gHacks technology news » foxit reader http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:11:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Fastest PDF File Viewer http://www.ghacks.net/2009/09/20/fastest-pdf-file-viewer/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/09/20/fastest-pdf-file-viewer/#comments Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:12:06 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=16509 adobe pdfAdobe PDF is not the fastest pdf reader that is available these days even with programs like Adobe Reader Speedup which remove some of the unneeded features. There are quite a few popular alternatives like Foxit PDF Reader which provide a similar functionality but offer faster startup and loading times.

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.

pdf file viewer

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.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/09/20/fastest-pdf-file-viewer/feed/ 14 Adobe Reader 9.1 Lite http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/03/adobe-reader-91-lite/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/03/adobe-reader-91-lite/#comments Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:58:17 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/03/adobe-reader-91-lite/ Software programs usually grow with every release. Some of the remarkable products that made it from a tiny resource friendly application are Nero Burning Rom and Adobe Reader. Users who are fed up with those overweight programs usually flock to third party applications that provide a balance between resource usage and functionality. An alternatives for Adobe Reader is for example the popular pdf reader Foxit Reader.

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 lite

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.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/03/adobe-reader-91-lite/feed/ 4 Adobe Reader 9 Lite http://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/08/adobe-reader-9-lite/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/08/adobe-reader-9-lite/#comments Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:16:10 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=5213 Adobe just released a new version of the Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat. Mostly with features that end users like you and me will never use. Or does any of you really need Improved CAD and geospatial functionality, Native Adobe Flash® support or PDF Portfolios. The new version does load faster than the previous one but the loading time pales in comparison to third party alternatives like Foxit Reader, Sumatra or even Adobe Reader 9 Lite.

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.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/08/adobe-reader-9-lite/feed/ 2 Foxit Reader 2.3 http://www.ghacks.net/2008/04/26/foxit-reader-23/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/04/26/foxit-reader-23/#comments Sat, 26 Apr 2008 07:54:48 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=3921 Foxit Reader 2.3 supports tabs, that was the headline on many blogs that I read regularly, for instance at Cybernet News and Download Squad. My first thought was that surely no one but die hard pdf users would need tabs in a pdf reader. I don’t need tabs, I need a fast tool that displays the pdf document correctly. I rarely open more than one pdf document in a day, maybe that’s why it is so hard for me to find this new feature useful.

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.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/04/26/foxit-reader-23/feed/ 7 Foxit Reader 2.0 a lightweight PDF Reader http://www.ghacks.net/2006/07/17/foxit-reader-20-a-lightweight-pdf-reader/ http://www.ghacks.net/2006/07/17/foxit-reader-20-a-lightweight-pdf-reader/#comments Mon, 17 Jul 2006 15:30:12 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2006/07/17/foxit-reader-20-a-lightweight-pdf-reader/ If you are looking for a fast lightweight alternative to Adobes heavyweight pdf reader you might want to try foxit reader. A new version of foxit reader has been released a month ago and I decided to give it a try. Mainly because of the positive comments about it whenever I wrote an article about the Adobe Reader. So, why would someone want to use foxit reader 2.0 instead of the “official” pdf reader by Adobe ?

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.

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