Hi Henning, all,
On Sun, 13 Oct 2019 04:43:14 -0600, Henning Hraban Ramm
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.
On Windows: For a ConTeXt workflow, sumatrapdf, for all the reasons mentioned by Hans and others. Works well with SyncTeX and Notepad++. As a commercial replacement to Adobe Acroboat, nothing beats NitroPDF. Clean interface. Avoids most if not all of the problems mentioned by Hans. University machine has Acrobat, so for pdf manipulation beyond the capabilities of sumatrapdf: mostly Acrobat at school and NitroPDF at home. Best wishes Idris -- Idris Samawi Hamid, Professor Department of Philosophy Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80512