Foxit Reader will check for updates by querying a company server. All available updates are then displayed with options to add them to the update process. Users need to make sure to add at least the Foxit Reader 5.0.1.0523 Upgrade to the list of selected updates.

Manual update checks will pick up the new version of Foxit Reader eventually but this may take up to a week as Foxit Reader will only perform update checks once a week by default.

The Press Release lists the improvements of the new release.

Security. Version 5.0 is equipped to open documents created by Foxit’s PhantomPDF™ and protected by Microsoft’s Active Directory® Rights Management Service (AD RMS). This feature improves information security and helps companies meet compliance requirements.

XFA Form Filling. XFA form filling allows users to fill in and complete existing XFA forms electronically.

Productivity Features. Reader 5.0 provides users with productivity enhancements, including previews of PDF attachments in Microsoft Outlook and thumbnails of PDF files in Internet Explorer®. The Fit Visible feature fits the contents of a PDF page to the width of the user’s screen. The Split View capability divides the document pane into two or four panes to make content more easily accessible.

Enhanced User Interface. Version 5.0 incorporates the ribbon user interface technology to make finding menu items quick and easy. Users can choose the newer ribbon mode or the traditional, familiar pull-down menus of previous releases.

Enhanced Customization. With Reader 5.0 users can customize their own shortcut keys and can use skins to customize the look of the reader. Users can also use a new advanced-search tool to easily find bookmarks and commented text.

Foxit Reader 5 appears to cater to two groups of users. First to corporate users with the new security features, and then to users who want more customization and productivity options in the pdf reader.

The interface design has changed noticeably.

Interested users can download the Foxit Reader 5 release from the official homepage.

Update:

Foxit Reader 5 will install a toolbar called Foxit Creator Toolbar with no option to disable the feature during installation. You need to go to the control panel and uninstall the Creator Toolbar there to get rid of it. The new release takes up more than twice the amount of space than version 4 of the reader.

Update 2:

You actually have to select decline during installation after you have unselected the toolbar to not install it. If you unselect and click on Accept it will be installed nevertheless.

You can initiate a standard search by pressing Ctrl-f, or
selecting the Edit > Search option from the menu. Advanced Search on the other hand is triggered with the shortcut Shift-Ctrl-f or via the Edit > Advanced Search menu.

Adobe Reader is not the only pdf reader that can find text in multiple pdf documents. Foxit Reader, a free pdf reading alternative, offers similar options. Foxit Reader users can use the shortcut Ctrl-Shift-f or select Tools > Search to open the search form of the program in a sidebar.

Adobe Reader opens the advanced search options in a new window. Here it is possible to switch from searching the current document to searching all pdfs in a folder on the hard drive. The folder is freely selectable, with My Documents being suggested by default.

A word or phrase needs to be entered into the search configuration form window. Expert users click on the Show More Options link at the bottom to display additional search filters and options.

Here it is then possible to include comments, attachments and bookmarks in the search, or search for whole words or case sensitive words only.

The more options page can be used to add additional search criteria, for instance to only search documents that have been created before or after a certain date, that have been written by a specific author or that contain object data or images.

It may take a while to scan the contents of all pdf documents that match the criteria. Adobe Reader displays the results in the same window. Results are sorted by document, and every instance of the word or phrase is shown on a separate line. A click on a line opens the containing page in the main Adobe Reader window.

Foxit Reader’s multi-pdf search options are limited in comparison. Here it is only possible to enter a search word or phrase, a directory that contains the pdf documents and a whole word and case sensitive filter.

Search results are displayed in a sidebar in the application window, a click puts the focus on the containing page. The search terms are highlighted by both applications on the pdf page.

Both programs are capable of finding text in multiple pdf documents. Users who need the additional filtering options find Adobe Reader’s pdf search more suitable as it offers more advanced options.

Are you using a different program or service to search for contents in multiple pdf documents? Let me know in the comments.

This guide looks at three tools for the job. The desktop applications Foxit Reader and Adobe Reader as well as the online service PDF Escape. Both the online service and the desktop applications have their distinct advantages, and disadvantages.

Foxit Reader

Foxit Reader is a free fast pdf reader for Windows that offers several extras over the more common Adobe Reader. The free software is faster than Adobe Reader in all regards, which is most noticeable when pdf documents are opened on the computer.

