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I use SumatraPDF almost every day and I love it. It is very rare these days to have an application that is all of the following: - Small and fast - Hand-craft

I use SumatraPDF almost every day and I love it. It is very rare these days to have an application that is all of the following: - Small and fast - Hand-crafted for a particular platform - Not bloated with oddly specific UI menus and configuration settings It has one job and it does it very well. Thank you for it.

Aisen8010 4y ago
Sumatra is the best PDF Reader. It's sad that the developer isn't making much money from that excellent product.
- arepublicadoceu 4y ago
  Why is it sad? Every time I see a piece of software that provides a lot of value and it’s not focused on money-making (ublock for example) it gives me a warm feeling.
  - supriyo-biswas 4y ago
    Because there is something ironic about people (in general, including those here) dreaming about well paying jobs, but then wanting high quality products that have been worked on by people without compensation, when that time could have been invested by the worker (developer in this case) working another paid job, spending time with loved ones, and the like.
    - GoblinSlayer 4y ago
      That's the virtue of suckless software too: you can do it in spare time.
    - hulitu 4y ago
      I don't think that Google, Apple or Microsoft employees are not payed. And the quality of those products just isn't there. I mean, my employer paid 500 euros for an Iphone which maybe costs 50 euros to be produced. From those 450 euros is an Apple engineer not able to test the smalest phone with bigger fonts and to implement proper hyphenation on menu items ?
  - rafabulsing 4y ago
    It's great that it's not money-focused. It's sad that it doesn't make money despite of that.
  - FredPret 4y ago
    Please forward your warm feelings to his bank account. Perhaps he can live off it
    - arepublicadoceu 4y ago
      I really forgot for a second where I was, thanks for the reminder.
xattt 4y ago
It’s missing dark mode that other low-key projects have adopted. It’s an app that’s lovely to use, but it sure does give your eyeballs a suntan when it’s open. Yes, there are custom settings you can set, but for simple software, I just want a simple switch.
- ngneer 4y ago
  You can invert colors with a command line option, usually that does the trick
- mikub 4y ago
  I actually prefer a textfile to change the colors, especially for a pdf reader I don't like white text on the "#000000" black that a lot of apps use. Instead I use "BackgroundColor = #ECECEC" which is much better for the eyes imho.
  - TeMPOraL 4y ago
    Webapps and mobile apps really need two dark modes - the one you like, i.e. light grey text on dark grey background, and another one for AMOLED screens, that's actual light grey or white on pure black. On AMOLED displays, that #000000 not only looks nice, it also saves battery, as it shuts the given pixel off. The difference is substantial - with modern UI trends that waste most of screen space, a "grey on pure black" color scheme can often keep more than 50% of the pixels off! Meanwhile, a typical "grey on grey" dark mode will keep 100% of them on.
    - Readerium 4y ago
      No AMOLED screens on pure black do not consume significantly less power than a dark non pure black color. The power consumption on pure black vs another dark color is extremely similar. This is because on AMOLED screens individual pixels control themselves and power for off vs dark is very similar. Source: https://www.xda-developers.com/amoled-black-vs-gray-dark-mode/ https://www.xda-developers.com/amoled-black-vs-gray-dark-mod...
nickjj 4y ago
> It is very rare these days to have an application that is all of the following... Yep. On Windows there's: - IrfanView for image editing - foobar2000 for mp3s They've been on my "must have" install list for ~20 years. There's also Ditto for managing multiple clipboard entries. It's a good example of how a small open source tool with an optimized UI for 1 thing ends up being 100x better than the same feature MS tried to implement straight into Windows.
- nix23 4y ago
  I add 7-Zip and SpeedCrunch to the list
  - DeathArrow 4y ago
    And Paint.NET.
- Ambitious1325 4y ago
  In your opinion what advantages does Ditto have over win+V? I've only used Ditto very briefly but didn't immediately notice anything too wildly different from the built-in implementation.
  - nickjj 4y ago
    For a multi-clipboard manager I'm looking for: - Configure hot keys to bring up the clipboard selector (I use CTRL + Alt + V) - Quickly select a clipboard item via hot key, arrow keys or mouse - Search through the list of clipboard items immediately - Configure how many items get saved and when they expire - Ability to paste in plain-text as a separate hot key Ditto hits all of those marks. Overall it feels like it was built by a person who actively uses it.
- Joker_vD 4y ago
  I use Imagine for image viewing. It has an amazing little feature: when you press the "Next Image" (or "Previous Image") button and the window resizes/moves to keep its size consistent with the new image's size, the mouse cursor is automatically moved to still be over that "Next"/"Previous" button. It most likely takes about 5 lines of code to implement but what's important that the author actually thought about and took care about this scenario.
krylon 4y ago
I haven't touched a Windows system in a few years, but when I worked as a Windows admin / programmer, SumatraPDF was my PDF viewer of choice. It does what it's supposed to do, does it well, and it doesn't get in my way while doing so. No subscription or cloud bullshit. And like you said, it's really small and fast. To top it all off, it runs without an installer, you just drop the executable somewhere and you're good to go; so people can use it without having Administrator access or bothering / arguing with their IT department.

