Simple pdf reader. Essential PDF Readers

22/05/2017

Cool PDF Reader is a convenient program for viewing and converting pdf files, a distinctive feature of which is its small size and abundance of functions. This program is considered one of the smallest - its size is less than one megabyte, but the program has enough functions for an ordinary user who only wants to view and convert pdf files. The program allows you to view documents in full screen mode, as well as print them in just a few clicks. In addition, you can easily change the scale of the document, or rotate it at a convenient angle. Another feature of the program is the conv ...

12/12/2016

Foxit Reader is an alternative popular package for working with pdf files. The program has a very intuitive interface, the ability to view files in several tabs, high speed and full compatibility with popular operating systems. An important factor is the presence of the Russian language in the program, which greatly facilitates the work with it. The program has the ability to view documents in full screen mode, leave comments and graphic bookmarks in the text, print documents, view files without leaving Windows Explorer and install various plugins, skins, mods ...

26/09/2016

PDF-XChange Viewer is a fast viewer of the well-known PDF format, characterized by high speed and many different functions. For example, the program allows you to easily add comments and annotations to PDF documents, as well as set a password to open these files. In addition, the program has the ability to easily scan text and images and add them directly to PDF files, which is quite convenient. Also, it is possible to import and export any file content. And it doesn't matter if it's text or pictures. You can add any images to the file, or vice versa, cut these images ...

04/05/2015

PDF Shaper is a collection of essential tools for optimal work with PDF files. The program can convert a PDF document, or several at the same time, to MS Word, or rather to RTF format. But converting documents from PDF to Word is not the only advantage of PDF Shaper, it can also extract certain elements, such as pictures, tables, etc. In addition to these functions, it can split one PDF document into several, or vice versa, combine several documents into one. At the same time, the program works with encrypted documents, and can also restrict access with a password. Very easy to use, even a beginner can help ...

28/04/2015

Recently, more and more e-books, magazines, brochures appear on the Internet, and all these files are usually in PDF or DjVu format. This program will help you to view DjVu, PDF, TIFF and similar files on Windows OS. STDU Viewer is a lightweight, simple and worthy replacement for Adobe Acrobat. The program contains all the necessary tools for reading and searching for fragments in a document. The program is available in several languages, including Russian. Among the pluses, one can note a wide range of scaling options: scale to fit the screen, scale by selection, display the entire page to full screen or only to ...

28/03/2015

PDF Architect is a simple program designed to convert a number of texts, images into a convenient PDF format. The utility allows you to read the generated documents and any files with a similar extension. For the convenience of interacting with the application, you can create a number of bookmarks with the necessary documents at once, and when you need to switch between them. PDF Architect allows you to change the scale of the document, rotate it. To create your own document with this format, you need to go through activation by email. Thanks to this feature, any user can create a PDF file from a taken image, texts or Comicbook files. The program allows ...

24/03/2015

SoftDigi PDFViewer is a small application designed specifically for viewing various files with the PDF extension. The program has an outwardly pleasant interface, allows you to combine various PDF documents into one common file. Allows you to set the minimum security parameters of the document, the necessary information about this file. The application has functions such as moving pages, deleting unnecessary pages, exporting, swapping. SoftDigi PDFViewer allows you to easily insert fragments from other files into a PDF document, as well as quickly export pages to a number of different graphic formats. Exports p ...

27/01/2015

Sumatra PDF is a completely free viewer for formats such as XPS, CBR, DJVu, CHM, CBZ and PDF. The program has a very modest interface, since the developers focused on the speed of its work and minimalism. Unlike the popular Adobe Reader, this program works an order of magnitude faster, has only a set of necessary functions and allows you to edit documents that are simultaneously open in other applications. In addition, Sumatra PDF has a special plugin that can be embedded in a number of popular browsers. This will allow the user to open files directly from the br ...

10/12/2014

Adobe Reader is one of the most popular programs for working and viewing PDF files. The PDF format is used to create a kind of e-books, but this is not limited to its capabilities. In PDF format, some kind of user manuals or training materials are often written. In the latest versions of the format, it became possible to embed Flash video into a document. The Adobe Reader program perfectly supports all these features and allows you to view all types of documents, regardless of what format modification was used when creating them. Among other things, the main package of Adobe Reader also includes ...

Adobe Reader is the most popular PDF reader application. An important factor in the distribution of Adobe Reader is its presence on many discs with drivers, games and other applications. The developer has attached PDF documentation to his product, but standard Windows tools do not allow reading it. You need to add a special program to the disk. Her choice in the overwhelming majority of cases is not original - it is Adobe Reader.

