Sumatra PDF Reader 3.5 launches with Dark Mode support and ARM builds
Sumatra is an open source PDF reader for Microsoft Windows devices that offers great PDF reading capabilities despites its small size. Sumatra PDF Reader 3.5 is the latest version and the first public release of Sumatra since June 2022.
As such, it is a big update that introduces new features and improvements. New and existing users of Sumatra may download the new release from the official website. It is available as an installer and portable version. New is support for ARM 64-bit builds, which users may now also download from the project website.
Existing users may also select Menu > Help > Check for updates to run a check for updates from within the client.
Sumatra PDF Reader 3.5
One of the new features of Sumatra 3.5 is support for a dark mode interface. There are actually two dark mode options, called dark and darker, which you may enable under Menu > Settings > Theme. A tap on the key i on the keyboard inverts the colors to match the background and text color of the rendered PDF document.
The developer notes that it does not work well for images. Pure text PDFs on the other hand benefit from this, as the background and font colors are manipulated to improve the reading experience.
The official changelog lists several other improvements in the new PDF reader version. Notable is support for Adobe Reader's syntax for opening files, image orientation support using EXIF metadata in JPEG and PNG images, and support for opening .AVIF images. The latter works individually but also for embedded images in CNZ or CBR files.
PDF documents may now be dragged to a location outside of the original Sumatra instance to create a new window and tabs support context menus now. There is also a new handy mouse shortcut to exist full screen and presentation modes. All that it takes is to double-click the left mouse button to do so.
Annotations have three new display options in the settings, which are still mostly handled via a plain text file.
Closing Words
Sumatra PDF Reader is a fast and easy to use PDF Reader. The release 3.5 has not changed the fact, which all users will welcome. Support for dark mode is the main new feature, with ARM 64-bit support the second in this release.
Sumatra is an ideal application for reading PDF documents in a save environment.
The dark color isn’t a particularly pure grey tone, and a quick check with a color picker on the attached picture in this article reveals the RGB values 38, 50, 56 which is quite a green-bluish aqua color.
Somebody suggested Foxit reader which in my experience from the past is pretty good, but downloading the latest file reveals it’s pretty hefty 114MB, I am still running a much older version from around 2010 which is around 6-10MB, and still very useful.
Can’t remember if it was version around some of the last v4 or early v5 that were still without ad or telemetry as I am not using Win anymore.
Older version are available on Oldversion com.
rip all the people forced to deal with the garbage pdf format…
FoxIt, which is fine; however, there is an annoying “ad” that never disappears in the upper right-hand corner. Typically, it’s so subtle I don’t notice it; on some days it’s simply too much. Copy/paste, highlight, highlight and search Internet, when closing saves all highlights and where I left off. Convenient, but maybe Sumatra is better. Don’t know.
Still using v3.2… the last Sumatra before they removed “Debug – Toggle eBook UI” which meant I could no longer copy/paste text. Can’t see any reason to ever upgrade; it just works.
I’ve been using Sumatra pdf for years in Linux w/ no menu, no bookmarks, no title bar, no toolbar, just a pdf file in plain view. So whether dark mode or light mode it looks exactly the same to me.
Since my laptop is not noticeably constrained for resources, I have been using the free Foxit Reader for years. You do have to make sure you only download free code, which is all I ever needed.
Great application! No, fast, no bloatware and portable. Now even better with ARM builds.
the function of creating PDF icon previews is (almost) unique
Been using this a few years now, ever since Adobe went to the greed side.
Not as feature packed but it’s small and simple and lets you read pdfs.
It does not try to sell you stuff or get online like the former.