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PDF on PDA: a pain in the...?

After trying all sorts of pdf readers, I come close to the conclusion that reading pdf documents on a PDA is not practical at all and even irrealistic.
Due mainly to the fact that one cannot view an entire page with a readable font size without having to scroll sideways.
I end up converting pdf to lit.
Please, give opinion and eventually solutions.
Thanks all, and take care

Come on folks, just a few words about your experience with pdf...

donno i read a book as pdf once
on my pda
only had to scroll down not sideways
depend on the doc in question really i suppose
pref lit though because of bookmarks and cleartype
and not being as much a res hog as acrobat reader which i used at the time

VGA a requirement
I use an older version of Adobe reader on a VGA screen. My eyes are still good enough that I can zoom out, get a full page on the screen, and still read it. I have read an entire book this way. I am sure there are better ways to do it on a PDA. But my goal is to be able to grab a document off of the web and read it as I travel. If there is going to be conversion between formats, it would have to take place on the PDA.
That being said, it is still easier to read a word or text document than a PDF. But if you have the screen resolution and size to work with, PDF's are not impossible.

Thanks folks, that was my impression.

Answers
There are ways to improve PDF experiance. Using reflow when creating PDFs (available as an option when saving PDFs from OpenOffice, for example) greatly improves things.
Anothr good option is Repligo - you can print / convert PDFs to that format. It uses less space, documents open faster and look better (less jagged fonts).

Believe me, PDFs are annoying even in actual, desktop environments. >_>
That said, I'm using Foxit for the PPC. It loads 15MB++ files faster than Adobe, follows the original PDF format faithfully (doesn't try to rearrange like idiotic Clearvue), yet it is a standalone program that requires no installation.
That said, PDF reading is only for devices with a big screen. Definitely bigger than a Mini, let alone an Atom. Otherwise, at a big enough text to be legible, scrolling to the side is necessary - and that tends to lag a bit with bigger PDFs for devices with only 64MB of RAM or less.

I have train skeds and the Tokyo Metro Map plus a crap load more pdf files
that I use on my X01HT and yes you do have to scroll both ways but I mean
have you seen the detail of the Tokyo Metro Map?!?
It works for me. I actually like it.
Plus I get 'really cool' nods from Japanese when they see me looking
through the Tokyo Metro map on my X01HT because most of them
use the low tech pocket paper fold out.
Yes, I am a gaijin otaku and proud of it!!!

imexp then big pictures makes pdf useless on pda's as they can move the text to scale but in there is a picture in the middle they cant really handle scaling the picture down to match the width of the pda screen

I think converting to repligo is the most elegant solution since images are conserved...but it is not free
Otherwise, if pics are not important, converting to text then to lit and using microsoft reader is an acceptable free solution.
To "AquiEsta!": why don't you use the excellent "metro" freeware?

You can use the free xpdf (pocketpdf). It at least has better zoom functions then adobe and it has the option to read pdf as text files with associated functions. You lose pictures but pure textfiles are a breaze to read...

elio said:
I think converting to repligo is the most elegant solution since images are conserved...but it is not free
Otherwise, if pics are not important, converting to text then to lit and using microsoft reader is an acceptable free solution.
To "AquiEsta!": why don't you use the excellent "metro" freeware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't know such a thing existed. Where would I find that? In English
would be great too!
Thanks

AquiEsta! said:
I didn't know such a thing existed. Where would I find that? In English
would be great too!
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://nanika.net/Metro/
You will love it

elio said:
http://nanika.net/Metro/
You will love it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"more than 350 cities covered now"... I'm already in love with it because
I travel a lot and this hopefully will save me time and advils.
THANK YOU!!!
off I go to set it up...

Adobe Reader for PPC 2 works with my HTC Athena/Advantage VGA screen without legibility problems using its reflow function which wraps the text to your screen - no sideways scrolling needed.
Even if your documents were not prepared specifically for this Active Sync will do the necessary conversion when you transfer the docs from your PC (turn it on in file settings). If you bypass ActiveSync your reflow button gets greyed out.
For documents like maps you can switch to sideways scrolling whenever you want.
My only gripe is that the characters are a little fuzzy, so I'm looking for a fix for this.
UPDATE: fuzzy characters fixed:
Switch resolution to 95 dpi using RealVGA before opening Adobe Reader. Now works as it was meant to. Only downside is the the resolution switch involves a reset.

