Adobe Reader substitute

David E. Ross wrote:
On 9/21/2015 8:32 AM, Jo-Anne wrote:
I've used Adobe Reader for a long time. Given how insecure it's said to
be, however, I'm wondering what to use for reading and printing PDFs.
Suggestions?


How well do the cited replacements work with PDF forms such as the U.S.
tax returns downloaded from http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html?

PDFXChangeViewer has 'extras' in that category.

If a .pdf is a 'legitimate' form-enabled pdf, pdfxcv can highlight it in
color of your choosing or outline it in a rectangle and also provide
some other form functions.

If some (other) .pdf is simply a graphical scan instead of a proper
form-enabled .pdf, pdfxcv can use its typewriter function to fill in a
visible space which isn't even a legitimate form field.

--
Mike Easter

SC Tom avait écrit le 21-09-15 :

"Jo-Anne" wrote in message
...
I've used Adobe Reader for a long time. Given how insecure it's said to be,
however, I'm wondering what to use for reading and printing PDFs.
Suggestions?


I like PDF X-Change
http://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer. It's free and
works very well for any PDF I've tried to open with it.

+1

On Mon, 21 Sep 2015 10:32:53 -0500, Jo-Anne
wrote:

I've used Adobe Reader for a long time. Given how insecure it's said to
be, however, I'm wondering what to use for reading and printing PDFs.
Suggestions?



Foxit Reader at http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/ is
much better, as far as I'm concerned.

On Mon, 21 Sep 2015 10:49:53 -0500, Rene Lamontagne
wrote:


I like Sumatra PDF best and Foxit is also good Try them and see which
you like.


Excellent advice! It's always better to try and decide for yourself
rather than trusting anyone's opinion, even mine.

| I've used Adobe Reader for a long time. Given how insecure it's said to
| be,

It's also incredibly bloated compared to other options.
But any PDF reader should have javascript disabled
for safety.

however, I'm wondering what to use for reading and printing PDFs.
| Suggestions?
|

I also use SumatraPDF for basic reading.
I use PDF Xchange Viewer when I need to edit
PDFs. The version I have of that is 2.5. It's
dated 2014. The current version is 5.5. I thought
I remembered PDFXV being changed, so that it
now nags, or maybe doesn't allow full editing
anymore. I may be wrong. But if you have any
such trouble with the new version then look for
v. 2.5 at one of the old version sites. 2.5 edits
PDFs and doesn't nag.

| Out of curiosity, what makes you feel Acrobat Reader is any less secure
than any other PDF reader?
|

Acrobat Reader has been one of the worst for many
years. I just posted a link about that this morning:

https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/nuc...-flash-player/

The big problem is that Adobe likes to sneak in
a browser plugin for it, and it has script enabled
by default. It also suffers from success. Like MS Office
and IE it's a popular target because it's so common.
Most people have to make an effort *not* to have
Acrobat Reader.

It's also absurdly bloated. 75MB download. Probably
about 140 MB installed. Sumatra is about 11 MB
installed. PDF XV is about 20.

On 09/21/2015 08:32 AM, Jo-Anne wrote:
I've used Adobe Reader for a long time. Given how insecure it's said to
be, however, I'm wondering what to use for reading and printing PDFs.
Suggestions?


Hi Jo-Anne,

I know this is not the question you asked, but I use
the dickens out of Qoppa PDF Studio Pro:

http://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/

It is pay software, but it is very well done and their
tech support is extraordinary.

For Tax forms, it allows mark up (comments), creation of
fill in forms, and you can save fill in forms.

My wife just went through a 48 page pension plan
that I scanned in. I OCR'ed it making it searchable.
The yellow highlighted and tore through the thing to
find all the relevant information. (It has an excellent
search tool.)

If you decide to try the demo, it is unlimited. It just
writes "demo" across every other page. Before I bought
the think, I used it to search multi-hundred page
technical manuals on industrial controllers. (I
highlighted and marked the dickens out of them too.)

Its only downfall I can find it that is does not handle
dynamic XFA forms.

-T

SC Tom expressed precisely :

"Jo-Anne" wrote in message
...
I've used Adobe Reader for a long time. Given how insecure it's said to be,
however, I'm wondering what to use for reading and printing PDFs.
Suggestions?


I like PDF X-Change
http://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer. It's free and
works very well for any PDF I've tried to open with it.

+ for me as well!

--
Zo

Do you ACTUALLY read taglines?

On 9/21/2015 10:32 AM, Jo-Anne wrote:
I've used Adobe Reader for a long time. Given how insecure it's said to
be, however, I'm wondering what to use for reading and printing PDFs.
Suggestions?


Thank you, everyone! I definitely need to be able to fill in forms (but
not create them), so it looks like Foxit and PDF X-Change are the two I
should look at. I would have thought that any PDF reader would handle
form-filling, but I gather from the posts here that Sumatra doesn't.

--
Jo-Anne

| form-filling, but I gather from the posts here that Sumatra doesn't.
|
No. It's very basic. Acrobat Reader used to be
the same way. Thus the name *Reader*. I've
heard that it now has limited capabilities for
editing. I'm guessing they had to do that to keep
up with the Joneses. Their original strategy was
to offer the only PDF editor for a high price and then
spread around the read-only Reader for free.

Adobe also gave away Acrobat Pro 7 awhile back.
they posted that plus Illustrator and Photoshop CS2
online with serial numbers. Originally there was a note
saying people were only allowed to use those programs
if they received them from Adobe. Later they changed
the note and said they were only for people with
existing licenses. I think the eventually required
people to sign up for the download. I don't know where
it stands now. If you care you might want to look
around and see if there's a legal version to be had.
But other programs, like PDF XV, are good enough if
you only need functionality like adding notes or
filling in tax forms.

