6 Free PDF Readers That Work

What is a PDF?

PDFs are a world-renowned file type. Its three letters stand for Portable Document Format. Its popularity is due to the preservation of the format independent of sending. That is, regardless of the client that is reading the document, will always look the same, no paragraphs or images are misaligned in the process. This makes it ideal for making sure we send the document exactly as we want it to be read, as well as making it extremely practical at the level of Print.

These characteristics alone explain the position that has been gained, especially in offices and all kinds of infrastructures that work intensively with digital documents, but that is not all. They can also be interactive files, which allow them to be used as form, offering text boxes to fill. This is incredibly useful for all kinds of bureaucratic procedures, especially at the telematic level, among other things thanks to being able to open with our trusted browser (which we will detail later).

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

It is surely the best known option on this list, the well-known Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. Not to be confused with the paid alternative, Acrobat Pro. Acrobat Reader allows read pdf documents, comment them and print thembasically.

On the other hand, Acrobat Pro is a more advanced package that allows you to edit PDFs, protect them with a password, integrate with Office 365, convert PDF to format for Word, Excel or PowerPoint… Acrobat Reader official download page you will also find the complete list of differences.

Foxit Reader

Within the solutions dedicated to reading PDF files, Foxit Reader is well known and has built a reputation in the sector. Due to the large number of solutions that Foxit offers, it can be confusing to download Foxit Reader, or we could think that it is paid. However in the download page we will see how “PDF Reader” offers “Free Download” and not “Free trial”.

The interface may not look as modern as Acrobat Reader but it is still a functional and reliable program. In fact, we can also download the extensions that extend the functionality of the program for free.

SlimPDF

Acrobat Reader or Foxit Reader are very good and offer many possibilities, but if what we want is a program that is as light and powerful as possible with the unique open and read function pdf documents, SlimPDF It is one of the best options.

There is little to comment on this program because there is little that you want to fulfill. It is true that it allows converting from PDF to Word with an extension, but removing that, we will see that we hardly have any menus since there is not much more apart from opening the document that this reader intends to fulfill.

There is an option to have a much more advanced pack of functions, we will see some non-intrusive advertisement in the program interface announcing it (as seen in the screenshot) although it is a paid alternative and totally optional, to create, edit, sign or scan PDF documents with OCR.

cloud storage services

Let’s take an example google drive. It might sound a bit weird that Drive is an option for reading PDF documents, but it makes sense. Given how many people use Android on their smartphone, there’s a good chance you’ll end up using Drive at some point to store your files. For this reason, it is interesting to know that from any web browser, even from a mobile phone with the Drive application, we can open PDF files and read them perfectly without the need for extra installations.

Like drive, many other cloud storage services allow native PDF readingso if we use any of these it would be convenient to check if we can read these files without downloading additional software, or the files themselves.

web browsers

They are not programs specifically designed for it, but lMost web browsers allow viewing of PDF files. In fact, on a computer it is very likely that if you do not have any additional program installed for the task, the default option is to open said file with our default browser.

Depending on the browser, like Chrome, Microsoft Edge either MozillaFirefox for example, we can have more or less advanced options, but reading is guaranteed. For example, Mozilla Firefox echoed the news that it would allow the execution of JavaScript code when opening documents, which raises doubts about the security of said reader, although they are not the only ones who have seen how doubts are raised about security. Google engineers don’t forget it.

Another advantage of browsers as readers is that if we are doing some type of online procedure that requires filling out a form in PDF format, we can do it from the browser itself without the need to download the document, fill it out and upload it, offering extra comfort that is hard to beat.

QuickLook / Quick Look and GNOME Sushi

No, the title is not a mistake. Both names refer to programs with similar functionality for Windows and macOS. In fact, Quick Look born as an alternative to Quick Look from Apple. On the other hand, and with a more distinguished name, on Linux-based systems we have GNOME Sushic as the best-known option for the same thing, although not the only one.

But what makes these programs special? If we really want to open a PDF and exclusively read it, this is the option. It can be a bit tedious with larger files and more pages, but it is by far the lightest and most concise option, beyond what Slim PDF allows for example.

This is an example of QuickLook (Windows). It does not load any interface with options, it is limited to a window that renders the PDF in question and that’s it. Therefore, the load is extremely fast and not very intrusive.

PDFs are an essential format today

There are many more programs that allow reading PDFs with interesting functions, although quite specific. We wanted to compile the most well-known and complete alternatives, taking into account that they are free and also offer an option to those who do not need very complex programs, but rather want to be able to open documents and little else.

Not only that, we also remember the options that we could have ignored and that allow us to read these files without the need to install anything else, from our cloud hosting or with our own browsers. What has become clear is the importance of this type of electronic documentso it is easy to understand the importance also of having some way to read them.

We hope we have been of help in finding a PDF document reader that fits your needs!

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