Windows users who want to edit documents need to load them into Foxit Reader to edit the document forms. This is done with a simple click on the form field and the use of the keyboard.

Documents that have been filled out can be saved to the local computer system or send directly to the printer or an email recipient. This is all done via the File menu in the menu bar of the application.

Windows users can download the latest version of Foxit Reader from the official program website. The pdf reader is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

PDF Escape

PDF Escape is a free online service that offers pdf form filling. Users can upload individual pdf documents that are then parsed and displayed on the service’s website. The online tool scans the document for form fields to highlight them automatically when the individual page is loaded.

A click on a form field activates it so that it can be filled out. Once activated it is possible to flip through all fields with the tab key which speeds up the processing noticeably.

A click on Save and Download PDF generated the filled out pdf document and opens the save file as dialog window to save it on the local PC. It is alternatively possible to send the document straight to the printer.

The online service does not require registration, but registered users do get extra features like options to save files online.

Adobe Reader

How do both programs compare to Adobe Reader, the most popular pdf reader? Adobe has improved the performance, especially the time it takes to open a pdf document. The program does not come near the opening speed of Foxit Reader, at least not without tweaks (see Adobe Reader Speed Up for a tweaking tool)

Adobe Reader comes with capabilities to fill out pdf forms, just like Foxit Reader or the online service PDF Escape. PDF documents that have been filled out can be saved or attached to email.

Adobe Reader users do not necessarily have to install Foxit Reader to fill out pdf forms. Foxit Reader on the other hand offers a better pdf loading performance which might make a difference if documents are filled out on a regular basis. The smaller program size is another advantage of Foxit Reader.

The online service attracts a different audience. It is for instance the perfect solution when you work on a computer without pdf reader, or a pdf reader that does not offer form editing and saving.

Which tool or service are you using to fill out pdf documents?

Still, it is a valid question. Do pdf readers render pdf documents differently, and if that’s the case, which one is the best of the pack?

Some rules had to be established for this test; All pdf readers should display the same page of the same pdf document in 100% and 200% view as well as a sample paragraph in 100%. Screenshot quality had to be the same to make it easier for anyone to spot possible quality differences in the text rendering engine.

I have also decided to only add free pdf viewers to the list.

List of pdf readers:

• Adobe Reader 9.3.3
• Foxit Reader 4.0
• Nitro PDF Reader 1.1.1.13
• Sumatra PDF 1.1
• PDF-XChange Viewer
• STDU Viewer
• Nuance PDF Reader
• Evince

Test System:

• Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
• 8GB computer memory
• Intel Core i7 860
• HP w2408h widescreen monitor, 1920×1200 resolution
• Ati Radeon 4870, latest Catalyst drivers
• Test Pdf

The screenshots:

Thumbnails are displayed due to size limitations, click on a thumbnail to view the full sized image.

Samples

pdf reader quality samples

The first batch of samples shows that pdf readers display the same text in a different font sizes. Adobe Reader uses the largest font sizes while STDU Viewer the smallest, which offers a barely readable rendering of the text in that size. Quality obviously depends on a few factors that might differ from system to system.

What’s your favorite pdf reader? Let us know in the comments.

The 100% sample screenshot comparison

pdf reader quality

Now the 200% samples of the eight pdf readers

pdf reader quality 200

As you can see, rendering quality differs highly depending on which pdf reader has been used to display the pdf document. Adobe Reader followed by Sumatra provide a very good rendering quality. The pdf rendering quality obviously depends on a few factors that are influenced by computer hardware.

I would still recommend either Adobe Reader or Sumatra as they seem to provide the best rendering quality of all tested pdf readers. Sumatra especially for users who do not want anything to do with Adobe Reader.

The custom installation of Foxit Reader 4 provides options to decline the installation of the Ask Toolbar and the eBay desktop shortcut.

The process however is a little bit deceptive as Lee over at the Download Squad points out.

Take a good look at the Foxit Search Bar installation window.

foxit reader ask toolbar

It is packed with text, two checkboxes and three buttons at the bottom. Users who do not want the Ask Toolbar to be installed can click on Decline to continue the installation. Users who do not read the wording on that page carefully might assume that unchecking the checkboxes is all it takes to avoid installing the toolbar on the system.

If they do that and click I accept they install the toolbar anyway. The checkboxes are only there to make Ask the default search provider and the homepage.