For reading articles and such offline I use ScrapBook (a Firefox extension) to capture the page/selection and delete ads/sidebars and then 'Save Page as...' and copy the html and corresponding images folder to my SD card. It's a pain but it's the best solution that I could find.

I use Mobipocket Reader to do the conversion and reading, it's free and works well for me www.mobipocket.com

For PDFs Picel Browser, and Foxit Reader for Windows Mobile are pretty good.

I second the picsel reader. http://www.picselpowered.com
Don't let the number of Cons over Pros put you off.
Even with these problems I still use it on a daily basis, and preferred to buy it over using free alternatives like Adobe.
Proof that mobile apps don't have to look like clunky old windows apps.
Pro
Excellent rendering of PDF files
Fine control over zoom, can use a gesture (tap & drag)
Cons
Out of memory errors with just a few other apps running
Remembers last document opened, but not page
No Search
No way of jumping to a page

pdemoore said:
I second the picsel reader. http://www.picselpowered.com
Don't let the number of Cons over Pros put you off.
Even with these problems I still use it on a daily basis, and preferred to buy it over using free alternatives like Adobe.
Proof that mobile apps don't have to look like clunky old windows apps.
Pro
Excellent rendering of PDF files
Fine control over zoom, can use a gesture (tap & drag)
Cons
Out of memory errors with just a few other apps running
Remembers last document opened, but not page
No Search
No way of jumping to a page
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I back this as well, it is bar far, THEE most impressive on a PDA.
It has no rendering lag, making it the fastest PDF reader on WM.
I would only recommend that VGA users view PDFs, QVGA isn't practical.

For heaven's sake: a GOOD PDF Reader!

Dear All
Is there a good PDF reader for Android? I have tried almost all available, and they all seem to have one deficiency or another. Some cannot reflow text, some don't remember their settings, some are fiddly and slow, the clown prince of them all being Adobe Reader.
One thing they ALL are missing is an ability to place bookmarks. See, I'd like to read some PDF books on my Desire but I haven't found one which enables me to place a bookmark.
Any help?

I totally agree. And those reader that do exist do not get any updates - as if they were sufficient.

have you tried Repligo PDF reader.........better than beam reader ( a good 2nd choice)

ThinkFree Office that came preloaded on my Vibrant seems to do it all just fine for me on PDFs.

+1 for RepliGo.
It does not support bookmarks but it remembers when you stopped reading. I've also tried tons of PDF readers and RepliGo seems like the best option.

repligo is great, the fastest at rendering a page out there, and i've tried them all

The real problem isn't the reader software, it's with the PDF format. It was never designed to be "portable". It was designed to represent a PRINTED page, and as such features such as text reflow are not even possible with some PDF's which are essentially image files. Even when it is possible, so much fluff behind the scenes formatting-wise makes reflowed text difficult to render correctly, as images often lose their relevance.
Fact is, PDF is a HORRIBLE format for mobile devices at the very base, it is nothing like HTML or CSS which is designed to be screen/device agnostic to some extent. The best readers can do is try.

[App] Write - a word processor for handwriting (freeware)

Write is a word processor for handwriting, available for Android 3.0 and later and Windows tablet PCs. Write provides a unique set of tools which ease the editing of handwritten text by grouping strokes into lines, much like typed text in a word processor.
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.styluslabs.write
Features:
* tools: draw, erase, select, insert space, and add bookmark
* configurable stylus button support in Android 4.0
* move strokes and insert space in multiples of the page's ruling
* reflow handwritten text with the insert space tool
* insert bookmarks and label them with handwriting
* cut, copy, paste selection
* unlimited undo/redo jog dial (volume keys can also be used for undo/redo)
* pan/zoom with two fingers
* customize and save pens
* user defined page size, color, and ruling
* pages can grow automatically as you write
* split screen with web browser to take notes from web pages or videos
* html/svg document format viewable in any modern web browser
* view thumbnails as a grid or list
* when viewed as list, arrange thumbnails by drag and drop
Comments, bug reports, and feature requests can be posted to this thread; I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
-- Matt
Update (Aug 31):
v1.5 adds ability to export all docs as a single zip file, more options for pen/touch input, and more

