Sick to death of Adobe's slow, bloated PDF Reader? If so, then consider one of the excellent free third party viewers that are available.

First there is the Foxit Reader. It's small, loads in a flash, supports bookmarks, has search capability, offers many views and even allows you to annotate PDF files. On top of that it can print PDFs as well. On the downside I find the PDFs look less clear on my PC screen than with the Adobe Reader and the annotation feature leaves validation marks that can only be removed by buying the full version of the reader.

Rather clearer in its rendering is PDF-XChange Viewer. Like Foxit is also allows PDF annotation, but in this case it thankfully leaves the annotated copy free of validation marks. It also allows you fill and save Adobe PDF forms, extract text and images, magnify text and export PDF pages or documents to BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG formats. The only downside is the program size; at 13.2MB it's nearly seven times larger than Foxit. There is a lite version available that's half the size but missing most of the features.

If size matters to you then check out the 802KB Sumatra Reader. Yes, the interface is a little cruder than Foxit and no, it hasn't got the features or image clarity of PDF-XChange but 99.9% of the time all most folks want from a PDF reader is to be able to read PDFs. And that's what Sumatra does simply and well. And did I tell you that it's also portable?

Foxit Reader
Website: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/
Download page: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
Author: Foxit Software
Current version: 2.2 Build 2129
Version date: 29/9/2007
License: Free for basic version, various prices for other versions and add-ons.
Download file size: 3.65 MB
Operating systems supported: Most
Additional software required: None
Portable version available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Eastern Asian Language support available.
Other relevant information: All available on main website via links.