Although there's nothing wrong with the default PDF reader from Adobe since it comes with a lot of features by default. Yet, if you have an old PC/Laptop, then reading a PDF file with decent amount of images, etc will require a lot of system resources from your PC (at lest in my personal experience anyway).
This is where the tremendous success of Foxit reader comes from. The reason I said "tremendous" is because, not that long ago, if you search in Google the word "pdf reader" then the first site that used to sit at the top was the Adobe's official PDF reader. But whenever you search this phase now in Google, Foxit website is at the top, beating Adobe, the original creator of .PDF extension!.
And the reason for its popularity is because it loads fast, has almost all the features Adobe has to offer and most importantly, it uses significantly lower amount of system resources of your PC/Laptop.
And for the first time ever, now there's even a version for GNU/Linux too!. This is the first time ever it was released for GNU/Linux and in comparison with the MS Windows version, it has lesser amounts of features right now, but trust me, it's way way better than the Gnome's default PDF reader and many others without a doubt!.
Main features of the version 5 (Windows version)
*. Totally new look-n-feel with new icons.
*. Comes with built in themes (Blue, Yellow, etc) the users can change from.
*. Tabbed interface.
*. Screen-Split feature for better PDF viewing/comparing documents, etc.
*. Once installed, now Foxit 5 make sure to Preview PDF attachments in Window Outlook.
*. Thumbnail previews within the file manager (explorer) in Windows.
*. Faster search with PDF files.
Although these are just a few of new features to mention there a lot of others that I didn't write down since most already familiar with it. As said the GNU/Linux version has lesser amounts of features... yet it's already a complete PDF rather than the useless Evince (document reader).
Here are few features of the Linux v 1.1
*. Multi language support.
*. Anti-aliasing Fonts.
*. On-screen dictionary integration supported.
*. Enhanced toolbar with buttons such as : Zoom-in/Zoom-out, back/forward/Print, etc
*. Search.
*. Automatic scroll.
*. Take Snapshots/Screenshots... are again few to mention.
Recommended System Requirements for Windows
1.3 GHz or faster processor.
64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)!.
52 MB of available hard drive space.
800x600 screen resolution.
In GNU/Linux by default the application will consume less than 15MB.
And for all these features how much do you have to pay?, well that's the fun part. It's completely free!. For MS Windows users, you can download it from this page. You can download the GNU/Linux version form this official Foxit for Linux page.
The Linux one is just Version 1.
ReplyDeleteIt's got a bug: Default print format is US-Letter. One cannot change it to default A4 e.g.
Apparently this has been fixed in later versions but not for Linux :(