Adobe Acrobat Reader Could Stand To Shed A Few Pounds

By Author: Gregg Housh
Total Articles: 18
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When you are the standard, it is common to become comfortable, the popularity of your product trumping the need to introduce changes that are more than just negligible. However, popularity is frequently the result of the familiarity of your product taking priority over its reliability. In each industry, consumers exhibit their tendency to stay with the standard out of habit, ignoring glaring flaws that become acceptable in the face of the unknown.

One such example is Acrobat Reader, the de facto application used to read .PDF files. PDF ( Portable Document Format ) is the file format created by Adobe Systems for the exchange of documents. Independent of the common variables that are attendant to the compatibility of a file format ( software, hardware, and operating system ), PDF files are self-contained documents of a two-dimensional nature. Until just recently, Acrobat Reader - also made by Adobe Systems - was the the sole application that one could use to view a PDF file. Slightly over a year ago, Adobe released the format as an open format, giving the chance to read the file with alternative solutions.

Acrobat ...
... Reader, like all favored applications that suffer from the aforementioned complacency, saw its evolution stunted by a lack of attention given to performance. Though essentially used for just viewing files, its bloat is obvious, the application consuming approximately 30MB of space. While Acrobat Reader has features that still haven't been adopted by competing software, there are a number of possible choices that offer its core functionality without the surplus baggage.

One choice is Evince. Evince is outstanding for its simplicity, its name accompanied by a tagline that reads, "Simply a document viewer." Thats exactly what Evince is, its modest interface underscored by the speed that you'd naturally associate with what is nothing more than a document viewer. A neat addition to Evince is its "Presentation Mode," which handles a PDF as if it is a slideshow. In this mode, each page is treated as a slide. Originally written to be used with Linux, there is a Windows version that offers the same features.

Another great alternative is SumatraPDF. For people that simply want to view and print PDF files, SumatraPDF does so without any of the lag one notices when using Acrobat Reader. While plain in appearance, not unlike Evince, its functionality is easy to glean from the easily navigable interface. With just a few buttons, you can take advantage of this specific tool for the functions that are most used by those viewing a PDF : open, page-jump, search. Though its functionality is restricted to just the core tasks we associate with Acrobat Reader, it moves at an impressive speed, with a minimalistic design that spares you the needless trimmings.

Lastly, there's Foxit Reader, an alternative that offers comparable features without the excesses of Acrobat Reader. Free and available for Windows, Foxit Reader is regarded by many to be the most gratifying choice for those who have sought a usable substitute for Acrobat Reader. One reason for its popularity is the impressive feature set : e-mail the PDF while viewing it, highlight part of the screen and save it as an image, and convert the PDF to text. Those features come with the free version, without any mention of what's included should you buy the Foxit Reader Pro Pack. The main feature of the Pro Pack is the power to edit your PDF files.

In the case of Acrobat Reader, this is but one of many instances where you will find that the most popular software isn't always the optimum solution. Acrobat Reader is certainly no slouch, coming from the company that created the PDF format, but there's no argument that it can stand to dump a lot of the weight that slows the current version down. Until that is done, the alternatives mentioned above should be more than sufficient to satisfy your wants where viewing PDF files are concerned.

Software like Adobe Acrobat Reader are but one of many areas of concern when thinking about your computer's performance. There are many more applications and settings that can be optimized. If you ever feel overwhelmed by all of this contact a professional computer repair technician. If you've got a slow computer Geek Choice can help you properly configure it for the best possible performance. You can pick up the phone at any time and call us at 1-800-GEEK HELP (433-5435).
Gregg Housh is Technician Manager at Geek Choice. At Geek Choice we solve computer problems such as: Slow computer, Virus Removal, Spyware Removal, Computer startup problems, Scanner not working, Printer not printing, the "blue screen of death" or not connecting to the Internet.