If you do not hit Decline you end up with the toolbar. Some users might say that this is pretty deceptive, especially with all the text displayed in that window. Users who do not read the text carefully end up with the Ask Toolbar installed.

If you have already installed Foxit Reader 4 and are wondering why you now have the Foxit Toolbar installed, this is why.

The Foxit Toolbar can be uninstalled in the Windows Control Panel without affecting Foxit Reader itself.

foxit toolbar

As an interesting side note; The msi installer that is offered next to the exe installer on the Foxit website does not contain the toolbar. It is a general observation that msi installers should be preferred especially when installing software from companies with a track record of adding stuff to the installation that most users do not need or use.

The developers of Foxit Reader have just released version 4.0 of their pdf reader. Foxit Reader 4.0 now includes additional free features such as document collaboration, commenting tools, spell checking, multi-level security and multimedia support.

In the past, premium PDF features such as these have been associated with a premium price tag. Today, Foxit is offering its powerful PDF technology platform, complete with premium features that go beyond the basic reading of PDF documents, as an upgrade at no cost. Built on Foxit’s trusted PDF technology platform, Foxit Reader 4.0 has an easy-to-use navigation system that promises users rapid downloading of PDF documents, reliable viewing and printing options, a tiny desktop footprint, single or multiple document interface modes and rapid response security releases. Now, even more users may take advantage of the Foxit Reader’s powerful framework to implement PDF solutions to reach their business goals.

foxit trust manager

One of the recent additions is the Trust Manager, which protects the user from potentially dangerous actions and data transmissions. This feature has now been added to the installation process. The actual feature was already part of previous Foxit Reader versions.

It is recommended to select the custom install option to prevent the installation of the Ask Toolbar and eBay shortcuts.

Features that have been added or enhanced in Foxit Reader 4.0 are:

• Easy-to-use review and commenting tools – Add comments or suggestions using notes. Highlight, underline, or use one of many other tools to bring attention to specific text. Easily correct mistakes by cancelling the last action with Redo & Undo feature.
• New editing tools include Typewriter, Callout, Textbox, and Measure tools – Add your comments on your PDF document. Use Typewriter Tool to fill forms. Create comments in a callout text box. Measure distances and areas of objects in PDF documents.
• Free spell checker for comments – Find any spelling errors and highlight them with squiggly lines.
• Multimedia Support: Add Images, Movies, Links and file attachments to any PDF document – Add /Edit /Play multimedia in PDF files – Add an image to a PDF; adjust its size, and position, change the appearance, etc… Attach PDF files and other types of files to a PDF document.
• Text Viewer & Text Converter – View the whole text content of a PDF file. Convert a whole PDF document into a simple text file
• Add/Edit/Modify Bookmarks – Easily modify the bookmarks in a PDF file.
• Safe Mode Settings in Installation – Set Safe Mode settings during initial installation. Streamline the workflow by setting the option of Safe Reading Mode. Enhanced secure user experience. Enhance protection when receiving a PDF file.

The good news is that the new features do not slow down the pdf reader. It opens pdf as fast as in previous versions. Especially users who do not use a pdf reader just for reading documents will benefit from these new additions.

Foxit Reader 4.0 is available for download at the Foxit website.

Third party pdf readers on the other hand often lack advanced features that only Adobe Reader offers.

Popular third party readers are Foxit Reader or Sumatra. Nitro PDF Reader, which was released recently as a beta version, is a likely candidate to be added to that list as well.

Nitro PDF Reader is a free pdf reader for Windows that comes with all the traits one would expect from a pdf reader. It starts up considerably faster than Adobe Reader making it ideal for users who want to quickly view a pdf document.

That alone would probably convince only a few users to give the program a try. The options in the program, especially the editing and saving options, might however make a difference.

Some of the features offered by Nitro PDF Reader:

• Selecting Text and graphics
• Highlighting, underlining or crossing out text
• Typing text in the document
• Adding notes
• Adding a stamp signature
• Extracting Text
• Extracting Images
• Creating pdf documents from lots of different file formats including Microsoft Office formats
• Different view modes, rotation and zooming

The interface of Nitro PDF Readers will instantly look and feel familiar to Microsoft Office users. All options are located in the header from where they can be accessed easily.

Edited and created pdf documents can be saved as pdf files that are fully compatible with other pdf readers.

Nitro PDF Reader is available as a beta version for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The pdf reader is an excellent alternative to Foxit Reader.

