5 Adobe PDF Reader Alternatives That Do More for Free

Or my personal favorite: Preview on a MAC. does everything I need:

Add, delete, duplicate pages, drag and drop within the file or between files, rotate text, fill forms, annotate, "flatten". cut and paste text to Numbers, pages, etc. It shows a table of contents, but I have personally never tried to create one.

There was a complaint thread a few years back, but I was not able to encounter any of the complaints, so I wonder if maybe their information was outdated.

In fact, the only problem I ever encountered is that some form providers require adobe and don't allow other readers (lame)
 
What a timely article! THANK YOU A MILLON! I just happened to be working on a PDF when I got a TS email with a link to this article. I had to rotate every other page and delete the last page, PDF Sam did the job quickly and saved me from having to instruct a coworker to rescan the doc!

Keep up the good work TS!
 
As a Linux user, I mainly just use Master PDF 4 to do my advanced PDF edits. It's still available for download if you google it, you don't need to crack it and there's barely any limitations. I don't know about the Windows version availability, but I'd presume someone similarly must have archived it as the amount of actions that gets locked behind watermark-premium between v4 to v5 is ludicrous.

The nice thing about using it on Linux though is that you can install v4 natively and you can also install v5 in a sandbox via Flatpak, so they don't interfere with each others and you can use both. So most of the time, I just use Master PDF 5 when I'm just viewing or doing minor edits, but I could just as easily use Master PDF 4 when I need it.

I do supplement all of that with Sejda and ILovePDF though, but the former is primarily for Flattening PDF and the latter for PDF Compression.
 
I forgot to thank TS for hosting the download! It's great to have a trustworthy place to get files, I very much appreciate the hosting and vetting of the programs you offer.
 
When corporations like to suck every penny out of your bank account, piracy becomes the only viable alternative. I am enjoying Acrobat for free atm.
I was always one to just use an open-source or free alternative if the mainstream software was pay-only and wasn't worth it. These are some great free alternatives to the "original" programs:

Instead of MS-Office, I use Sun Microsystems/Oracle/Apache OpenOffice:
Open Office
Instead of Adobe Acrobat, I used Foxit Reader (might try it again):
Foxit Reader
Instead of WinRar, I use 7-Zip:
7-Zip
Instead of Photoshop, I use GIMP (and so do a lot of people):
GIMP
 
Good article .... now please do one on .pdf editors that are free, and not just for a "trial period" please .....
 
I mostly need to add text / signatures, dates etc to PDFs, and I find Foxit to be the most capable and versatile in this regards.

It's even better than Adobe's free online PDF editor!! Adobe's version looks like 1980s' technology next to Foxit.
 
Instead of MS-Office, I use Sun Microsystems/Oracle/Apache OpenOffice:
Open Office
Why OpenOffice instead of LibreOffice? AFAIK LibreOffice is updated more often. OnlyOffice also works nice if you don't need the more advanced features. I use WPS Office though, because I have to, though I wouldn't use it if I can't easily block its network in Flatseal.

I do use Foxit on the Windows laptop my office gave me though. Haven't updated it in ages, but it's worked for me. Most of the features aren't free though, but if people want a PDF editor to buy, then Foxit is good. I think the Linux/cross-platform equivalent is Qoppa PDF Studio.
 
Why OpenOffice instead of LibreOffice? AFAIK LibreOffice is updated more often. OnlyOffice also works nice if you don't need the more advanced features. I use WPS Office though, because I have to, though I wouldn't use it if I can't easily block its network in Flatseal.
You're right, I do use LibreOffice. I just call it OpenOffice because that's what it was called for decades and I just haven't gotten the new name through my head yet. I don't really have an excuse for it since I'm English/French bilingual so I guess I'm just lazy. :laughing:
I do use Foxit on the Windows laptop my office gave me though. Haven't updated it in ages, but it's worked for me. Most of the features aren't free though, but if people want a PDF editor to buy, then Foxit is good. I think the Linux/cross-platform equivalent is Qoppa PDF Studio.
Yeah, I only used Foxit back when Acrobat Reader was being a pain in the butt. I think that Firefox has a .pdf viewer/editor built-in so I just tend to use that. I don't view .pdf files all that much but I do seem to remember viewing at least on in Firefox.
 
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