On Sun, Oct 13, 2019 at 12:43:14PM +0200, Henning Hraban Ramm wrote:
Hi, I’d like to update my list of (usable!) PDF viewers. Which one do you use? (Current version?) What are its pros and cons? Is it free (open source, freeware)? Does it work on Win/Lin/Mac? Does it have a localized interface? (I don’t care, but I work with people who don’t understand a lot of English.) Can it handle comments, attachments? Can it handle forms with or without JavaScript? Does it support SyncTeX? (Who uses that anyway?) Does it update changed PDFs on its own (or does it even block overwriting)? Which other features are essential for your choice?
E.g. I’m working with: - Preview.app (Mac) Default on MacOS, fast & easy. No JS, bad forms support, updates "sometimes". Usable as a previewer, not as a PDF toolbox. - Adobe Reader DC (Mac) I use it only to check forms or as reference. Unusable GUI. - Acrobat Pro 9 (Mac) Was my workhorse, but works on MacOS Mojave only partly; slow & crash-prone; no updates. Can check PDF/X<4 and convert colors. - PDF Studio Pro (on Mac & Linux) Bought to replace AcroPro9; JS support broken; slow startup; no updates. Can check PDF/X, A, UA and convert colors. Ok with forms, but doesn’t support LiveCycle forms (deprecated, but used by German boards). - Qpdfview (Linux) Fast and easy; reliably updates. - PDF.js (Browser or Atom) Is said to do SyncTeX (never tried). Easy, but slow. Updates.
Curious: Hraban
Hello Hraban, I'm working with only 2 pdf-viewers, "okular" and "xpdf". My main-viewer is "okular", but at the moment it doesn't work with my context-pdfs, I don't know why, but I don't care. Then it's good to have "xpdf" which is simpler than "okular" but works especially in this case. And before sending pdf-data to a printing-house I use "qpdf" not to view, but to transform my pdf files as rotate them to get them binded at a book side not offered by printers. All 3 programs are open source on Linux and because I'm updating regularly my OS, those programs are regularly updated too. JS? Form support? PDF/X/A/UA? Convert colors? SyncTex? Handle comments? I'm not using any of these. To some of them I can't say anything, because I dont't even know, what they are good for. So, I'm sorry not to be able to say more to those possible properties of my used programs: "okular": version: 1.6.3 Manual in German "xpdf": version: 3.04 Manual in English "qpdf": version: 8.4.0 Manual in English Best wishes, Rudolf