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Acrobat is intrusive, slow and non-customizable

vincentuden.xyz

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Re: Acrobat is intrusive, slow and non-customizable

#151

Post by kstrauser »

hollerith wrote: post #112
kstrauser wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But... why? Anyway, you're on a Mac. Fix it yourself. Run the Shortcuts app and create a shortcut called something like "Maximize Preview". Set it to run an AppleScript: on run {input, parameters} tell application "Preview" to activate tell application "System Events" to set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of front window of (first process whose frontmost is true) to true return input end run (Download that from ht…

Thanks. Will give that a try.

Did it work? I’m dying of curiosity!

Re: Acrobat is intrusive, slow and non-customizable

#152

Post by Perepiska »

juliangmp wrote: post #42

Personally I'm still impressed by Adobe's work there. They designed the PDF format but still manage to have the worst PDF reader on the entire market.

A month ago, I opened an old PDF file on MacOS Monterey and found that Preview couldn't display the images in it. Chrome browser on Monterey shows inlined images. I've read this PDF on Windows for years. For Monterey I had to convert it with some online converter in order to watch inlined images.

My favorite "the worst PDF reader" is MacOS Preview.

Re: Acrobat is intrusive, slow and non-customizable

#153

Post by array_key_first »

donatj wrote: post #57
OGEnthusiast wrote: post #21

Preview.app is actually one of the few first-party Apple apps that I really miss when using a non-macOS computer.

I came here to say how spoiled we are as Mac users. Preview is genuinely the best PDF reader . Full stop. Unchallenged, and for something like 20 plus years running.

Personally I think okular is better.

Re: Acrobat is intrusive, slow and non-customizable

#154

Post by array_key_first »

superkuh wrote: post #20
nipperkinfeet wrote: post #14

We all do. There are many amazing alternatives nowadays. No need for any Adobe products.

PDF is no longer a single format. You have to specify what type of PDF. Many will not open in anything but Acrobat. For example the Wisconsin state dept. of natural resources converted nearly all of their permit/form PDFs to "Dynamic XFA (XML Form Architecture) PDF". Which is basically a PDF without content that pulls down all it's content from the web. It even still, ostensibly, supports Flash (swf) animations. But…

If the form has to download web content then it should just be a web form. Like, what are we doing here guys.

Re: Acrobat is intrusive, slow and non-customizable

#155

Post by Benanov »

noahmasur wrote: post #149
gdulli wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox has never failed me for this. It's great not needing a separate program at all.

Some tax forms like NY State fill-in forms have some scripted functionality that requires Adobe Acrobat to work, and they block rendering from other PDF programs. Even worse, once you've filled in the form, their PDF then blocks Acrobat from exporting to a normal PDF (the way you can save a print preview to a PDF for later) and so the only way you can get a real PDF of it is to print it directly and then scan it back…

stupidly does it block the Microsoft XPS printer?

Re: Acrobat is intrusive, slow and non-customizable

#156

Post by cbolton »

acdha wrote: post #94
foolswisdom wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, this actually happens?

Constantly. They added a bunch of scripting extensions so a lot of fillable forms render a message telling you to use Acrobat until all of that stuff executes.

Those are probably PDFs with XFA forms. Not very common in general but if you often get PDFs from sources that use that then yeah you'll see it all the time. Good news it that it was deprecated, it's not in PDF 2.0.

Re: Acrobat is intrusive, slow and non-customizable

#157

Post by mgt19937 »

vincent-uden wrote: post #127
mgt19937 wrote: post #126

There is a pure rust library for rendering pdfs to png(or bitmap) and svg: https://github.com/LaurenzV/hayro . It is used by typst for pdf image[1]. Although it might not be as mature as mupdf. [1]: https://github.com/typst/typst/pull/6623

You right! It's been over a year since I evaluated hayro and sadly the performance wasn't good enough yet for a 60 fps render. I actually chatted for a bit with Laurenz (the developer) and he recommended against using hayro in my case for the time being. It is however part of (or dependent on) the larger linebender group of crates and will most likely be the best option in the future.

Thank you for the information!

Re: Acrobat is intrusive, slow and non-customizable

#158

Post by hollerith »

kstrauser wrote: post #151
hollerith wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. Will give that a try.

Did it work? I’m dying of curiosity!

I don't have a Mac: I've had Macs in the past and plan to get another soon.

My "will give that a try" means that I put a link to your comment on a to-do list.

Re: Acrobat is intrusive, slow and non-customizable

#159

Post by kstrauser »

hollerith wrote: post #158
kstrauser wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did it work? I’m dying of curiosity!

I don't have a Mac: I've had Macs in the past and plan to get another soon. My "will give that a try" means that I put a link to your comment on a to-do list.

I demand instant gratification, darn it!

Heh, gotcha. I do hope it helps, though! Shortcuts is astoundingly powerful and I’ve used it for any number of personal nits like this. For example, combine it with Keyboard Maestro and you can add new commands to any app that’s scriptable via Shortcuts, like “if the current app is Notes, and I press F5, copy the current note and post its contents to Mastodon”, or whatever.

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