Review: Foxit PDF Reader: Smaller and Faster Than Adobe Reader
by Russell Shaw
Free, from Foxit Software)
****1/2 (of five stars)
Summary: A quicker and easier PDF reader.
I know what you may be thinking. “Sure, I need a PDF document reader, but Adobe Reader works just fine for me. Why would I need a free, shareware reader for those important business PDF docs as well?
To that, I can cite at least two reasons why you might want Foxit PDF Reader. Maybe not in place of Adobe Reader, but as a quick and easy substitute.
My reasons: with a 1.6 MB file size, Foxit Reader is less than 1/10 the file size of Adobe Reader, and unlike Adobe Reader, it opens instantly.
Part of Foxit’s “opens instantly” is accomplished not only because of the application’s rather small file size, but because it skips Adobe Reader’s rather annoying splash window.
Once you are there and Foxit is open, you’ll be able to perform most of the basic functions and tasks you are used to running in your Adobe Reader. You can highlight text, annotate text with graphics, and then save the revised document.
Fillable forms are supported, as well as the ability to convert an existing PDF file into a text file.
Tip: PDF-to-text is a vital way to cut and paste sections from a multiple-page PDF document into Word. And with Foxit, you can defeat the arbitrary cut-and-paste bans that some PDF document creators install.
So why the 4 1/2 stars rather than 5?
The only issue I had with Foxit is that the hyperlinks in some PDF documents it is otherwise fully capable of rendering are unclickable. For now, activating such links from within Foxit PDF Reader is a cut-and-paste operation. Yet given that new revs have come out every three weeks or so since its November 15, 2007 debut (my own debut date, but many years prior), I’d expect that shortcoming to be addressed in a near-future revision.
Hopefully, a future update will also include a Mac-compatible version. I should point out, though, that there is a separate version of Foxit PDF Reader for Windows Mobile-powered devices and for Linux desktops. You’ll find the Windows Mobile version availabe for free download here, and the Foxit for Linux download here.