New versions of applications, the development of which began a long time ago, often acquire a mass of secondary functions, the interface becomes more complicated, and the speed of work slows down. And now more progressive and nimble competitors are slowly pushing the old man out of the market. But this has nothing to do with Adobe Reader. On the contrary, the latest versions of the program are much easier to learn than their older brothers. The program is developing, first of all, towards support of new PDF standards, allowing to display more complex documents using the latest visualization technologies.

The working window of Adobe Reader contains a toolbar with a small number of buttons (nothing superfluous), as well as a small sidebar from which the main service modes of the application are called. There is no status line in its usual sense.

Toolbars are flexibly customizable. You can add or remove buttons on them, move them, block changes.

Ease of reading documents is provided by a powerful scaling system. You can show the entire page on the screen, snap its scale horizontally or vertically. The latter option is not found in other applications. In addition, you can bind relative to the page content. The document is shown slightly larger due to the exclusion of fields.

Full screen viewing is supported. Unlike some competitors, this mode lives up to its name one hundred percent. There are no controls left on the screen, only the pages of the open document. There is also a second, less radical regime. It hides all panels, except for the window title and the main menu. Again, there is a big saving of free space on the screen.

The program has a powerful search engine. You can search for text not only in the open document, but also in all PDFs within the specified folder. Full word search is supported, case sensitive. You can search not only directly in the text of the document, but also in bookmarks and in comments.

Adobe Reader has support for working with forms. With its help, you can enter, save and send information. There is support for bar codes. You can customize the rules for automatic form filling. If you have permission, you can add comments to the forms. And, the main thing that distinguishes Adobe Reader from other applications is the ability to check spelling in text input fields.

There is support for document authentication, viewing protection. You can specify trusted persons, certificates. The Accessibility Assistant allows you to change the rules for displaying the current document, if its protection does not prohibit such actions. This is necessary, for example, for visually impaired users. Adobe Reader makes it easier for people with disabilities to view and navigate PDF documents. Advanced features include automatic text scrolling, PDF reflow, keyboard-only control, and reading document text aloud.

A separate panel allows you to view a list of document comments. You can search them for text. It is possible to sort them by type, status, reviewers. All changes made to the document are monitored by the revision inspector. You can view your own adjustments, history of changes, a list of what needs to be done.

The program contains an RSS news reader. You can subscribe to channels, read them in a separate dialog box. To be honest, it's not entirely clear why the PDF reader also needed an RSS reader. Network functions are not limited to this. You can also organize online conferences using Adobe Reader, as well as carry out joint viewing of documents.

You can work with digital signatures. For this, certificates are used. By configuring directory servers, you can determine the location of certificates, store them.

The latest version of Adobe Reader supports all modern standards used in PDF documents. For this reason, a hardware accelerated 3D viewer is included in the product. A special panel of models allows you to view their list, open, rotate, scale.

The program has a fairly detailed local help system. But the most complete information is provided online, on the official page of the application. It is already in English.

If there are no specific requirements for the application, then Adobe Reader is by far the best choice for reading PDF documents. Support for all standards allows you not to worry about whether any complex file will display correctly. In addition, the program is built into modern browsers, which makes it possible to quickly view online documents downloaded from the Web.

The only point where an alternative application can be at its best is in the system requirements. Adobe Reader has a fairly large distribution size, takes up quite a lot of RAM space, and runs a little slower than some of its competitors. However, the program was tested on a rather old machine, and even opening the electronic versions of magazines and books with a volume of tens of megabytes did not lead to noticeable slowdowns in the work of Adobe Reader.

The PDF format has become one of the most popular formats for distributing documentation, typographic layouts, and even books. This is explained by two factors. First, a PDF file, unlike a regular text file, cannot be changed by the recipient. This is important, for example, for documentation. Second, the recipient of the file can easily open it with the free and open source Adobe Reader. And at the same time, you do not need to install fonts, or adjust any spacing and indents - constant companions when you open a complex document prepared by someone in Word. Adobe's PDF viewer isn't the only tool today. We will share several products that will allow you to create or view a PDF file.

How to create PDF

All modern office suites, be it the paid Microsoft Office or the free Libre Office, support the PDF format. This is how the "Save As ..." dialog looks like in Word.

And for the rest of the programs, the applications that I will describe in this article create a virtual printer, and printing to PDF is performed as an option for normal printing. You just choose "print to PDF" instead of a physical printer. This is how such a printer looks like in Foxit Reader.

If you have a text file and you want to get a PDF from it, but you don’t want to install an office suite for this, you can do it from the online services Google Drive or Office Live. Both are free.

How to read PDF

Regular browser

Almost all modern browsers can read PDF format. Only it turns out they are still bad. Those who tried to view some really complex PDF through them will understand what I mean.

Scaling of the document is not so convenient in browsers, sometimes it leads to incorrect display of content. Plus, the navigation through the table of contents is not very convenient. The functionality for viewing PDFs ends only with the viewing function itself, which is somewhat reminiscent of the print preview mode.

