Best PDF (and other) Readers

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CRKrueger

CRKrueger

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Not sure where to put this, but since most of us read PDFs and various formats of Ebook in addition to the corpses of our leafy brethren, I thought it would be a helpful thread for people to search.

Windows
PDF Xchange - Fast, lightweight, full of features, free. (There is a Premium Version, if you use a Premium Feature, it still lets you do it, but watermarks the PDF.) Been through just about every PDF viewer there is for Windows, I keep coming back to this one.

iPad
Goodreader - Not really a PDF editing tool, but one of the best readers around. Sure easy to pull PDFs from any cloud source as well as Network Attached Storage devices and Home PCs.

Linux
Evince - The dafault Document Viewer on the Gnome desktop (Ubuntu and others), it's noticeably faster than some other viewers, especially with lower end systems.
Okular - Has a lot more features, as well as plugins for more file types.

Mac OS
No Clue

Good for any OS
Calibre - It can read just about anything, and convert stuff between formats.

So what are your favorites?
 
I've been using Sumatra on my Windows computer for a while and I really like it. Very fast and lets you copy out images and text easily, which is great for gaming stuff. Unfortunately there isn't a Sumatra release for Linux.

For some reason I always had trouble with pdfs on any of my Linux computers. Evince was always slow rendering images in gaming pdfs and I never found anything better. It's one of the main reasons I'm back on Windows for my home desktop.
 
Skim is a pretty good PDF reader for MacOS
 
Windows - PDF XChange Editor

Linux - I have one I like even better, that's even faster to scroll around even on a much slower machine, but I'll have to check what it's called later.
 
I mostly use PDF XChange... but I notice some things display differently on it, vs. Acrobat.
Like, I've got some PDFs sidebars of white text on black. These look fine in Acrobat (just like the print copy), but in PDF XChange these boxes are grayed out and the white text is unreadable. I keep looking for a setting to fix it but nothing so far.
 
I've used Acrobat and Foxit Reader. They both have worked fine for me.
 
Simlasa said:
I mostly use PDF XChange... but I notice some things display differently on it, vs. Acrobat.
Like, I've got some PDFs sidebars of white text on black. These look fine in Acrobat (just like the print copy), but in PDF XChange these boxes are grayed out and the white text is unreadable. I keep looking for a setting to fix it but nothing so far.
Click to expand...
Are these FFG 40k pdfs?
 
If anyone has any recommendations for readers on Android, I'd be interested in that as well. Currently using ReadEra but it doesn't have any zoom control so some pdfs can be tough to make out.
 
I've had pretty good experiences with Foxit Reader and their editing program Phantom on Windows (the latter is on par with Adobe Acrobat, but for a fraction of the price - it has a good javascript console too).
 
Xodo came highly recommended and it's multiplatform (including iOS and Android), and it's free. Literally checking it out right now on my PC, but haven't had a chance to mess around with it much.
 
For Windows I use SumatraPDF as my primary reader, but also keep Adobe Acrobat around to deal with PDFs with layers or other funkiness.

On iOS, I really like GoodReader. It can have multiple PDFs open at once (great for running a game with rulebook + module right at hand), sucks from the iCloud teat where I have my game PDFs without incident, and generally behaves itself.
 
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Quill said:
For Windows I use SumatraPDF as my primary reader, but also keep Adobe Acrobat around to deal with PDFs with layers or other funkiness.

On iOS, I really like GoodReader. It can have multiple PDFs open at once (great for running a game with rulebook + module right at hand), sucks from the iCloud teat where I have my game PDFs without incident, and generally behaves itself.
Click to expand...

This is what killed me on tablets before. I couldn't find a good app that let me use multiple PDFs at once. Obviously, when I'm GMing and using digital files, I tended to have more than one book open (and didn't want to close one to open another).
 
I'm trying to pack a lighter gamer bag these days, so my iPad Air is a vital tool. GoodReader is what made it so usable. If you do iOS, you'll love it.

It can also open image files as well. Last game I had the Grand Duchy of Karameikos gazetteer open, B2 Keep on the Borderlands, and a JPG of the Karameikan map, as well as a separate image of the Caves of Chaos. I really can't give this app enough praise.
 
For Windows I use Sumatra. For Android I use Xodo.
 
For Android I highly recommend Moon+. It's simple and very fast. I've used a few others, free and paid, and it's worth the price.
 
I used to use ezPDF for Android, but it looks like it's a paid version only now. I have used Xodo and liked it. Adobe Digital editions is also ok. For smaller files, I sometimes send to Kindle to read on the tablet. I haven't tried too many, as there is a file size limit using the send to kindle desktop program. Given my tablet is down at the moment, I can't double check what others I may have on it.
 
Most of my PDF reading is done on Android, previously using ezPDFReader but after that started playing up I switched to Xodo, which generally does a good job. On Windows 10 I use both Adobe and Sumatra, depending on the PDF.

