If you had to download books, reports or other text documents from the Internet, then you probably came across files that have the pdf extension. Once in such a situation, users often do not know how to open a PDF file. As a rule, programs for working with PDF are simply installed on the computer, which baffles many. In this article, we will take a short look at a number of popular programs that allow you to open PDF files.
One of the most popular programs is definitely Adobe (Acrobat) Reader. This software is developed by Adobe. Adobe Reader provides the user with a complete set of basic functions for reading and viewing PDF documents. If this is your first time encountering this type of document and do not know how to open a PDF file, then Adobe Reader is the perfect choice for you.
In addition to Adobe Reader, Adobe produces software for creating PDF documents. This is Adobe Acrobat software. This program is a paid program and comes in two flavors, Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro.
Screenshot of Adobe (Acrobat) Reader:
You can learn more about Adobe Reader from the official website.
Another fairly popular program for working with PDF documents. Foxit Reader has gained popularity due to its simplicity and low system resource requirements. Foxit Reader can be used without any problems even on the weakest computers. For a long time this program was distributed without an installer, just as an EXE file ready to work.
At the same time, Foxit Reader is practically in no way inferior to Adobe Reader. It has all the functions you need to fully work with PDF files. When I am asked how to open a pdf file, I recommend this particular program.
It should be noted that Foxit Reader is a cross-platform solution. Now there are versions of this program for such operating systems as: Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, Linux, iOS, Android and Symbian.
Screenshot of Foxit Reader:
To learn more about this software, visit the official site.
Another light and fast program for reading pdf documents. In addition to simple reading pdf documents, Cool PDF Reader is equipped with a number of other functions that distinguish it from competitors.
Let's take a closer look at the main features of Cool PDF Reader:
- View and print PDF documents;
- Convert PDF documents to such formats as: TXT, BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, WMF, EMF and EPS;
- Extract text from PDF format to TXT;
- Support for all versions of PDF format;
- Support for 68 different languages;
- View PDF files as a slideshow;
At the same time, the program has a size of only 808 kilobytes and is not very demanding on computer resources.
Screenshot of Cool PDF Reader:
You can find out more about Cool PDF Reader on the official website.
Sumatra PDF is open source software. In addition to PDF files, it can also work with files in ePub, XPS, MOBI, CHM, DjVu, CBZ and CBR formats. This program is available both as an installer and in a portable version.
Other features of the Sumatra PDF program include:
- Simple and intuitive interface;
- Support for over 60 languages;
- Correct anti-aliasing of images when scaling a document;
- Regular updates;
Screenshot of Sumatra PDF program:
You can find out more about the program on the official website.
STDU Viewer is a universal program for viewing electronic documents. STDU Viewer software supports a large number of formats and is equipped with all the necessary functions to work with them. By installing this program, you will no longer have any questions about how to open a PDF file, or a document in another format. STDU Viewer will solve all your problems.
Let's take a closer look at the main features of the STDU Viewer program:
- View documents in formats: PDF, Comic Book Archive (CBR or CBZ), DjVu, FB2, XPS, TCR, ePub, multipage TIFF, TXT, EMF, WMF, PalmDoc, BMP, JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PCX, DCX , PSD, MOBI and AZW;
- Simple and intuitive tabbed interface;
- The ability to customize the display parameters of the document (brightness, contrast, etc.);
- View thumbnails of pages;
- Creation of custom bookmarks;
- For text documents, the user can control the size and color of fonts;
- Powerful search in text documents;
- Support for several languages, including Russian;
- The ability to print documents;
STDU Viewer is a fairly young program. The first version of STDU Viewer appeared in 2007. Then the program supported only three formats: PDF, DjVu and TIFF. As you can see, the program has come a long way during its development and now allows you to open a large number of different formats.
Screenshot of STDU Viewer:
You can find out more about this program on the official website.
A few words about the PFD format
PDF or Portable Document Format is one of the most common electronic document formats. This format was developed by Adobe Systems. The first version of the format appeared back in 1993. Since then, the format has been actively developing. Almost every year it added support for new features. So, during the development in Portable Document Format, such features were added as: password protection, Unicode support, interactive elements, links, digital signatures, transparency, text layers, forms, encryption and much more.
The main purpose of PDF is to publish printed products in electronic form. Most professional printing equipment supports the format and can print such documents without additional processing or conversion.
At the beginning of its journey, the PDF format was not very popular. And there were objective reasons for this:
- The software required to work with the format was paid;
- The format did not have support for external links, which did not allow its full use on the World Wide Web;
- PDF files weighed significantly more than regular text documents. It also created barriers to its use on the Internet;
- Processing documents in this format required significant system resources, which led to slow display of the document on weak computers:
- In addition, there were other formats that created competition.
Now, none of these problems are relevant for the PDF format anymore. Adobe released a free version of the program for viewing PDF files, and programs from other manufacturers also appeared.
For more than 10 years of its existence, the format has come a long way of development and at the moment it is a very powerful and flexible tool for creating documents.