Adobe Reader Alternatives Are Usable but Not Especially Compelling

Just about everyone uses PDF files to some degree: You have to be able to read them on just about any device, and the ability to write PDFs is common in most organizations. Yet security problems with Adobe's Acrobat and Reader programs have been fairly common and are actively exploited in the wild.

One thing you can do to protect yourself is to switch away from Adobe products. Since Adobe published the PDF spec many years ago, numerous companies have developed their own software to read and produce PDF files.

Because many more desktops will run the free Adobe Reader program than the for-pay Acrobat program, eWEEK Labs decided to put Reader up against some of its rival free "viewer" programs: Foxit Software's Foxit Reader, Tracker Software Products' PDF-XCHANGE VIEWER, CoolPDF Software's CoolPDF, CAD-KAS' CAD-KAS PDF Reader 2.4 and soft Xpansion's Perfect PDF Reader 5.

During tests, I didn't see any meaningful misrendering of documents using any of these products, although it's entirely possible that subtle differences eluded me. (Automation of testing of rendering fidelity is difficult at best.) I focused tests on a selection of 10 PDF documents found on the Web that used a variety of PDF features, including scripting and advanced form capabilities.

After testing was completed, I'm not so anxious to dump Adobe, as all of the programs tested provided reason for concern. Perhaps responsibly managing the vulnerabilities in Adobe products is the best solution.

Foxit Reader

Of all the alternative viewers, Foxit Reader from Foxit Software is the best known, at least in the United States. The company's main claim--and the main word on the street about Foxit--is that the application is small and fast compared with Adobe Reader. Without recording any hard numbers, Foxit Reader certainly felt faster than Adobe Reader during tests, but, overall, I'd rate it as disappointing.

The biggest problem I had with it was that it requires Administrator privileges in Windows, at least for the Firefox plugin. Thus, in default configuration, the app didn't work properly in Vista in Standard User mode.

Beyond that, I had some problems with documents, including form buttons that didn't work, and some lesser bugs, such as the menu option for resetting document forms not always working.

That said, Foxit Reader can save changes to a PDF form whether the creator has enabled it or not, although almost all of the viewers tested do the same. Foxit Reader has a nice "Text only" view that can make it easy to pick out what you're looking for. It also can open multiple documents in tabs, rather than in multiple windows.

If, as the premise of this story states, the idea is to avoid Acrobat and all those vulnerabilities it has, then Foxit is not exactly the ideal alternative. According to SecurityFocus, Foxit Reader has had three reported vulnerabilities in the last year--at least one of which could result in arbitrary code execution. Symantec even reports that it is seeing Foxit exploits in the wild.