On 21/09/2015 16:32, Jo-Anne wrote:
I've used Adobe Reader for a long time. Given how insecure it's said to
be, however, I'm wondering what to use for reading and printing PDFs.
Suggestions?


Where the hell did you get this idea from that Adobe PDF reader is
insecure? You really need to get pragmatic and stop worrying about your
computer insecurity by readng from these newsgroups.

I would trust Adobe products above all others because they can be forced
to account for themselves while those fringe software makers cannot.
Sometimes you don't even know them where they are operating from or how
they are making their money. With Adobe, everything is above the board
and you know exactly where they live and how much they are making from
their other products.

Please continue using Adobe PDF reader because it is safe.

You will all be happy to see that not a single HTML code is in sight in
this post!!!!!!!!!! But fret no more. HTML will return next time I
post again.

On 9/21/2015 4:16 PM, Mayayana wrote:
| form-filling, but I gather from the posts here that Sumatra doesn't.
|
No. It's very basic. Acrobat Reader used to be
the same way. Thus the name *Reader*. I've
heard that it now has limited capabilities for
editing. I'm guessing they had to do that to keep
up with the Joneses. Their original strategy was
to offer the only PDF editor for a high price and then
spread around the read-only Reader for free.

Adobe also gave away Acrobat Pro 7 awhile back.
they posted that plus Illustrator and Photoshop CS2
online with serial numbers. Originally there was a note
saying people were only allowed to use those programs
if they received them from Adobe. Later they changed
the note and said they were only for people with
existing licenses. I think the eventually required
people to sign up for the download. I don't know where
it stands now. If you care you might want to look
around and see if there's a legal version to be had.
But other programs, like PDF XV, are good enough if
you only need functionality like adding notes or
filling in tax forms.


Thank you for the details, Mayayana. I do need to fill in tax forms and
sometimes other forms, and I've been able to do that with Adobe
Reader--although it's sometimes clunky. I'm looking forward to trying
Foxit first and then PDF X-Change if I don't like Foxit.

--
Jo-Anne

David E. Ross wrote:

Jo-Anne wrote:

I've used Adobe Reader for a long time. Given how insecure it's said to
be, however, I'm wondering what to use for reading and printing PDFs.
Suggestions?

How well do the cited replacements work with PDF forms such as the U.S.
tax returns downloaded from http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html?

PDFxchange Viewer handles those. However, it is rare that I ever
receive or download a .pdf that has scripts within it (usually to
validate input into a form). Since scripting in ANY viewer is a
security vulnerability, I disable it.

PDFs can have attachments. That's right, just like with e-mail, a .pdf
file can contain within it a block of data designated as an attachment.
One use of this was to provide a modified copy of a document in the .pdf
and in an attachment within provide a copy of the original document.
However, ANY filetype could be an attachment, including executables. So
I configure the PDF viewer to allow *only* .pdf attachments.

Another "feature" of PDFs is they can launch (commit an action) on
loading a .pdf file. That is, the .pdf file can contain a directive to
run a program when that .pdf file is opened. Oh yes, I want PDFs on
opening them to run other programs ... NOT! So that is disabled in my
PDF viewer.

So while my choice of PDF viewer could handle those gov't docs that may
contain Javascript, that may specify a program to launch when opening
the PDF, and that may contain attachments other than .pdf, their PDF
will be neutered when viewed in my PDF viewer.

Adobe Reader has some settings to effect the same security measures
noted above but they also rely on their sandbox to restrict where a
malicious PDF might affect (although that sandbox has been punctured).
Also, their sandbox doesn't play nice with other sandboxes. If you run
Adobe Reader within a sandbox (deliberately or accidentally, like the
ones included in some anti-virus software), it may not load (unless you
disable Adobe Reader's sandbox).

While Adobe Reader gets the focus of attention by hackers and news,
that's not to say the other PDF viewers are impenetrable. Not all PDF
viewer authors provide public access to their bug reporting database
(some don't even have one). I use PDFxchange Viewer and, yes, it has
some reported bugs and vulnerabilities. Those don't make the news. Who
cares about some yokel in Kansas having an illegitimate baby versus the
some pro-choice movie star getting caught.

"Jo-Anne" wrote in message
...
I've used Adobe Reader for a long time. Given how insecure it's said
to be, however, I'm wondering what to use for reading and printing
PDFs. Suggestions?

--
Thank you,
Jo-Anne

Take a look at Nuance PDF Reader, what I like about it is that it lets
you save filled-in forms, a feature that is often missing in other PDF
programs. The free version is no longer available from the Nuance
website, but you can get it from Softonic:

http://nuance-pdf-reader.en.softonic.com/download

When installing, watch for unwanted bloatware that you don't want.

George

On 9/21/2015 9:39 PM, George wrote:
"Jo-Anne" wrote in message
...
I've used Adobe Reader for a long time. Given how insecure it's said
to be, however, I'm wondering what to use for reading and printing
PDFs. Suggestions?

--
Thank you,
Jo-Anne

Take a look at Nuance PDF Reader, what I like about it is that it lets
you save filled-in forms, a feature that is often missing in other PDF
programs. The free version is no longer available from the Nuance
website, but you can get it from Softonic:

http://nuance-pdf-reader.en.softonic.com/download

When installing, watch for unwanted bloatware that you don't want.

George


Thank you, George. I didn't realize that some PDF readers won't let you
save the filled-in forms. I'll check out Nuance, but does anyone know if
Foxit and PDF X-Change let you save the filled-in forms? That's very
important to me.

--
Jo-Anne