If someone knows how to disable this fuckery, please tell me or i have to install adobe acrobat, it makes me crazy as it floats on all the open PDFs, covering text/content
There is no good PDF reader. All of them suck in different ways.
I just use Firefox to open pdfs. If I have to sign it I’ll just use an online signer.
I do the same, except jump to adobe reader if I have to sign. But come on, this doesn’t satisfies either of us.
You’re fine uploading those documents online to some random website?
As a Linux user, I was rather surprised to learn that Windows doesn’t have a good pdf viewer. (Sumatra was the closest I could get.) Scientific software I can understand, but pdf viewer? Wtf?
I’m on Windows 11 and it opens PDF files in Edge by default. While I find it kind of silly to use a web browser for that purpose, the built-in PDF reader is actually fairly good, it can even read your documents out loud using text-to-speech.
Edge’s reader is decent I agree. But in what kind of bizarro world do one use a browser to read PDFs.
It pains me to say, but this is one area where Apple beats everyone. Their default PDF reader can do a LOT, it’s free, it’s already there and crucially it’s lightweight and not bogged down with shitty functionality no one needs, nor bristling with upsell towards premium features.
Indeed, Preview really is excellent. Does almost everything you’ll ever need and nothing you don’t.
Just use Firefox for reading PDFs
It gets buried in my pile of Firefox tabs, so I usually use edge. I could probably set up a different user or something to keep them separate, but I’ve been to lazy so far.
Wait, what, seriously?! Firefox keeps on giving and I only switched back recently.
Yeap you can even add text and draw on PDF now. This means you can easily fill in forms or sign documents with nothing but your favorite browser.
If you really need to “edit” pdf, like moving or editing existing text, I heard libre office draw can edit pdf. https://www.libreofficehelp.com/modify-edit-pdf-free-libreoffice-draw/
I hate everytime anybody even mentions AI as it, to me, translates directly to “massive waste of time for gimmicks and hype.” They added some kind of AI prompt button to my main browser a while back and I spent the next several hours searching how to disable it completely.
Only seen it (FoxIt) installed in a corporate environment, because for some reason businesses cannot stop using “Interactive editable PDFs”.
I wonder if there are FOSS alternatives adressing that niche.Interactive editable PDFs? As in forms?
Mozilla Firefox can edit forms, as can Sumatra PDF. Maybe Chrome and Edge are capable enough too.
I use libreDraw for editing pdf
Preview is pretty good.
Just use Firefox.
Hey this name is familiar… these guys sent me all their app telemetry for a couple weeks because they hardcoded AWS LB IPs into their software, and I got lucky enough to get one of those recycled IPs.
Wouldn’t be surprised if their apps are still screwed up and sending large amounts of junk traffic at me, but at least now it’s going into a void.
Sounds like a data leak that should be reported…
That sounds like a huge privacy concern?
Because the above commenter didn’t pay them for the data?
Acrobat also added an unclosable floating menu. It’s a massive pain in my ass.
That’s why I use edge (I know ugh) when I don’t need to comment sign or edit PDFs. I don’t want to use Firefox so it doesn’t get mixed up with all my other open tabs.
At least in a browser I can delete elements when it gets bad enough
Firefox Nightly to the rescue!
The reader in Edge is good tho, because it uses Microsoft Azure’s TTS.
This. Op, remove foxit and use a proper pdf reader.
Foxit have been a bloated mess for years now, no reason for them to change.
You can turn it off under Preferences > General (it’s right at the bottom “Disable AI Assistant”)
I’d be more interested if you can disable the forced-on tablet mode… the menu bar is huge
I swear by SumatraPDF. The most lightweight reader I ever used. Opens in seconds, is tiny in size, comes with zero bloat.
Seconding SumatraPDF, it has steered me through storms for years.
Is it aviliable on linux?
deleted by creator
Okular.
No ADS, FOSS, and Free (As in beer and speech!)
This. Also, If you need to manipulate PDFs, then try:
- LibreOffice
- Inkscape
- StirlingPDF
Nice that Stirling PDF!
Tomorrow I’ll try to configure it in a docker container
Free (As in beer and speech!)
Do you live in a utopia where you get as much beer as you want without having to pay for it, or do you live in a dystopia where you have to pay to be able to speak your mind and only in limited quantities?
I live in mixed world where companies are making proprietary software and paywalling everything. Yet, there’s independent open source programs where I can get a copy, share, and expand as I want without worring about legal issues.
Free as in beer means I got a beer for free (gratis, “No Price”), whereas speech is I can say what I want (without being silenced).*
In this context, Okular is a free (As in price) and free (As in libre software). I can copy, share, modify, and share modification as I please. There is no subscription, paywall, or proprietary licsense that prohibits this.
- = This may be inaccurate, wrong, misleading, and varying amoung countries and states.
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/ For business and windows
Is this FoxIt? What the hell, FoxIt used to be cool.
Anyway, if all you need is a .pdf reader and don’t need any editing or form fill BS, just uninstall all your .pdf readers because they’re totally redundant these days. Firefox and all other browsers can natively read .pdf’s. If you need to mess with the content of a .pdf, Inkscape (open source) does a competent job of taking them apart and letting you edit them nowadays.
I’m of the opinion that bloated memory hog .pdf applications full of subscriptions and ads and other bullshit can just die in a fire. I haven’t actually needed one for years.
There’s also okular. Basically anything that the kde foundation puts out will invariably be cross platform and pretty good.
I’ll give them both a try.
The main issue that I’ve run into is that foxit has a pretty decent signing system for signing PDFs which comes in handy from time to time and foxit and adobe both have batch editing for PDFs which is really handy for taking a bunch of random documents and sizing them to be all the same view size and rotating pages and the like to make everything nice and uniform for sharing with others.
FoxIt is Chinese. If you don’t care about your data potentially being transmitted across the globe, it’s a well working software.
Firefox added a decent signing feature. idk bout batch editing tho
I used to use Foxit for the longest time, but Firefox’s pdf reader has improved so much lately that I actually prefer it.
I like to have things not in firefox. It makes it easier to manage the 50 windows and tabs that I have open
My main issue with browser PDF reading is that I can’t compile and apply my signature on PDF with them, which are the main reasons I’m still using Foxit.
I’ve had assignments that involve editing a PDF template. So far, LibreOffice Draw has worked for me.
You can just sign using your mouse/trackpad, and then copy and paste the signature to fill in the entire form.
This doesn’t cover digital signatures (cryptographic signatures with RSA/ECDSA)
Why not just use acrobat?
Because Fuck Adobe.
Fair enough, but the free version of acrobat is still a good product for basic PDF functions, and doesn’t benefit them at all by using it.
For the record, I use FF 99% of the time, and GIMP or LibreDraw if I need to edit them.
Yeah, I used to use it to fix my RPG PDFs. (Seriously, it’s astounding how many publishers either omit or completely fuck up bookmarks.) I found out it went to shit when trying to help someone else do the same, and the newer free version was significantly cut down.
But be warned; pdfjs has a bunch of XSS vulnerabilities every month, which aren’t possible outside the browser environment.
I still use Foxit 9.72 on my pc (which I don’t have open ATM, so I can’t check to be certain I gave the right version). I have tried newer versions, but there always was some kind of enshittyfication change that annoyed me and I always reverted back to that last good version.