If speed is the main issue the relatively new pdf file viewer MuPDF could be an option. MuPDF is a bare-bones pdf file viewer with a low memory footprint and the fastest pdf loading times that we have experienced until now. The pdf reader is a portable Open-Source cross-platform program for Windows, Linux and Mac OS operating systems.

Users can either execute the program which will open a small file browser to pick a PDF document or link the pdf file extension to the program so that it will be automatically the viewer of choice for pdf files.

MuPDF is perfect for users who want a portable resource friendly pdf reader. It comes with a few keyboard shortcuts to navigate documents more easily but lacks the functionality of Foxit Reader or Adobe Reader.

• L, R Rotate page in 90° increments
• +, – Zoom in and out
• W Shrink wrap window
• N, space Next page
• B, backspace Previous page
• Shift-N Skip 10 pages forward
• Shift-B Skip 10 pages backward
• M Mark page for snap back
• T Pop back to last mark
• 123G Go to page

Not everyone needs advanced functionality but some users might miss options to copy text, search for text or print a selection of the pdf file. MuPDF on the other hand is probably the best solution for users who want to view – and only view – pdf files on their computer system without having to download and install a software program. A Firefox add-on is provided by the developer as well to view pdf documents on the Internet.

Another possibility are so called lite versions of software suites. Both Nero Burning Rom (Nero Lite) and Adobe Reader have been modified by developers to reduce the program’s load times and storage requirements. Adobe Reader Lite has been recently updated to version 9.1 to catch up with the official Adobe Reader 9.1 release. Several plugins and other features that are usually not needed by the majority of users have been reduced from Adobe Reader Lite to make the software program more resource friendly. The basic functionality of working with pdf files has been retained.

The result is size decrease of more than 140 Megabytes compared to the official version of Adobe Reader 9.1 which uses 204 Megabytes of storage space after installation. Downloads are available for the English and other localized editions of Adobe Reader 9.1.

Adobe Reader 9.1 Lite speeds up the startup of Adobe Reader tremendously. It is a good alternative for users who prefer to use the original products instead of third party solutions.

The creator of the Windows Vista Codec package created a lite version of Adobe Reader that got rid of most of the stuff that bloated the PDF reader but was not used by most users anyway. The lite version does not load as fast as Foxit Reader for instance but makes up for it by still being the official Adobe product, something that a few users probably prefer.

Adobe Reader 9 Lite uses roughly 6 Megabytes of memory and 18 Megabytes of Swap space when running which is extremely well for that kind of applications. I can definitely recommend using Adobe Reader 9 Lite if you have no use for most Adobe Reader features. Foxit Reader and others are still excellent alternatives that come with an even lower memory footprint and faster load times.

But tabs are fortunately not the only new feature that has been introduced in Foxit Reader 2.3. The list of new functions in comparison to older versions of Foxit Reader is indeed impressive. The good news first, Foxit Reader is still starting blazingly fast. I was a bit worried about the multimedia player that was integrated in the pdf reader, this could be the first step to a bloated player. As of know this fear is not justified.

Among the new features are a magnifier, rulers & guides, automatic scrolling, font information, select all behavior with CTRL + A, a commenting text tool, bookmark design, callout and textbox tool and the option to print only portion of a page. The search can be moved into a separate window that floats above the contents. This is extremely nice if you need more screen space for the pdf document.

Foxit Reader 2.3 is a great new version of the popular pdf reader. It adds several new functions that are an improvement and some that might be interesting to users who do work with pdf documents all day.

The most important factor for me personaly is speed. I don´t want a fancy program that does lots of useless stuff that I will never need. I want a program that loads fast, displays the pdf in an instant and does not lock my system for the time it loads. Foxit Reader 2.0 does exactly that. It displays pdf documents the way the Adobe Reader does but is faster and does not cluster your system with unnecessary registry entries, dlls and files that are loaded at system startup. Unpack it into a directory of your choice, start it from there and you are ready to go.

The Adobe Reader version that was installed on my system had a size of nearly 70 megabytes (including updates) while foxit reader only uses a little more than three and still has the same functionality. You can view and print pdf documents, edit documents that offer this option. It runs instantly without installation and is available for windows and Linux. You can install foxit reader on your system and check it out for yourself. If you think it is sufficient remove the Adobe Reader from your system to free up some disk space.