More on PDFs

PDFs

So I wanted to clarify something before adding some stuff to the PDF post. Apparantly, Adobe did develop the PDF or Portable Document Format according to Wikipedia, Portable Document Format wiki link (I know, I know a very reliable source, but it seems to give decent quick information). I guess this is the reason why the readers are free and other tools for editing are pay only.

Ah, see this excerpt from the Wikipedia post, "Anyone may create applications that can read and write PDF files without having to pay royalties to Adobe Systems; Adobe holds patents to PDF, but licenses them for royalty-free use in developing software complying with its PDF specification.[10]"

Nitro PDF Reader
Anyways, I wanted to update on the PDF post. I found another free PDF reader which gives you another choice rather than Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader. This reader is by Nitro PDF Software and can be dowloaded here: Nitro PDF Software Reader.  Here are a few screen shots.















Foxit PDF Reader
Specs for the Foxit Reader 4.0 can be seen here: Feature and Benefits. As I said before, it seems that you can comment, add textboxes, add arrows, highlight, etc. in Foxit Reader but with an watermark. However, the Features & Benefits section of their website don't seem to mention it, as in it is free without the watermark.

A pro for Foxit Reader is that is doesn't seem to be as resource intensive as Adobe Reader (same for Nitro). However, a con is that Foxit Reader is only available for Windows which is a no-no for us non-Windows users (more that later, I am transitioning from Windows 7 to Ubuntu!).

Here is a link to a comparison sheet for Foxit's software packages. Here are some screenshot images from Foxit's site.  I will share some of mine with the comments and whatnot when I get back to Windows.

All in all I think Foxit Reader is a GREAT alternative for viewing PDFs with slight editing features for Windows users, and I would recommend using it over Adobe for its lower resource usage and the fact that it gives you some freedom from having to use mainstream software.

Ok, I take back that Foxit doesn't work on Linux. It does, I forgot I just installed it on my Ubuntu partition. The version is low, 1.1, so I think they just released it. Anyways, points for Foxit, hooray! Ah, it's Nitro that doesn't have a Linux version yet, :/.

Big minus for Foxit on Linux that I just found out. Unfortunately, the Linux version just did come out, and they don't have the editing tools that are available on the web version. Booo, I must find something else!


Nitro PDF Reader (more)
Nitro PDF Reader, IMO, looks better aesthetically than Foxit, but like I said there is no software basis reason, just a personal eye catching choice. However, it does not support a version for Linux yet. Although, you can use it in Firefox as a plugin (addin whatever) to view PDF's outside the browser using your pdf reader/viewer of choice or in the browser by PDF Download created by Nitro PDF Software (this is their website www.pdfdownload.org) on a Linux OS. I know weird, I don't totally understand it, but it works.

Screenshot of Firefox and Nitro in action together: