Adobe Acrobat….and Alternative Document Readers
If you have been using a computer for awhile, you are probably familiar with Adobe Acrobat. However, if you are a “newbie,” you may not be aware of all this program can do.
Adobe Acrobat lets you create a document or image, “freeze” it as PDF file, and then distribute that PDF file as a “frozen copy” of your document. Others can view your document or image on any computer, with your layout and colors but they can’t change the content. It’s a great way to distribute documents and preserve your layout.
Adobe Acrobat is actually several different products. People often use the same name for all of these.
* Adobe PDF: A PDF file, such as suchandsuch.pdf, that can be viewed on any computer that has Acrobat Reader software. PDF stands for “Portable Document Format.”
* Adobe Acrobat Reader: A view-only program that lets you view PDF files. Acrobat Reader is free. Visit www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html for a free copy.
* Adobe Acrobat PDF Writer: Lets you create PDF files from within another application, such as Word, Framemaker, PhotoShop, and so on. This often appears as an item in the File menu.
* Adobe Acrobat PDF Distiller: A stand-alone program that converts files into PDF files.
* Adobe Acrobat Exchange: This lets you edit PDF files, so you can create forms, links, add sound, and so on.
If you want to read PDF files, you can download Acrobat Reader for free.
However, Adobe is not without its security problems………
Click here to read about the current vulnerability that affects some Adobe products.
Because of the way Adobe integrates into Windows explorer – to provide metadata information about PDF files – there is a chance that your system could become infected without ever opening a single file. Since the bug’s code can be placed within a file’s metadata, any action that calls that data could set things in motion. That includes something as simple as hovering your mouse over the file icon, according to Stephen Schenck who has suggested using an alternative application to read files. Unfortunately, that won’t fully address the vulnerability. To be completely safe, you’ll have to remove Adobe Reader (and presumably, Acrobat as well) from your system for the time being and reinstall it once Adobe has developed a patch.
Here are some alternatives to Adobe Reader:
1. Sumatra PDF: This Windows PDF viewer is light and easy to use. It’s even designed for portable use, so you can run it from a USB drive.
http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/index.html
2. FoxIt Reader: The Foxit PDF viewer is an all time favorite and it has a reliable set of features (with a very competitive price
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/
3. PalmPDF: Use this PDF viewer for Palm OS devices.
http://www.metaviewsoft.de/en/Software/PalmOS/Freeware/PalmPDF/index.html
4. Evince: Gnome users can take advantage of Evince, a document viewer that supports both PDF and PostScript documents.
http://projects.gnome.org/evince/
5. Preview: Mac OS X comes with Preview, an application that displays images and PDFs.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/#preview
6. ePDFView: This lightweight PDF viewer uses the GTK+ and Poppler libraries. http://trac.emma-soft.com/epdfview/
7. Okular: This document viewer for KDE 4 supports PDF, PostScript, and lots more. http://okular.kde.org/formats.php
8. Xpdf: Xpdf, available for nearly any Unix OS, is a PDF viewer that allows you to read encrypted PDFs, extract images, and more.
9 . Xpdf: Xpdf, available for nearly any Unix OS, is a PDF viewer that allows you to read encrypted PDFs, extract images and more.http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/
