Is there a great alternative to Preview?

[mivara]

Lately, I have been having trouble using Preview. For instance, yesterday I tried to open a huge pdf file (approx. 7K x 4K). It lags whenever I try to do the simplest things to the image and when I try zooming it crashes completely. My MBP is the 2014 model so the hardware should not be an issue on this one.

Once, I used Skim but the interface throws me off. What else is out there?

 

[maflynn]

For PDFs I use Acrobat. There is no single app that could replace Preview. There are specific apps that are better then preview for that specific task, but overall the general usefulness of the app is not matched by anything else.

 

[dwig]

For PDFs I use Acrobat. There is no single app that could replace Preview. There are specific apps that are better then preview for that specific task, but overall the general usefulness of the app is not matched by anything else.

+1

Apple has yet to have support for the complete PDF spec in Preview. Over the years, there have been many "holes" in Preview's PDF support that are quite annoying. The biggest that I encounter frequently revolves around Preview's limited support to the myriad of font encoding types permitted in the PDF spec. If you need to view complex of large PDFs you need to use Adobe's Acrobat Reader.

 

[Partron22]

For PDFs I use Acrobat.

If you don't feel like playing Adobe's software rental game, or spending $450, there is still Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat Reader DC or some such nonsense available for free on Mac. Unlike Preview, it comes with a decent search function, and will open large documents in Yosemite without bringing your computer to its knees.

 

[robgendreau]

The free Acrobat Reader is much better than Preview IMHO. Preview also stinks for photos. Basically it's a freebie and you get what you pay for. If you do a lot of work with PDFs than get better PDF software, anything from Acrobat Pro to PDF Pen to other stuff.

 

[MLinneer]

For me, Adobe doesn't hold a candle to Preview. It's faster, actually built for OS X, and has better tools.