Foxit PDF Reader is the latest generation of Foxit Software's lightweight and speedy PDF reader.
Performance is great, with the program loading documents much faster than Adobe Reader. And it makes fewer demands on your system resources, too, consuming a minimal 10.6 MB of hard drive space (Adobe Reader requires more than 100MB), and very little RAM when loaded.
Recent improvements to Foxit PDF Reader have been taken from the now defunct Pro Pack. You're able to highlight or strike out text, for instance, or insert text comments of your own. There are tools to draw shapes, arrows and lines, add callouts or text boxes. You can fill out, print and even save completed PDF forms, and a new spell-checker will highlight spelling errors and offer suggested alternatives for anything that you type.
Other features include a Text Viewer, which at a click removes complicated formatting to display a plain Notepad-type view of your document's text. A Text Converter similarly saves a complete PDF document as a simple text file. It's easy to embed movies and audio files into your PDF documents. And Foxit Reader's Safe Mode has been enhanced to offer even more protection from malicious PDF files.
And document collaboration features allow you to save your PDF files online and work on them with others, via almost any computer with a web browser. This is a commercial service, but a generous 3 month trial period means you've plenty of time to try it out. Check the site for more.
Verdict:
It's always been a great PDF viewer, but the form filling facility alone justifies the download, but that's just the start - go grab a copy of this excellent tool immediately
Your Comments & Opinion
Updating never seems to go smoothly either. I've had to sort out messed-up installs several times.
Version 7 won't work on my XP system so I've had to revert to 6.2.3, which takes up at least 92MB. The updater alone is 11MB and the Foxit executable 37MB so I really can't imagine where your 10.6MB claim comes from!
It is possible to get rid of the terrible ribbon interface, fortunately.
Since it zapped to v6 it seems supa heavy (installed program is 80MB against half less for v5), dead slow (hanging). What with the sloppy Microsoft Office ribbon design?
If you miss the good old days, do like me, stick to v5.4.5.0124 (the ultimate non professional v5 build prior to v6) uncheck additional installs and disable automatic updates. It perfectly does the job. Good enough!
V5 is missing from Foxit products repository's, but you could easily grab it from any other website such as FileHippo.
4 stars to the older versions. 2 stars since V6.
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Lightweight PDF reader that doesn’t compromise on features
Looking for a powerful and free alternative to Microsoft Office? This is it.
Looking for a powerful and free alternative to Microsoft Office? This is it.
Looking for a powerful and free alternative to Microsoft Office? This is it.
Looking for a powerful and free alternative to Microsoft Office? This is it.
Create industry-standard PDF files from any Windows application.