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Program for PDF files?

terriyaki

terriyaki

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 4, 2005
641
11
Vancouver
PDFs normally open in Preview for me but I was wondering if there were any other programs out there that would be better suited for the job? (Other than Adobe Acrobat as well.. I heard it wasn't that great on a Mac..)
 
Why don't you like Preview? Is there some other feature you need?

I, for one, love Preview. Its very lightweight, loads quickly, and works well.
 
terriyaki said:
PDFs normally open in Preview for me but I was wondering if there were any other programs out there that would be better suited for the job? (Other than Adobe Acrobat as well.. I heard it wasn't that great on a Mac..)
Click to expand...
Personally, I have nothing against Preview. However, I have Adobe Acrobt 7.07 Professional, which includes Adobe Distiller 7.0. There is nothing better when you want to produce small, clean, reliable PDF files.
 
Preview all the way... It's the best program for .pdf file. Never heard of any alternatives, apart from Adobe's programs.
 
Preview is the fastest PDF viewer. If you need to edit them, then your better off with acrobat pro. Personally, I hate viewing PDFs in acrobat (I prefer preview).

PathFinder has it's own built-in PDF viewer and text editor. It's not bad either.
You can check it out at http://www.cocoatech.com
 
Speeding up Preview?

Quick question about Preview and a PDF I'm working with. The document is 614 pages long with each page being scanned from a book and then converted into PDF format (by the scanner). It is 60 megs and is really slow to load from page to page when viewed in Preview so I was wondering if there is anything I can do (perhaps turn off something) that will make the document scroll more quickly. I'm using a MBP 2.0Ghz with 1GB ram.

Any ideas?

EDIT: Follow up question... are there any add-ons for preview that add features like highlighting text (not the weird red oval thing) and or drawing and writing any text on the actual PDF. The yellow sticky notes don't allow for the text to be resized as far as I can tell which is kinda annoying. Thanks!
 
dr_lha said:
How is this in any way relevant?
Click to expand...

Well, though it isn't a Mac alternative, I was offering an Adobe alternative for viewing PDF files. Secondly, though the software is only for PC's right now, it may become available for Mac's. Third, a lot of people on MR have multiple computers and run Windows, and might be interested in the software.

Hope this clears things up, please let me know in the future of any confusion.
 
I still prefer preview

ChrisFromCanada said:
Actually in version 7 acrobat has improved greatly in speed and overall reliability. I would suggest you try it, I am not aware of any other alternatives.
Click to expand...

After that, I still prefer preview. One more thing... I hate your avatar and your Churchill quote :mad:
 
Probably the easiest way to speed up Preview is to close the thumbnail drawer. In preferences you can set it to keep the drawer closed by default, which really helps.
 
You can get pdf splitters if reading huge pdf's is a problem.

They break it down into whatever size chunks you want (chapters or whatever)

Google it and you should find a few of them.
 
MacsomJRR said:
EDIT: Follow up question... are there any add-ons for preview that add features like highlighting text (not the weird red oval thing) and or drawing and writing any text on the actual PDF. The yellow sticky notes don't allow for the text to be resized as far as I can tell which is kinda annoying. Thanks!
Click to expand...

For simple PDF markups, try Formulate.
 
I prefer Preview as well and have tried Reader and can see why you are looking for something different.

Also, this is sort of related and I've been wondering for a while.

Before I installed Acrobat reader when I clicked on a pdf link in Safari it would load as a page in Safari for quick viewing. After I uninstalled Acrobat Reader Safari no longer loads pdf's. Instead I get a open using x program dialog.

Anyone know how to get Safari to load pdf's after uninstalling Reader?
 
Teddy's said:
After that, I still prefer preview. One more thing... I hate your avatar and your Churchill quote :mad:
Click to expand...

Ha.. I thought that was really rude until I saw his equally rude avatar...

some people. :rolleyes:
 
M-theory said:
Well, though it isn't a Mac alternative, I was offering an Adobe alternative for viewing PDF files. Secondly, though the software is only for PC's right now, it may become available for Mac's. Third, a lot of people on MR have multiple computers and run Windows, and might be interested in the software.

Hope this clears things up, please let me know in the future of any confusion.
Click to expand...
Nope, I'm still confused why you're recommending Windows programs to someone who wants to view PDFs on a Mac, on a website called "Mac Rumors".

If this is the price we have to pay for Boot Camp, then I'm signing off. ;)
 
MisterMe said:
Enable PDF as a MIME type in QuickTime preferences.
Click to expand...
Actually, that didn't work (it kept automatically unchecking it after I closed System Perferences).

What I had to do was reinstall Reader and disable browser integration from the preferences. Then it worked. Yay, now I have my favorite way to preview pdf's before downloading back. :D
 
dr_lha said:
Nope, I'm still confused why you're recommending Windows programs to someone who wants to view PDFs on a Mac, on a website called "Mac Rumors".

If this is the price we have to pay for Boot Camp, then I'm signing off. ;)
Click to expand...

Bye.
 
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