Free PDF Readers / Viewers
Fast and versatile viewers for PDF documents
Free PDF Readers / Viewers
These free utilities allow you to read or view PDF files, that is, documents using the Portable Document Format, created using
Adobe Acrobat
or a free PDF editor, printer driver or converter.
Some of the tools provide additional facilities like the ability to annotate your PDF files (that is, add notes), convert the PDF to other formats,
use bookmarks, etc. A few of them are also portable in the sense that you can simply copy the program to a USB flash drive
and run it on other systems without having to reinstall.
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Disclaimer
The information provided on this page comes without any warranty whatsoever. Use it at your own risk. Just because a program, book, document or service is listed here or has a good review does not mean that I endorse or approve of the program or of any of its contents. All the other standard disclaimers also apply.
Free PDF Readers / Viewers
- Cool PDF Reader (Windows)
This free PDF reader claims it's the "world's smallest PDF viewer/reader" at only 650 KB in size (at the time I wrote this review). You can either get the version with the installer, or the standalone version which you can dump onto a USB flash drive for use on any computer. The reader not only allows you to view and print PDF files, it can also convert PDF files to a variety of file formats, like ASCII text, BMP, GIF, PNG, WMF, EMF, and EPS.
- PDF-Xchange Viewer (Windows)
This free PDF viewer has the usual features of being able to read PDF files using PDF format 1.0 to 1.7 (ie, created by Acrobat 8), add comments and annotations to any PDF files, add custom stamps, mark up pages with text and objects, type directly onto a PDF page (and not just in forms), export PDF files to image files (eg, BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, etc), extract text from a PDF file (note that this is not an OCR -- the text you want to extract must already be in text form in the PDF file), etc. It also has a portable version that you can use from memory sticks and CDs.
- Foxit Reader (Windows)
Foxit Reader is a free PDF reader with a fast launching speed, small size, compatibility with PDF standard 1.7 (ie, files created by Acrobat 8), the ability to annotate your PDF files using callouts and text boxes, the facility to convert your PDF files to text files, bookmarks, multi-tab support, multimedia player (both audio and video) support, magnifier, OCG support, the ability to open FDF directly, etc. It's also highly portable, and can easily be placed onto a USB flash drive or the like. This is a Windows program.
- Skim (Mac OS X)
Skim is a PDF reader and note-taker for Mac OS X. Besides viewing PDF files, you can add and edit notes, highlight important text, make snapshots for easy reference, preview the document's internal links, use bookmarks, export notes as text, give presentations (and use its built-in transitions facility), read the document full screen, etc.
- Adobe Reader (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, etc)
Adobe Reader probably needs no introduction. It was created as a companion tool to the full Adobe Acrobat
product (which allows you to create PDF files). There are versions available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX and mobile platforms. It is generally slower to start up than the other free PDF viewers listed on this page.
- Sumatra PDF: A PDF Viewer for Windows (Windows)
Sumatra is a free, open source PDF reader for Windows with a simple interface. It is designed to be portable, start fast, with no external dependencies, so that it can be easily placed on a USB drive and run from there. It is released under the GNU General Public License (an open source licence).
- Okular (Linux)
Okular is a universal document viewer for KDE that supports the viewing of PDF files, Postscript, DjVu, CHM files and file types. It supports text selection, annotations, extraction of embedded files, etc. It is based on KPDF (see elsewhere on this page).
- KPDF (Linux)
KPDF is a PDF viewer for the K Desktop Environment (KDE). You can search through your PDF files, select text, etc. If you use KDE, it is probably already included. Only the source code is available here. This editor is based on the Xpdf PDF reader listed elsewhere on this page.
- Evince: Document Viewer (Linux)
Evince is a document viewer for GNOME that allows you to read PDF, Postscript, DjVu, TIFF and DVI files. It allows you to search through the documents, has a page thumbnail feature that allows you to skip to the page you want from a thumbnail preview, has support for document indexes (indices) and the viewing of encrypted documents.
- Gpdf (Linux)
This is a PDF viewer for GNOME. If you use GNOME, it is probably already included. Only the source code is available here. The viewer is based on the Xpdf viewer found elsewhere on this page.
- Xpdf (Linux)
This is an open source PDF viewer that includes a PDF text extractor and a PDF-to-PostScript converter. It runs on the X Window system under Linux, Solaris, OS/2, VMS, DOS and Unix-type systems. The conversion and extraction tools are also available for Windows and DOS. The program is licensed under the GNU General Public License.
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