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Why does anyone install a dedicated app for reading PDFs? Edge, Chrome, and Firefox all have built-in PDF readers. macOS's built-in Preview app can read PDFs.

Why does anyone install a dedicated app for reading PDFs? Edge, Chrome, and Firefox all have built-in PDF readers. macOS's built-in Preview app can read PDFs. Just counting those four solutions, most users already have at least two PDF readers on their computer without installing Acrobat, Nitro, Foxit, or whatever. Stop installing dedicated apps for reading PDFs! They are bloatware meant to encourage users to buy PDF editors which most will never need!

ducktective 6y ago
Annotation
- CivBase 6y ago
  While Chrome and Firefox lack support for annotating PDFs, Edge and Preview both support them.
Gibbon1 6y ago
Because the built in ones suck for serious work.
- CivBase 6y ago
  Can you elaborate on the kind of "serious work" you are doing which cannot be accomplished with one of those solutions? Obviously those are all readers, so they are not able to edit PDFs or create them from scratch. However, neither can Adobe Acrobat Reader or most free PDF bloatware.
  - geerlingguy 6y ago
    The main purpose is trying to fill out annoying legal / banking forms that have tons of fields and sometimes field validation, digital 'eSignatures', etc. And every browser renderer treats these things differently and often breaks.
  - Gibbon1 6y ago
    Try and work off a 1600 page reference manual for actual work on a desktop. Bonus modern design is informed by the need to support monkey's fat fingering stuff on their smartphone. Any use case outside of that is less and less supported.
  - 2ion 6y ago
    Adding and saving annotations/notes/highlights, fast full text search (aggressive preload), double page/single page views, form filling and saving (perhaps not even to the original PDF) are the minimum you really need for "working" with PDF...just "viewing" them is not really enough for serious academic work/research on PDF files. The more well integrated, the better. The functionality should look like in Acrobat, Okular, Mendeley, or similar tools.
kfrzcode 6y ago
Okular works fine, is not bloatware, doesn't spam me with ads and works just for all my annotation & viewing needs. It's also Free software & respects data/privacy. Don't like KDE-based software? How about Evince, Skim, Xpdf, gv... https://pdfreaders.org/ https://pdfreaders.org/ I say, stop moving everything to the web browser! Actually... stop using OS X altogether. The infamous High Sierra root-login vulnerability is harrowing enough and I'm gobsmacked as to why folks didn't abandon Apple at that point. I've been happy, gainfully employed, and quite successful in all ventures using Debian + free software, exclusively, for nearly 8 years. I'm not the only one. Happy to help anyone migrate should they have challenges!
- BlueTemplar 6y ago
  We should stop using PDFs so much, the use case for a fixed layout is getting more and more rare these days...
superhuzza 6y ago
I use Okular because I like being able to: - Highlight - Leave expandable comments - See the page thumbnails - Have access to area select/table select - Configure my pdf reader quite a bit I spend a lot of time reading .pdfs because I'm in grad school right now. Using Okular is way more convenient than trying to use browsers. This is not a strange use case at all, many people who frequently read .pdfs have the same needs. And it's clearly not trying to sell me on a pdf editor, because it's not related to a paid editor. Or at least I'm not aware of it, either way is fine by me.
- Terretta 6y ago
  Those are all cool, and for those plus more, I prefer the relatively obscure LiquidText for annotation: https://www.liquidtext.net/liquidtextadeeperdive https://www.liquidtext.net/liquidtextadeeperdive (To a sibling comment, just stop using MacOS: it's not a rule, but the usability and craftsmanship sensibilities that create software like LiquidText tend to cluster with the usability and craftsmanship sensibilities that appreciate MacOS.)
  - codethief 6y ago
    > https://www.liquidtext.net/liquidtextadeeperdive https://www.liquidtext.net/liquidtextadeeperdive I was really hoping to find a good application for reading & annotating PDFs on Linux behind this link. :(
    - superhuzza 6y ago
      Give okular a try!
hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
Again, as been pointed out elsewhere, I hate that I had to install Adobe Reader, but some government forms couldn't be filled out without it.
jabroni_salad 6y ago
Hello from the world of finance. You know how some people make websites? Well, what if instead of a website, we make a pdf that you can upload a document to and then click a submit button in the pdf. And for good measure, lets make it so it only works in Adobe Reader's internet explorer plugin. Welcome to the Bank Secrecy Act e-filing system brought to you by the united states department of treasury.
ClemFandango 6y ago
I'm not sure if this could be considered a niche audience, but I install Adobe Reader by default on user machines, mainly because the built in readers with Chrome or Edge don't handle printing natively very well, due to not using the system's print settings immediately. You can bypass it with a shortcut and make changes, but it's not so great when users will select print and click ok, it's difficult to educate them against that. It's much easier to use Acrobat Reader and set it to open by default in that. So this may be the install base, SMB and schools, some large enterprise as well. Whether that preference will get changed back to edge in a feature update is another story.

ducktective 6y ago

Annotation

CivBase 6y ago
While Chrome and Firefox lack support for annotating PDFs, Edge and Preview both support them.

