Comparing PDF Readers
Posted by Julie on 06/5/08 in Featured Posts, Mobilitysite Reviews, PocketPC, Software
If you want to read PDF files on your Pocket PC, you have a couple of choices in PDF Readers. In this article I will evaluate and compare the three most popular PDF Readers for Pocket PC: Foxit Reader for Pocket PC; PocketXpdf; and Adobe Reader for Pocket PC 2.0.
Foxit Reader for Pocket PC (Version 1.1, Build 1230)
PLEASE NOTE: Before writing this review, I had checked Foxit’s website to make sure I was working with its latest version of Foxit Reader for Pocket PC. The review took a few days to write and during that time, Foxit released a beta version 1.2 that resolves many of the points I raised in this review. This is a significant update to this software. I was unaware that a software update had been released until some users here brought it to my attention in their comments to this review. I appreciate their comments and I have installed this beta version to my pocket pc and will be updating this review within in the next 24 hours, but my quick evaluation of the beta version agrees with the comments that others have posted here…..The beta version now reflows PDF documents, provides better zoom capability, and remembers your place in the document - when you exit the document and reopen it later, the Foxit Reader opens to the place where you left off.
Please look for an update to this article within the next 24 hours.
Foxit Reader is the lightest PDF reader - it does not consume near the resources as Adobe Reader. But I don’t think it is a very useful PDF reader.
Foxit Reader for Pocket PC does not recognize tagged files, so there is no way to reflow PDF files to fit to a Pocket PC screen. Instead you must rely on Foxit Reader’s Zoom In and Zoom Out option in order to read documents.
You can see that Foxit Reader preserves the original formatting of the PDF file, including the excess margins, so a lot of screen space is simply wasted.
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Zooming In and Out is accomplished by tapping the plus (+) or minus (-) icons displayed on the bottom of the screen or by tapping the stylus on the Pocket PC screen. When you zoom into a document you can move around the document by dragging the stylus up and down or left and right across the screen, or by tapping the document minimap (see the small gray picture of the document found in the lower right hand corner of the screen). When moving around the document, the text blurs until you stop moving the stylus (see the screenshot on the right). I think it would be tedious to read a large document on Foxit Reader.
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You can view the document in full screen mode and you can turn the document minimap feature off for a better viewing experience.
| Full screen mode / Zoom Out | Full screen mode / Zoom In |
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You can easily rotate the document from portrait to landscape.
Foxit Reader recognizes pre-existing bookmarks in documents, but there’s no way to create a new bookmark in a document. If you exit a document before you are finished reading it, be sure to write down the page number you were on because Foxit Reader won’t remember your place in the document. When you reopen the document to resume reading it, Foxit Reader will open to the first page of the document.
PocketXpdf (v0.5)
PocketXpdf takes a little longer to open a file, and moving from page to page is quite a bit slower than for Foxit Reader or Adobe Reader.
PocketXpdf’ provides a “View Text Only” option that removes all of the document’s formatting (including paragraph indentations) and “reflows” the text to fit the smaller mobile device screen.
| Document when first opened in PocketXpdf. The print is quite small and you’d have to scroll up and down and left and right to read the document. | Document set to “View Text Only” mode - notice that the new paragraph, which starts with, “Once the votes……,” is no longer indented. |
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You can view documents in full screen mode and adjust the font size from 11 up to 16. PocketXpdf also supports VGA screens.
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PocketXpdf includes a Zoom In and Zoom Out option, but zooming is very slow and I encountered memory problems before I could zoom the text to a comfortable size for reading.
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Adobe Reader for Pocket PC 2.0
Adobe Reader for Pocket PC has the largest footprint and is a memory hog. But compared to the other PDF readers, it offers the most options, provides the most comfortable reading experience and accommodates the widest variety of documents. Some of the options that keep me coming back to Adobe Reader include:
Adobe Reader recognizes tagged PDF files and reflows the files to work with a smaller mobile device screen. You can also see that reflowing documents preserves existing formatting (paragraph indentations) and removes excess margins.
| Document that is not reflowed | Document is reflowed to fit the Pocket PC’s screen |
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Pressing and holding the stylus on the screen reveals a menu with many different options, such as “Full Screen” and “Automatically Scroll.”
| Pressing and holding the stylus on the screen provides a menu with many different options: | Reflowed document in Full Screen |
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You can rotate the view from portrait to landscape either by using Adobe’s rotate function or by using the Pocket PC’s rotate option (if available).
