Adobe Acrobat is expensive, but that doesn’t mean you have to live a life without portable documents.

What many people don’t realize is that PDF is a Federal Information Processing Standard, which means the specifications behind the format are widely published. Numerous developers take advantage of this fact and create programs that offer effective alternatives to Acrobat. Check out our list of these programs and take advantage of these tools that are full of some of the best PDF features and functions.

Check out the fine list here:

www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-excel/post/pdf-editing-creation-50-open-sourcefree-alternatives-to-adobe-acrobat/

I used to dread accidentally clicking on PDF web _link_s due to the shear time it took to launch Acrobat Reader and to get the browser back. Some of these alternatives start up in no time so now there is so little difference opening a PDF and opening any other _link_ that I no longer mind accidentally clicking them, it's actually pleasant working with PDF in many cases (brochures, floor-plans, certificates, stuff that needs printing). It is so strange that Adobe have not realised that a slow and sluggish user experience is actually damaging their product.

Personally, I LOVE foxit. It's fast, lightweight, and free. The only problem I have had with any alternative is that some sites look too see if Acrobat is installed and won't take an alternative.

www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/

So you end up having to install Acrobat anyway... Adobe makes really good software, but Acrobat is a piece and their whole updating system annoys me constantly.

As someone who sends a lot of things to be printed at a high quality, PDFs are the standard for printers—able to deliver high quality.

I'm not sure if these alternatives can produce that same level or if they're even acceptable for printers.

Anyhow, those are my reasons for using Adobe, but I can understand why someone who doesnt use it for those purposes would want something that loads faster and is smaller.