Foxit Reader

Download Foxit Reader 6.1.5.0624 RUS

Foxit Reader does much better with both PDF display and functionality. It is, perhaps, the most popular after Adobe Reader, and the most convenient "reader" for PDF files. It is smaller than Adobe Reader and faster.

Foxit Reader implements a convenient fragment search that works only in those files where the manufacturer has allowed text to be left. There is also a version of a PDF file that is closed from searching and extracting text, which can only be turned into text by an automatic recognizer like FineReader.

Those who have met this program for a long time will be greatly surprised by its new appearance. Foxit Reader is very close to Microsoft Office in appearance! It is difficult to list all the operations that it allows you to do with PDF files - there are a lot of them.

You can mark chunks of text with a marker, take notes on individual words and paragraphs, write text directly over the PDF file.

Cool PDF Reader

Download Cool PDF Reader

The Foxit Reader interface may seem overly sophisticated and complex to you. Then you better pay attention to Cool PDF Reader. It is the leader in the smallest program size. Its size is a little more than one megabyte, but this does not in the least prevent this program from performing well its responsibilities for viewing PDF files and searching through text.

In addition, the program can convert PDF to a number of graphic formats (GIF, BMP, PNG, WMF, JPG, EMF, EPS) and text (TXT). Also, Cool PDF Reader can remove graphics from a PDF file for easy viewing. But this is a paid feature.

Viewing PDF in Windows 8

And finally, I'll tell you about PDF support in the Windows 8 operating system. In it, a standard application called Reader, executed in a "modern" full-screen interface, is responsible for the function of viewing files of this format.

There are no special settings, and the possibilities are minimal, although the search by fragment is implemented. At the same time, a very good and useful search results window has been made.

Hello teapots and teapots. Today we'll talk about programs with which you can open PDF files. Surely you have come across these, right? Basically, such files are encountered by people who use literature downloaded on the Internet.

So what exactly is PDF format? PDF format(eng. Portable Document Format) Is an electronic document format that uses the PostScript system. It is this format that makes it possible to provide printed products in electronic form.

As in the case with, the editors of the site use different programs for opening PDF files and, accordingly, considers their program the best, but also appreciated other existing types of programs. Let's consider them the same.

The first and possibly best program on the list is Adobe reader... This is a paid program, but you can find it already hacked on the Internet. We're going to take a look at the free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. In principle, it has all the most necessary functions. Opening files, recognizing them and converting them to Word and Excel format. It can be used both on computers and mobile devices. The interface is pretty self-explanatory. It is the leader among computer users.

Interface - 5.
Functionality - 9.
Performance - 8.
System requirements - 6.
Quality - 9.

The second program that in our opinion is a good and functional tool for PDF files is Foxit Reader... Analogue of Adobe Reader, but free, which is, in fact, its advantage. Also, the plus is that this program is loaded much faster than the "paid" analogue. But, there is one significant drawback - processed text and images are not always of high quality. And so, in terms of its functionality, it rightfully takes the second place in our rating.

Interface - 6.
Functionality - 8.
Performance - 9.
System requirements - 8.
Quality - 5.

In third place, a less functional program - STDU Viewer... In principle, it is only suitable for opening PDF files. But, unlike other programs, it also opens most other formats - PDF, DjVu, TXT, TCR, TIFF, Comic Book Archive (CBR or CBZ), XPS, JBIG2. Therefore, we give her the "bronze".

Interface - 7.
Functionality - 6.
Performance –8.
System requirements - 7.
Quality - 6.

Fourth place - Cool PDF Reader... Free, very multifunctional program. The advantages are its size (less than 1 mb) as well as converting PDF to TXT, BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, WMF, EMF, EPS files. Has over 60 languages.

Interface - 7.
Functionality - 6.
Performance -7.
System requirements - 7.
Quality - 5.

Well, this can be the end of our rating, but after consulting, we decided to add such a program to this rating as Sumatra PDF... An elementary program to open PDF files. Its plus is that it is made in the style of "minimalism". The simplest design, high-speed, but, unlike the above, is less functional.

Interface - 8.
Functionality - 4.
Performance -6.
System requirements - 7.
Quality - 5.

Sumatra PDF is a PDF viewer, and as the name of the program suggests, this program is designed to view PDF files.

Don't be fooled by the mention of the PDF format in the name of the program, the program can open in addition, quite a few other formats, in which e-books and other various documents are saved in digital form.

Typically, for most users, the program for viewing PDF files on a computer is the Adobe Reader program. But it takes up quite a lot of space on the hard disk of the computer, and uses quite a lot of system resources in its work.

Therefore, for owners of low-power computers, we can recommend using the free Sumatra PDF program on their computer.