- Adobe’s rotate function only rotates the screen to the right, so if you rotate it to landscape mode, it will take 3 rotations to get it back to upright portrait mode.
- Pocket PC’s rotate option (this usually involves pressing and holding a button) is clunky. If you use the Pocket PC’s rotate option, the screen will not appear correct (see screenshot below), but if you select the Full Screen view mode after you rotate the screen, the screen will self correct.
Full screen mode with view rotated to landscape view.
You can use Adobe Reader’s Zoom In option to make the text as large as you need it to be to read comfortably or you can use Adobe Reader’s Zoom Out option to make the text as small as you can stand it.
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You can customize the toolbar that runs along the bottom of the screen to display up to 11 icons along the bottom of the screen by tapping the up arrow found on the lower left hand side of the screen and selecting “Customize Toolbar”
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Protected PDF files
There are two possible levels of protection you may encounter with PDF files: 1) DRM level encryption and 2) Password Protection.
1) DRM level encryption
PDF formatted eBooks that you purchase or check out of a library may include DRM level encryption. To read DRM encrypted PDF files on a mobile device requires activating the device through Adobe’s website. The Pocket PC activation on Adobe’s website appears to be broken (I managed to activate one of my 4 Pocket PCs through Adobe’s website months ago, but now I receive error messages when I attempt to activate any of my other mobile devices). If you can get your Pocket PC activated on Adobe’s website, then you can transfer and read DRM files on the device by:
- Adding the PDF file to the Digital Editions module within Adobe Reader 7.0 (you cannot use Adobe Reader 8.0 for this).
- Then connecting the Pocket PC to the computer, highlighting the PDF file and selecting the “Send to Mobile Device” option found in the Digital Editions screen.
You can not use Adobe Reader 8.0 or Adobe Acrobat 8.0 because this version of software does not include a Digital Editions module. Instead you will be forced to use Adobe’s new Digital Editions software (this is a free standing PDF reader) that does not support Pocket PCs or other mobile devices at this time.
Adobe Reader for Pocket PC is the only PDF reader that can accommodate DRM encrypted PDF files.
2) Password Protection
The other level of protection revolves around files that do not have DRM encryption on them but are password protected. Password protected files may require a password to open them and may require a separate permission password to copy or print them. All of the PDF readers I evaluated were able to open Password protected files. If the book is protected with a password, you will be prompted to enter the password when you attempt to open it on your Pocket PC.
Let’s Compare PDF Readers
| Price |
Free |
$19.99 |
Free |
| Accommodates a small screen | Yes, tag files & use reflow option | No, relies on zoom | Yes, use “View Text Only” option |
| Search option? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Change font size / VGA support? | No, use zoom instead | No, use zoom instead | Yes from 11 - 16, with VGA support |
| Bookmark option | No, but remembers the last page read | No | No, but remembers the last page read |
| Zoom levels | Yes | Limited Zoom In / Zoom Out | Yes, but slow and subject to memory errors |
| Smartphone version? | No | Yes | Yes |
| Reads password protected files? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reads DRM encrypted files? | Yes (activated devices only) | No | No |
| Memory Requirements: | |||
| Storage Memory | 7.2M | 1.7M | 1.1M |
| RAM load * | 3.25 MB | 1.41 MB | 2.89 MB |
* RAM load calculated by subtracting the amount of program memory available after opening a book in the respective reader (available program memory after a soft reset - available program memory with application running)
Which one would you prefer to read?
| Foxit Reader: Zoom In | PocketXpdf: Full Screen & View Text Only mode | Adobe Reader: Full Screen & Reflowed mode |
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Final Thoughts & Recommendations
If you only need to read short PDF documents every now and then on your Pocket PC, you can get by with Foxit Reader or PocketXpdf.
If you plan to read a moderate number of short PDF documents on your Pocket PC, you can get by with PocketXpdf.
If you plan to read lengthy PDF documents or DRM encrypted PDF files on your Pocket PC, install Adobe PDF Reader for Pocket PC. Given the memory requirements of Adobe PDF Reader, be sure to install the software to a storage card. Before opening a large PDF file, close all other open applications so as to free up as much program memory as possible and avoid memory issues.
See Also
Written by Julie · Filed Under Featured Posts, Mobilitysite Reviews, PocketPC, Software
Tagged: PDF Viewers; Adobe PDF; Pocket PC software; Foxit Reade
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Thanks! This was a terrific article and cleared up a lot of questions.