I've yet to find an Android PDF reader able to reliably deal with the extra features in something like Greg Porter's EABA books, which include dice rollers, calculating character sheets and so forth. Unfortunately, Android PDF apps simply haven't kept up with those on Windows and iOS.
 
Quill said:
I'm trying to pack a lighter gamer bag these days, so my iPad Air is a vital tool. GoodReader is what made it so usable. If you do iOS, you'll love it.

It can also open image files as well. Last game I had the Grand Duchy of Karameikos gazetteer open, B2 Keep on the Borderlands, and a JPG of the Karameikan map, as well as a separate image of the Caves of Chaos. I really can't give this app enough praise.
Click to expand...
My default is to run completely from my 12.9 Pro. Rule book, campaign book, bestiary, module (if any) all open in GoodReader. iThoughts mind mapping tool for prep notes. Apple Notes app for scribbles during the game (using the Pencil) to track things like monster HP totals.

I love it, personally.
 
Tommy Brownell said:
Xodo came highly recommended and it's multiplatform (including iOS and Android), and it's free. Literally checking it out right now on my PC, but haven't had a chance to mess around with it much.
Click to expand...
Xodo is really good, but takes ages to load the pages (using trinity continuum/aeon fwiw) and always reloeads whenever you zoom in or out.
 
dbm said:
My default is to run completely from my 12.9 Pro. Rule book, campaign book, bestiary, module (if any) all open in GoodReader. iThoughts mind mapping tool for prep notes. Apple Notes app for scribbles during the game (using the Pencil) to track things like monster HP totals.

I love it, personally.
Click to expand...
The iPad 12.9 Pro is some seriously nice tech! And I'll have to look up iThoughts, it sounds good.

The other tool I use for gaming is OneNote, since I can keep it in sync between my Windows laptop, my iPhone, and my iPad. Very useful for taking notes and scribbling down those weird ideas that happen in a dentist's waiting room.

I need to add a good external keyboard/cover for my iPad at some point, then the kit will pretty much be complete.
 
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Quill said:
I need to add a good external keyboard/cover for my iPad at some point
Click to expand...
It’s not cheap but I personally have an Apple Magic Keyboard which is connect via Bluetooth. The Smart Keyboard Folio is too chunky for my tastes.
 
CRKrueger said:
Same problem. GoodReader and iBooks too, to a lesser extent.
There’s something about their encoding or layering that’s mighty particular.
Click to expand...
I can't remember which one it was, but I took one apart and there were loads of hidden layers and watermarks that were invisible to the user, but the software would still be rendering. They are really badly optimized.
 
Ghost Whistler said:
Xodo is really good, but takes ages to load the pages (using trinity continuum/aeon fwiw) and always reloeads whenever you zoom in or out.
Click to expand...
Interesting. On a almost literal side by side comparison with Adobe Reader, it seemed faster. Didn’t do any zooming, though.
 
CRKrueger said:
Same problem. GoodReader and iBooks too, to a lesser extent.
There’s something about their encoding or layering that’s mighty particular.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that most PDF readers on iOS all use the same underlying library to render content, which means they all suffer similar problems.

Adobe Acrobat has a proprietary rendering library which means it is less likely to have the same issues. For really faithful representation, it is the tool to use.

As an example, here is the same page from the same PDF open in GoodReader (left) and Adobe Acrobat (right):

51FEA461-7D55-4B85-A4F6-6E69A1FD96DB.jpeg
 
Tommy Brownell said:
Interesting. On a almost literal side by side comparison with Adobe Reader, it seemed faster. Didn’t do any zooming, though.
Click to expand...
It's possible it's my device, which is a couple of years old, or perhaps the file concerned is denser than normal - or optimised such that xodo struggles abnormally
 
I have used PDF Expert on both iOS and Mac since they were first released. Never had any problems, very high performance on iOS.
 
dbm said:
My understanding is that most PDF readers on iOS all use the same underlying library to render content, which means they all suffer similar problems.

Adobe Acrobat has a proprietary rendering library which means it is less likely to have the same issues. For really faithful representation, it is the tool to use.

As an example, here is the same page from the same PDF open in GoodReader (left) and Adobe Acrobat (right):
Click to expand...
Not sure about iOS but there are also quite a few ghostscript based renderers and PDF generators. While Ghostscript is a competent implementation it is hampered by the default build not having licenses for several rendering patents (e.g. sub-pixel rendering for LCD screens and various dithering algorithms), so the features are compiled out by default.

As the patents expire the situation is getting better, but you often have to compile your own and figure out how to enable the options (and pay royalties to various parties if you want it to be legal in certain jurisdictions). This is fairly straightforward to do on Linux but a drag on Windows or MacOS.

I bought Adobe Design Standard CS6 (the last version before it went rental-only) so I have Acrobat pro for PDF generation and Acrobat for PDF reading.
 
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