Key features of Sumatra PDF:

• support for a large number of formats
• fast file opening
• search in an open document
• copy to clipboard (if there is a text layer)
• print support

After the update, Sumatra PDF now supports viewing new formats - "ePUB", "MOBI" and "FB2". This allows me to tell you that now this program can be used as a universal file viewer for electronic document formats. Of course, except for documents of various office formats.

Sumatra PDF software runs in Windows operating system and supports the following formats:

• PDF, DjVu, XPS, CHM, CBR, CBZ, ePUB, FB2, MOBI.

Agree that this is a very good set of formats for such a small free program. Sumatra PDF can be used on your computer as a PDF viewer, FB2 viewer, as well as a viewer for some other file formats.

The PDF format stores documents, books, instructions, magazines, etc. The advantage of this format is that a document opened in this format will display the same on any computer or device.

In the DjVu format, too, basically, exactly the same literature is saved as in the PDF format. The advantage of this format over PDF is the significantly smaller file size of this format.

Sumatra PDF can also open files saved in other formats - Comic Book Archive save formats (CBR and CBZ), Help file format (CHM), eBook save formats (ePUB, MOBI and FB2), and in some other formats.

Most of the fiction and much of the rest of the literature is now saved in ePUB formats in Europe, and in FB2 in the countries of the former USSR, where the FB2 format has become the unofficial standard for preserving such literature.

The popularity of these formats is due to the small file size compared to other formats. Therefore, such files are easier to open in devices for reading e-books (e-book readers, tablets, smartphones, etc.), and take up much less space in the place of their storage.

And now let's go directly to the overview of the Sumatra PDF program.

Sumatra PDF - Free PDF Viewer

Sumatra PDF download

From the developer's site, you can download the regular version of the program, or the portable version of the program.

Portable (portable) version of the program consists of one "exe" file, it does not require installation, does not leave entries in the registry, and can be launched from anywhere, for example, from a portable device - USB flash drive.

The program works quickly and has a simple, intuitive interface. The advantage of using this program is lower memory and system resource consumption than other similar programs, for example, Adobe Reader.

In the portable version of the program, you just need to run the file, and when installing the regular version of the program, after starting the installation file, a window for installing the program opens.

In this window, you can click on the "Install SumatraPDF" button to install the program in the default settings, or click on the "Options" button.

If you clicked on the "Options" button, a window with the installation parameters of the program will appear. The installation options are disabled by default.

By activating the corresponding items, you can use Sumatra PDF program as the default PDF viewer, as well as download plugins for viewing PDF files for major browsers (Internet Explorer browser is supported).

If the plug-in for viewing PDF files was previously installed in the browser by another similar program, then it should be removed from the browser. Then, for these purposes, you will need to use the plug-in for the Sumatra PDF program, after installing it on your computer. How to do this is described in detail on the website of the author of the program.

After clicking on the "Install SumatraPDF" button, the program is installed, and a window opens in which you need to click on the "Start SumatraPDF" button.

The program is launched and a program window in Russian opens on the "Desktop". There is a menu bar at the top of the program window. In the menu tabs, you can customize the program as you wish and control the program from there.

Menu commands are standard and intuitive, their purpose is clear to any user. The program can also be controlled using the keyboard; the list of keyboard buttons used for this can be found on the developer's website.

To change the program settings, you must enter the "Settings" => "Parameters ..." menu.

After that, the "SumatraPDF Parameters" window opens. In this window, you can change the parameters of the program.

You can click on the "Associate SumatraPDF With PDF Files" button if you have not done so before. PDF files do not need to be associated with Sumatra PDF, but simply manually open with this program. Then, if required in the future, it will be possible to change the file association to another program.

Also, in this window, you can uncheck the box next to the "Remember open files" item, because there can be a huge number of such files. But, someone, on the contrary, will need a list of previously opened files using this program.

The program, after associating with PDF files, will open such files after clicking on the corresponding PDF file.

To associate Sumatra PDF with files of other formats, you need to right-click on the file, and then select "Open with ..." in the context menu.

In the "Program selection" window, click on the "Browse ..." button. In the Explorer window, select the Sumatra PDF program, and then click on the "Open" button.

In the "Select program" window, activate the item "Use the selected program for all files of this type", and then click on the "OK" button.

Files can also be opened from the main program window by clicking on the link in the "Open Document ..." program window, as well as from the "File" => "Open ..." menu. In the Explorer window, select the desired file, and then click on the "Open" button.

In this image, a PDF book is open in Sumatra PDF.

A DjVu book is open in this image.

And in this image, a book in FB2 format is open.

Conclusions of the article

Fast and light Sumatra PDF program, a free PDF viewer that will help you open some other electronic document file formats such as DjVu and FB2. These features of the program will be in demand especially by those users who have low-power computers.

Using this program will speed up the opening of files, as well as reduce the number of programs installed for these purposes on your computer.