Aisen8010 4y ago

Sumatra is the best PDF Reader. It's sad that the developer isn't making much money from that excellent product.

arepublicadoceu 4y ago
Why is it sad? Every time I see a piece of software that provides a lot of value and it’s not focused on money-making (ublock for example) it gives me a warm feeling.
- supriyo-biswas 4y ago
  Because there is something ironic about people (in general, including those here) dreaming about well paying jobs, but then wanting high quality products that have been worked on by people without compensation, when that time could have been invested by the worker (developer in this case) working another paid job, spending time with loved ones, and the like.
  - GoblinSlayer 4y ago
    That's the virtue of suckless software too: you can do it in spare time.
  - hulitu 4y ago
    I don't think that Google, Apple or Microsoft employees are not payed. And the quality of those products just isn't there. I mean, my employer paid 500 euros for an Iphone which maybe costs 50 euros to be produced. From those 450 euros is an Apple engineer not able to test the smalest phone with bigger fonts and to implement proper hyphenation on menu items ?
- rafabulsing 4y ago
  It's great that it's not money-focused. It's sad that it doesn't make money despite of that.
- FredPret 4y ago
  Please forward your warm feelings to his bank account. Perhaps he can live off it
  - arepublicadoceu 4y ago
    I really forgot for a second where I was, thanks for the reminder.

xattt 4y ago

It’s missing dark mode that other low-key projects have adopted. It’s an app that’s lovely to use, but it sure does give your eyeballs a suntan when it’s open. Yes, there are custom settings you can set, but for simple software, I just want a simple switch.

ngneer 4y ago
You can invert colors with a command line option, usually that does the trick
mikub 4y ago
I actually prefer a textfile to change the colors, especially for a pdf reader I don't like white text on the "#000000" black that a lot of apps use. Instead I use "BackgroundColor = #ECECEC" which is much better for the eyes imho.
- TeMPOraL 4y ago
  Webapps and mobile apps really need two dark modes - the one you like, i.e. light grey text on dark grey background, and another one for AMOLED screens, that's actual light grey or white on pure black. On AMOLED displays, that #000000 not only looks nice, it also saves battery, as it shuts the given pixel off. The difference is substantial - with modern UI trends that waste most of screen space, a "grey on pure black" color scheme can often keep more than 50% of the pixels off! Meanwhile, a typical "grey on grey" dark mode will keep 100% of them on.
  - Readerium 4y ago
    No AMOLED screens on pure black do not consume significantly less power than a dark non pure black color. The power consumption on pure black vs another dark color is extremely similar. This is because on AMOLED screens individual pixels control themselves and power for off vs dark is very similar. Source: https://www.xda-developers.com/amoled-black-vs-gray-dark-mode/ https://www.xda-developers.com/amoled-black-vs-gray-dark-mod...

nickjj 4y ago

> It is very rare these days to have an application that is all of the following... Yep. On Windows there's: - IrfanView for image editing - foobar2000 for mp3s They've been on my "must have" install list for ~20 years. There's also Ditto for managing multiple clipboard entries. It's a good example of how a small open source tool with an optimized UI for 1 thing ends up being 100x better than the same feature MS tried to implement straight into Windows.

nix23 4y ago
I add 7-Zip and SpeedCrunch to the list
- DeathArrow 4y ago
  And Paint.NET.
Ambitious1325 4y ago
In your opinion what advantages does Ditto have over win+V? I've only used Ditto very briefly but didn't immediately notice anything too wildly different from the built-in implementation.
- nickjj 4y ago
  For a multi-clipboard manager I'm looking for: - Configure hot keys to bring up the clipboard selector (I use CTRL + Alt + V) - Quickly select a clipboard item via hot key, arrow keys or mouse - Search through the list of clipboard items immediately - Configure how many items get saved and when they expire - Ability to paste in plain-text as a separate hot key Ditto hits all of those marks. Overall it feels like it was built by a person who actively uses it.
Joker_vD 4y ago
I use Imagine for image viewing. It has an amazing little feature: when you press the "Next Image" (or "Previous Image") button and the window resizes/moves to keep its size consistent with the new image's size, the mouse cursor is automatically moved to still be over that "Next"/"Previous" button. It most likely takes about 5 lines of code to implement but what's important that the author actually thought about and took care about this scenario.

krylon 4y ago

I haven't touched a Windows system in a few years, but when I worked as a Windows admin / programmer, SumatraPDF was my PDF viewer of choice. It does what it's supposed to do, does it well, and it doesn't get in my way while doing so. No subscription or cloud bullshit. And like you said, it's really small and fast. To top it all off, it runs without an installer, you just drop the executable somewhere and you're good to go; so people can use it without having Administrator access or bothering / arguing with their IT department.