Small Business

Three Free Alternatives to Adobe Reader

By Rick Broida

Updated on: August 9, 2007 / 3:00 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

Adobe seems to be following the Microsoft model of late, having turned Adobe Reader -- the industry standard for viewing PDF documents -- into one seriously bloated, overwrought application. After a recent hard drive reformat/reinstall, I didn't even bother installing it. Of course, because I work with PDFs on a daily basis, I needed some kind of viewer. Here are three Adobe Reader alternatives, all of which are smaller, less intrustive, and free:

eXPert PDF Reader View, print, and even modify PDF documents with this attractive, skinnable reader.
Foxit Reader 2.0 A freeware favorite, Foxit is small, fast, and packed with features (including a form filler and support for add-ons).
Sumatra PDF They don't come much smaller than this. Sumatra PDF doesn't even have to be installed on your PC; it's an 800K program that runs whenever you want to view a PDF. Granted, it's a bit limited -- you can't search within PDFs, for instance -- but it's ideal for flash drives and users who like to run their systems lean. [via Download Squad]

What's your preferred PDF reader? If you've got another program to recommend (or you want to give a little love to the above-maligned Adobe Reader), click the Comments link at the top of this post.