The best pdf readers, according to hackers
6 pdf readers recommended in Hacker News comments over the past year, ranked by how many separate people recommend each one.
All pdf readers
- Apple PreviewFree PDF viewer and editor built into macOS, liked for signing, annotating, redacting and quick image edits; critics cite a buggy, inconsistent interface and removed features.42recommend
- OkularKDE's free document viewer opens PDFs, Markdown and comics smoothly, with handy reading and light editing tools. Critics say it does not reflow text when the window is resized.12recommend
- MuPDFFast, simple PDF reader praised for its clean interface and text handling; AGPL licensing blocks use in non-open-source tools.11recommend
- SumatraPDFFast, simple PDF reader for Windows that opens files almost instantly and displays them cleanly. It does not edit PDFs.11recommend
- pdf.jsFree PDF viewer built into Firefox and many websites, praised as clean, minimal and mostly safe. Common caveat: slower and less capable with very large files and editing.10recommend
- Foxit ReaderPeople recommend Foxit Reader as a simple PDF reader with a strong annotation system, though it is not open source.6recommend