About to try it out I'll report back
Edit:
DUDE THIS IS AWESOME.
-UI is nice and clean, also very intuitive
-Hand writing experience is the best I've used.
Things to consider:
- fit to screen button as a shortcut if you've zoomed too far in and need to get out quick.
- page navigation could be located in the bottom right and left corners of the screen, makes it a bit more intuitive. Where the up and down arrows are Now for navigation could act as an area for stating what page your on.(e.g page 6/9)
Things I'm personally looking for:
- drop box integration and PDF annotation support
Keep up keep up the good work.
Sent from my ThinkPad Tablet using xda app-developers app

Why isn't there an option for zoom and pan only with touch input?
Sent from my ThinkPadTablet using xda app-developers app
Edit: I could have sworn touch input always drew lines. Installed again and now it works fine. My bad.

DeucesAx said:
Why isn't there an option for zoom and pan only with touch input?
Sent from my ThinkPadTablet using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure I understand the question - the default behavior is to allow for zooming and panning with two fingers (if the fingers start very close together, zooming is disabled). This behavior can be configured so that you can pan with a single finger or disable touch input entirely, in which case the pen button can be configured to pan (and there are zoom options available in the application menu).
If the pen isn't being recognized, try setting Force Pen in the preferences.
-- Matt

As a long-time lurker, I registered an account just to talk about this app! I've been in love with my Thinkpad Tablet for almost a year now, but I never really "clicked" with any of the handwriting apps available for it, which really sort of frustrated me. I tried out your app, and so far I've been really enjoying it! I do have a question: is there an easy path to convert the handwritten text from the Write app on the tablet into a typed form on my PC?
Basically, I'm looking for a way to use the TPT to capture my handwriting when I'm out and about, as it's easy to carry the TPT and work in any environment. The ideal solution would be some function/process to then export the document from the Write app and have it convert it to .txt or something. If I had to e-mail it to myself, or use ES File Explorer to drop it onto my file-share at home where I could get at it from my desktop PC, that would be fine too.
Just looking for recommendations on the least-frustrating way possible to do what I want to do!
Thank you very much for this app!

darkwingduck13 said:
I do have a question: is there an easy path to convert the handwritten text from the Write app on the tablet into a typed form on my PC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have Evernote installed, you can use "Send Current Page" from the Document submenu and select Evernote, which will OCR the page and make it searchable. I'm not sure if there is an easy way to extract the converted text. In the future, I will look into exporting all pages at once to Evernote.
What are your main reasons for wanting to convert handwriting to text (especially since any conversion will introduce quite a lot of errors unless your handwriting is flawless)? To be consistent with the rest of your documents? For searching? For sending to others? Something else?
-- Matt

PBSurf said:
If you have Evernote installed, you can use "Send Current Page" from the Document submenu and select Evernote, which will OCR the page and make it searchable. I'm not sure if there is an easy way to extract the converted text. In the future, I will look into exporting all pages at once to Evernote.
What are your main reasons for wanting to convert handwriting to text (especially since any conversion will introduce quite a lot of errors unless your handwriting is flawless)? To be consistent with the rest of your documents? For searching? For sending to others? Something else?
-- Matt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, thanks for responding to my question Matt!
I don't have Evernote installed, but I'll install it just to try the feature you're talking about.
Basically, I would want to convert handwriting to text in order to be able to do a number of things:
1. Easily post things I've written to my blog.
2. Move chapters of my stories into an editable word-processor-compatible format.
3. Send to an editor.
4. Archive in an easily appendable format...in the case of my stories, each one would eventually go into a single larger file as it's polished/finished and saved on my network drive and backed up.
The writing application that came with the TPT was pretty decent at translating my writing to text, but I didn't like using it to write as much as yours, and on top of that, when I rooted the tablet and installed CM 8 (or whatever version this is), that handwriting app didn't come along for the ride. I didn't realize at the time that it wouldn't be part of the package, so I'd been looking for suitable replacements. Quill had been where I'd settled until I saw your post, and I just like the functionality of your app better so far when it comes to usability while doing my scribbling.

