rtf docs ?
Grateful for any tips/links - thanks !

SKA

Darwin:
Hi SKA,

PDFConverter Pro 4 can certainly edit pdfs that are not password protected... as for which alternative to Adobe is best, I couldn't say, really only having used Adobe (5 and 7) and PDF Converter (3 and 4). The Fineprint PDF editor gets a lot of good press as do offerings from Nitro and Jaws. There are others, but I can't think of them off the top of my head!

Your other option would be to get a good OCR utility to allow you to edit in a word processor and then resave as pdf. I've used OmniPage, ReadIris and Abbyy and they all work great. Currently I have Omnipage Pro 15 installed but also have a licence for ReadIris Pro 11. There are subtle differences between the two of them (and Abbyy 8) and I usually find that I miss features of the other two when I am working in whatever I happening to be working with - I have OmniPage 15 installed at the moment because I also have PaperPort 11 Pro and PDF Converter Pro 4 installed. These are all Scansoft/Nuance products and are designed to work together...

OK. Enough out of me - I'm just rambling. Check out Zaine's excellent Great Software List for other perspectives/ideas. NOTE: you may be able to come up with freeware alternatives.

Good luck!

tomos:
quick post
re viewers again:

tried to dl Adobe Reader today & it did it's damndest to include "Photoshop Album"
Then it would [NOT!] allow me to save it - wanted to install straight away (in FF anyway)

So I tried out the PDFXChange Viewer - it does look great, great image quality.
I miss though zoom keyboard/mouse options (Ctrl+scroll, crtl+/-Alt+Spacebar + mouse drag)
Once you get used to them it's a real pain to use toolbars/menus
Unfortunately  PDFXChange doesnt have hardly any shortcuts... but I'll definitely be keeping it

So I probably will install Acrobat Reader as well -
there used be a sort of a cleaned up version available from somewhere -
somewhere beginning with "N" ? :-\ ... (I spy with my little eye... of course it could have begun with something else)
-
Ring any bells anyone?!

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