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
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
But be warned; pdfjs has a bunch of XSS vulnerabilities every month, which aren’t possible outside the browser environment.
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.
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?
everything’s available on linux if you’re brave enough
It works with WINE ok, but you might get better luck with someone more native.
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.
That sounds like a huge privacy concern?
Because the above commenter didn’t pay them for the data?
Sounds like a data leak that should be reported…
This. Op, remove foxit and use a proper pdf reader.
Maybe use Sumatra PDF instead?
i need n-up, booklet, zoom control, a preview and batch printing. Sumatra PDF just invokes the standard barebones print dialog with no extra frills. It’s ok for viewing but not for printing
Doesn’t the standard print dialogue have the option to just make X copies or is that not the same as batch printing?
no i mean open 50 PDF files and print them with a single click
Oooh, yeah. That’s not quite the same.
I moved to Sumatra from Foxit years ago. No idea what Foxit did anymore to make me change, but this just confirms that decision.
This is the way.
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
One of the biggest problems with this AI-spam in every app is that there is no workable business model. You can’t run the AI locally on most end user computers. And running it in the cloud or via OpenAI API is expensive and won’t work in the long term. So you’re looking at another one of those stupid subscriptions, but who really wants to pay monthly for his PDF reader so he can ask it questions?
Thanks for reminding me to uninstall Foxit reader. Last week at work I read an article about yet another security flaw in Foxit Reader, and I thought: “I have to uninstall that when I get home” but then I forgot about it.
Foxit Reader used to be a useful tool waaaay back in time. Now it is time for it to go.
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.
Just use Firefox.
I just want to comment to push this comment higher. On a PC, the answer is usually Firefox.
I kinda just use Firefox’s pdf editing tools. I don’t need anything complicated, signatures, text editing, and highlighting is all I need.
Wait, can I sign a PDF contract using Firefox?
Yes, I’ve signed legally binding documents with it before. YMMV
Ah, I see I can draw on it, then copy paste to the rest of the document. Awesome, I’ll use that next time!
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Yeah and if you need Adobe’s proprietary editing tools then Foxit won’t have them anyways.
I know it’s kind of a meme to call some software bloated, but foxit reader is bloated AF
The sad thing is that foxit used to be the great alternative, back in the day.
It seems like you are using Windows. I think SumatraPDF is still good on Windows.
Is Okular OK?
Okular is fantastic
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May I ask what features do you miss from Sumatra? I find it so slim with barely any.
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We have great lightweight alternatives on Linux, I liked it but no need to miss it.
I never had that floating over the document I was viewing, just in the home tab of the menu, but I did find a way to switch it off. ‘File > Preferences > General’ has an option to ‘disable all features which require an internet connection’. There are also options in there to disable that opening splash screen if you don’t want that.
yes! it fixed it
thanks
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.