This is a great handwriting app. I have bee using Quill for almost a year since I couldn't find another app that can do what it can. However, this app does more than Quill and I am considering switching over to this app. There are a few things I would like to see added to this app before I do. I would like to be able to draw lines and geometric shapes. It would be great if you could add an auto save function, that way I dont have to worry about losing my notes. While using Write I found myself getting ticked off by the zoom levels. When I tried to zoom to lever .65, it would automatically got to .75. Instead of having the volume keys used to undo/redo it would be better to have the used for changing pages and adding pages. I also noticed that if you have many pages of notes you wont be able to quickly go to a specific page of notes, you have to go through all the pages. A way to get around that is by making thumbnails of the pages inside the document so you can easily browse through them. Overall this is a very good app, it just needs those few things to completely win me over.

sakobatoneko said:
This is a great handwriting app. I have bee using Quill for almost a year since I couldn't find another app that can do what it can. However, this app does more than Quill and I am considering switching over to this app. There are a few things I would like to see added to this app before I do. I would like to be able to draw lines and geometric shapes. It would be great if you could add an auto save function, that way I dont have to worry about losing my notes. While using Write I found myself getting ticked off by the zoom levels. When I tried to zoom to lever .65, it would automatically got to .75. Instead of having the volume keys used to undo/redo it would be better to have the used for changing pages and adding pages. I also noticed that if you have many pages of notes you wont be able to quickly go to a specific page of notes, you have to go through all the pages. A way to get around that is by making thumbnails of the pages inside the document so you can easily browse through them. Overall this is a very good app, it just needs those few things to completely win me over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The document is automatically saved whenever it loses focus or the screen turns off, so the only thing that could cause you to lose your notes would be Write crashing ... if you've experienced this, let me know! Or if by auto save, you meant backing up to a different location, you could try something like SugarSync, which allows you to sync folders on Android. You can also change the folder where documents are saved (in advanced preferences) for other sync applications that don't let you specify the folders to be synced.
I've been thinking about the best way to handle geometric shapes, so there might be something like this in a future release (but not the next release).
The zoom is intentionally limited to discrete steps. The idea is to usually work at zoom = 1 and adjust the page size and ruling (i.e. line spacing) as desired. So if you prefer the way the page looks at zoom = 0.65, you can change the default Y ruling from 40 to 40*0.65 = 26.
The next release of Write will allow the volume keys to be configured.
Document navigation could definitely be improved (e.g. thumbnails). There are a couple things you could try in the meantime. First, zooming out all the way (0.10) should make it possible to scroll through pages pretty quickly - double tap with two fingers to zoom to 100% on the desired page (or one finger, if you switched the preference to single finger panning). Second, for pages you frequently go to, add a bookmark on the page next to the title or some other identifying writing - you'll then see it in the bookmark list and can jump to it by tapping on it in the list.
-- Matt

PBSurf said:
The document is automatically saved whenever it loses focus or the screen turns off, so the only thing that could cause you to lose your notes would be Write crashing ... if you've experienced this, let me know! Or if by auto save, you meant backing up to a different location, you could try something like SugarSync, which allows you to sync folders on Android. You can also change the folder where documents are saved (in advanced preferences) for other sync applications that don't let you specify the folders to be synced.
I've been thinking about the best way to handle geometric shapes, so there might be something like this in a future release (but not the next release).
The zoom is intentionally limited to discrete steps. The idea is to usually work at zoom = 1 and adjust the page size and ruling (i.e. line spacing) as desired. So if you prefer the way the page looks at zoom = 0.65, you can change the default Y ruling from 40 to 40*0.65 = 26.
The next release of Write will allow the volume keys to be configured.
Document navigation could definitely be improved (e.g. thumbnails). There are a couple things you could try in the meantime. First, zooming out all the way (0.10) should make it possible to scroll through pages pretty quickly - double tap with two fingers to zoom to 100% on the desired page (or one finger, if you switched the preference to single finger panning). Second, for pages you frequently go to, add a bookmark on the page next to the title or some other identifying writing - you'll then see it in the bookmark list and can jump to it by tapping on it in the list.
-- Matt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was worried that the document didn't save by itself since there was an option under the document menu to "save now." I thought that meant that I would have to click on that every time I finished taking notes. Adjusting the page size has solved the problem I was having with the zoom. The more familiar I get with this app the more comfortable I am writing with it. Keep up the good work and thanks for the fast reply. Oh, when will the next release be, if you don't mind me asking?

