Adobe Reader is the regular program for looking at PDF files. In fact, the PDF file format was created by Adobe. The problem with Adobe Reader is that its a large program for what it performs. It also has a high memory use, along with very sluggish start up, there’s also unnecessary and complicated features.

Luckily, alternatives exist.

Foxit PDF Reader, also a free reader, is the most long-familiar contender to Adobe Reader. Now here we have another better and lighter reader, Sumatra PDF. Another attraction is that it’s open source.

Sumatra PDF is a stripped-down application, with very few buttons, only: open, back, forward, zoom in, and zoom out. You can also choose to alter the view (zoom, page layout etc.) in the toolbar. Viewing the same document as the other two, Sumatra consumes just 7MB of memory, and opens nearly instantly.

The Sumatra PDF installation file weighs in at under 1MB, in comparison to Foxit’s under 2 MB, and Adobe Reader’s oversized 20MB.

The program takes up less than 1mb of space after its installation (only one .exe and an uninstaller). Also, registry entries are not needed, so it has portability too. Worth trying out if you are sick of waiting on Adobe Reader to finally open and like small, lightweight yet useful software.

Check it out here

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Freeware, PDF. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.