Gibbon1 6y ago

Because the built in ones suck for serious work.

CivBase 6y ago
Can you elaborate on the kind of "serious work" you are doing which cannot be accomplished with one of those solutions? Obviously those are all readers, so they are not able to edit PDFs or create them from scratch. However, neither can Adobe Acrobat Reader or most free PDF bloatware.
- geerlingguy 6y ago
  The main purpose is trying to fill out annoying legal / banking forms that have tons of fields and sometimes field validation, digital 'eSignatures', etc. And every browser renderer treats these things differently and often breaks.
- Gibbon1 6y ago
  Try and work off a 1600 page reference manual for actual work on a desktop. Bonus modern design is informed by the need to support monkey's fat fingering stuff on their smartphone. Any use case outside of that is less and less supported.
- 2ion 6y ago
  Adding and saving annotations/notes/highlights, fast full text search (aggressive preload), double page/single page views, form filling and saving (perhaps not even to the original PDF) are the minimum you really need for "working" with PDF...just "viewing" them is not really enough for serious academic work/research on PDF files. The more well integrated, the better. The functionality should look like in Acrobat, Okular, Mendeley, or similar tools.

kfrzcode 6y ago

Okular works fine, is not bloatware, doesn't spam me with ads and works just for all my annotation & viewing needs. It's also Free software & respects data/privacy. Don't like KDE-based software? How about Evince, Skim, Xpdf, gv... https://pdfreaders.org/ https://pdfreaders.org/ I say, stop moving everything to the web browser! Actually... stop using OS X altogether. The infamous High Sierra root-login vulnerability is harrowing enough and I'm gobsmacked as to why folks didn't abandon Apple at that point. I've been happy, gainfully employed, and quite successful in all ventures using Debian + free software, exclusively, for nearly 8 years. I'm not the only one. Happy to help anyone migrate should they have challenges!

BlueTemplar 6y ago
We should stop using PDFs so much, the use case for a fixed layout is getting more and more rare these days...

superhuzza 6y ago

I use Okular because I like being able to: - Highlight - Leave expandable comments - See the page thumbnails - Have access to area select/table select - Configure my pdf reader quite a bit I spend a lot of time reading .pdfs because I'm in grad school right now. Using Okular is way more convenient than trying to use browsers. This is not a strange use case at all, many people who frequently read .pdfs have the same needs. And it's clearly not trying to sell me on a pdf editor, because it's not related to a paid editor. Or at least I'm not aware of it, either way is fine by me.

Terretta 6y ago
Those are all cool, and for those plus more, I prefer the relatively obscure LiquidText for annotation: https://www.liquidtext.net/liquidtextadeeperdive https://www.liquidtext.net/liquidtextadeeperdive (To a sibling comment, just stop using MacOS: it's not a rule, but the usability and craftsmanship sensibilities that create software like LiquidText tend to cluster with the usability and craftsmanship sensibilities that appreciate MacOS.)
- codethief 6y ago
  > https://www.liquidtext.net/liquidtextadeeperdive https://www.liquidtext.net/liquidtextadeeperdive I was really hoping to find a good application for reading & annotating PDFs on Linux behind this link. :(
  - superhuzza 6y ago
    Give okular a try!

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago

Again, as been pointed out elsewhere, I hate that I had to install Adobe Reader, but some government forms couldn't be filled out without it.

jabroni_salad 6y ago

Hello from the world of finance. You know how some people make websites? Well, what if instead of a website, we make a pdf that you can upload a document to and then click a submit button in the pdf. And for good measure, lets make it so it only works in Adobe Reader's internet explorer plugin. Welcome to the Bank Secrecy Act e-filing system brought to you by the united states department of treasury.

ClemFandango 6y ago

I'm not sure if this could be considered a niche audience, but I install Adobe Reader by default on user machines, mainly because the built in readers with Chrome or Edge don't handle printing natively very well, due to not using the system's print settings immediately. You can bypass it with a shortcut and make changes, but it's not so great when users will select print and click ok, it's difficult to educate them against that. It's much easier to use Acrobat Reader and set it to open by default in that. So this may be the install base, SMB and schools, some large enterprise as well. Whether that preference will get changed back to edge in a feature update is another story.