I’ve used Adobe Reader for almost 2 years on my AT&T/Cingular 8525 (WM5) and it’s done a fine job — especially for very large PDFs (>1 MB). I just bought Foxit to add some flexibility and give me another option for some documents, which seem to render clearer and easier in Foxit — mostly smaller (up to 1 MB) PDF documents.
In addition, Foxit just released v1.2 (Beta) on 03 June (only available on Foxit’s website as a ZIP, EXE or CAB for now)…and it has added tagging recognition(among a big bunch of other features) to allow reflowing. A big improvement, making Foxit a bit more competitive with Adobe Acrobat and a bit more worth spending another $20 for a PDF reader above the free Adobe product.
Excellent comparison, will definitely link to it in my next WinMo News collection.
Very impressive and useful comparison.
I wonder how you would stack DocumentsToGo’s PDFtoGo up against the three you looked at here?
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Hmm the most important feature wasnt mentioned: viewing scans/faxes. A good PDF reader should allow you to read pure PDF documents and scanned images in PDF format. This is why I use adobe reader…I dont think the other two allow you to view a faxed pdf for example.
I use Docs To Go on my Motorla Q and don’t care for it at all. You see what’s on the screen and if you move the document everything stops and the entire document gets reprocessed as if it was opening new. What a completely useless program.
Superb article Julie, err Professor Julie.
I have viewed scanned articles in all three PDF viewers.
Scanned articles are really nothing more than images, so tagging and reflowing (in the case of Adobe Reader) does not apply, and the Full Text Mode, and font size changes of PocketXpdf do not work either (you only see a white screen when you select Full Text Mode).
When viewing scanned files, the experience is almost the same for all three viewers….you must resort to zooming in and out to view the text and then either scrolling up and down and left and right or pressing and holding the stylus on the page to move around the document.
When reading a scanned document in this manner, I found Adobe Reader to be the most responsive, Foxit Reader was a bit sluggish, and PocketXPDF ran out of memory before I could zoom in to a size that was comfortable reading. But if your eyes are better than mine and you can handle a smaller print, PocketXPDF was as responsive as Adobe Reader when zoomed in at a lower level of magnification.
I have tried Adobe’s and PocketXPDF. I prefer PocketXPDF.
This is a really great comparison, although Foxit just released their 1.2 Version on June 3rd. This version has reflow. You might want to compare that version because it has reflow and is the newest version.
Foxit reader is good,many problem mention in this comment have been fixed in the V1.2
Foxit Reader V1.2 Beta Version can remember your place in the document. I test it.
1,does not recognize tagged files(foxit reader V1.2beta could do that)
2, a lot of screen space is simply wasted(V1.2beta could remeber the last view now)
3,text blurs (users could set options,don’t choose Quck draw item,and the text blurs will be change to blank)
4,create a new bookmark (next version)
5, won’t remember your place in the document.(V1.2beata could do that)
6,couldn’t reader fax file(users could send a email to the foxit support for getting the version which could read fax files,it is free).
Hello Julie, I am Senior Manager of Sales and Marketing for Foxit Software. Please send me an e-mail at the e-mail address that I put in this reply. Thanks.
No need to publish this comment.
I prefer Adobe Reader LE. It’s fast and has a small footprint.
Clear View have a PDF reader
My hx4700 came with Clearvue PDF installed, and I was pretty happy with it, even though its missing many features the other readers have (such as find). Unfortunately when I updated my iPAQ to WM6 I lost the Clearvue viewer, and I couldn’t find a current version which supports VGA. (?) So now I’m stuck with PocketXpdf because it’s the only reader with built-in VGA support.
Good review. I think the most important point for me and other users of VGA Pocket PCs is the VGA compatibility. My biggest gripe with Adobe Reader wasn’t that it was a memory hog, or that it was a remnant from an earlier time :), but rather that it did not support VGA resolution. If you can fit way more data on a screen there are very few reasons you should settle for less.
That is why xPDF gets Kevin1a’s official thumbs up!
Wow, what a great article! I have been blindly using the Adobe PDF Reader on my PocketPC phone (xv6800), but it looks like it is still the way to go. Especially for free.
Adobe Acrobat is VGA-capable, you just have to force it to use the VGA mode, see this site:
http://www.mobilitysite.com/boards/windows-mobile-5/103786-how-force-hi_res_aware-true-vga-windows-mobile-5-0-a.html
It works on my HP HX4700 WM6.1.
Even though I haven’t tried the other two, but did few other well recommended ones, I tebd to see that Adobe’s Acrobat Reader is the way to go, even though it uses comparatively more resource, but then with todays new mobiles, having more than 256MB RAM, this is OK.