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SumatraPDF Reader

github.com

51–60 of 276 posts

Re: SumatraPDF Reader

#51
post #3

I really love SumatraPDF but I wish it'd fare better on the search story: there's no widget to show all search matches, afaik, and searching can be slow on really big files with thousands of pages. To be fair, most PDF readers struggle with this, and I suspect only Acrobat attempts to cache or index files (as a Pro feature).

I remember reading a blog post from the author of sioyek boasting about search performance.

Haven't personally compared the options but for me sumatra zathura and sioyek all feel fast enough to not notice any problems.

https://ahrm.github.io/jekyll/update/2022/09/11/pdf-viewer-t...

"Now I must admit, the reason sioyek is so fast is because it creates a search index when you open the document."

Re: SumatraPDF Reader

#52
I haven't really felt the need for a dedicated PDF reader ever since Firefox upped their PDF support. It works pretty well and recently added support for form filling, text box and drawing [1].

SumatraPDF does support other file formats, which is nice.

[1] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/features/pdf-editor/

Re: SumatraPDF Reader

#53
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No joke. Yesterday I found out PDFs can have forms with JavaScript. https://tcpdf.org/examples/example_014/ How does this even work?

I hope I can amuse you further: PDF embedded 3d models https://helpx.adobe.com/mt/acrobat/using/displaying-3d-model... and interaction https://www.astrobetter.com/blog/2012/03/07/tutorial-for-emb... You can also do animated page transitions like PowerPoint, but I don't have the right link available...

You did amuse me! Thanks!

To me this is the kind of scope creep that causes a "simple" PDF renderer department to end up with 50 devs working in it full-time.

I wonder... can a PDF have an iframe that opens itself? Causing an infinie loop of it loading itself?

Re: SumatraPDF Reader

#54

Like others have mentioned, Sumatra is one of a few Windows-only utilities that I routinely miss when on Mac or Linux, primarily due to two simple interactions which I miss every day viewing schematics, mechanical/technical drawings or datasheets -- Alt + Scroll == Zoom and Right Click + Drag == Pan. Does anyone know of any viewers on Mac or Linux that provide these two features? Skim on Mac implements Option + Scrol…

FoxIt does zoom on Ctrl+Scroll, and Pan on Left Click+Drag. Runs on Mac and I'd assume linux.

Close enough?

I assume if you REALLY want to go nuclear on it, there is some shareware app that will let you do per-app keyboard emulation and rebind inputs "in flight" or something.

I believe https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/ is the standard solution.

Re: SumatraPDF Reader

#56
Extremely good software. Always on my _bat-belt_.

The author was one of the most active members of the old Business Of Software forums, IIRC.

I always wondered how he could make money from a free PDF viewer.

Re: SumatraPDF Reader

#57

Great retrospective of SumatraPDF from the author: https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/2f72237a4230410a888acbfc... .

Interesting read. I was very surprised by the mention of adding editing features at the end. That sounds like a proverbial black hole of potential feature requests and "bloat".

Re: SumatraPDF Reader

#58
post #31
post #7

Sumatra PDF was my go-to tool for viewing PDF changes in real time while writing manuscripts and thesis during PhD. Acrobat (paid) and foxit (free) have more features but locks the file undergoing changes.

Good example of how the implementation of unnecessary restrictions, without proper consideration of how such restrictions would impede users, can harm your product. I hope all software doing the same on android (safetynet, prevent screenshots, etc) follow Acrobat reader into irrelevance.

Exclusive locking is simply the default on Windows.

Re: SumatraPDF Reader

#60

Like others have mentioned, Sumatra is one of a few Windows-only utilities that I routinely miss when on Mac or Linux, primarily due to two simple interactions which I miss every day viewing schematics, mechanical/technical drawings or datasheets -- Alt + Scroll == Zoom and Right Click + Drag == Pan. Does anyone know of any viewers on Mac or Linux that provide these two features? Skim on Mac implements Option + Scrol…

Zathura does that under Linux, with the difference that zoom is achieved with Ctrl instead of Alt. Right-Click dragging = pan.

One feature I absolutely love is that Page Down goes to the top of the next page. It's very practical when you want to skim something quickly, with a zoom level that doesn't fit a page size perfectly.

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