sakobatoneko said:
Oh, when will the next release be, if you don't mind me asking?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The next release will probably be early in January.
-- Matt

I love how responsive it is, best free/paid app I've tried. I would like to see a different background other than normal paper. I have always liked writing on graph/grid paper. Thanks for the app and keep up the good work.

daswahnsinn said:
I love how responsive it is, best free/paid app I've tried. I would like to see a different background other than normal paper. I have always liked writing on graph/grid paper. Thanks for the app and keep up the good work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can configure the page color and background by selecting Page Setup from the application menu. To get grid paper, for example, select one of the "grid" options for "Ruling".
-- Matt

Been messing with some of the setting and found the grid/graph paper, that has tons on options, and I found pen only input which always is need or at least for me it is. The more I play around with this app the more I see what other apps needed.

[Q] Good ebook, epub organizer - ala iBooks or eBooks on Samsung Galaxy Tab

I've been looking for an app which organizes pdfs and epub documents and has a reader in-built.
I know iOS has iBooks and I own Samsung Galaxy Tab which had eBooks app - you can see all the recently opened files and it lets you open them too.
Is there anything similar for Surface? What are you guys using for PDFs?
I've tried PDF Touch, Freda, Overdrive Console etc but haven't found them up to the mark.
Thanks!
PS: I don't see a forum for posting Surface Q/A, so I posted it here.

Montastic said:
I've been looking for an app which organizes pdfs and epub documents and has a reader in-built.
I know iOS has iBooks and I own Samsung Galaxy Tab which had eBooks app - you can see all the recently opened files and it lets you open them too.
Is there anything similar for Surface? What are you guys using for PDFs?
I've tried PDF Touch, Freda, Overdrive Console etc but haven't found them up to the mark.
Thanks!
PS: I don't see a forum for posting Surface Q/A, so I posted it here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PDFs open natively and the reader buit into the SAurface is actually pretty good IMO- Annotations, highlights etc. I open large Pdfs from the insurance industry and it does the trick so far..
Regarding a general ebook reader, I am not impressed with anything yet as far as being able to import in my own epubs (as opposed to Kindle and Nook, Kobo, etc which only let you read their conten)t - I have Freda installed and its just so so - It uses the Calibre ebook management system on a desktop Pc which is a hassle, and as far as I can tell there is no way to remove books from Freda once imported in - Not too many features
it seems like the ebook readers are always a hassle on these types of devices (same form my Android) - You always need to have like 3 of them loaded to cover everything if you have your own epubs, and other formats

guitar1969 said:
PDFs open natively and the reader buit into the SAurface is actually pretty good IMO- Annotations, highlights etc. I open large Pdfs from the insurance industry and it does the trick so far..
Regarding a general ebook reader, I am not impressed with anything yet as far as being able to import in my own epubs (as opposed to Kindle and Nook, Kobo, etc which only let you read their conten)t - I have Freda installed and its just so so - It uses the Calibre ebook management system on a desktop Pc which is a hassle, and as far as I can tell there is no way to remove books from Freda once imported in - Not too many features
it seems like the ebook readers are always a hassle on these types of devices (same form my Android) - You always need to have like 3 of them loaded to cover everything if you have your own epubs, and other formats
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The inbuilt reader is okay but not many features. I wish I could choose highlight colors.
On my Galaxy Tab, I have ezPDF reader - what I like is that it shows the recently opened file on a bookshelf. I don't care about the skeuomorphism but it would be nice to be able to see bunch of recently opened files.
On a side note, is there some setting where it asks me what program to open the PDF each time I try to open a PDF file? I know how to set the default program but depending on what I'm doing, I like to use different programs.

We should all contact the maker of Mantano Reader to petition for a WinRT port. The premium version is the best pdf/epub reader I have found for any mobile device yet.

guitar1969 said:
I have Freda installed and its just so so - It uses the Calibre ebook management system on a desktop Pc which is a hassle, and as far as I can tell there is no way to remove books from Freda once imported in - Not too many features
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There will be a couple of further releases in the next weeks - adding various features (including the one you mention - removing imported ebooks). In the current version, you don't need to use Calibre - you can also use a filesystem/SkyDrive browser, and Freda does register itself as able to open EPUB and FB2 - so you can open them direct from internet/file explorer.
I've posted more info on the Freda development roadmap here.

Jim Chapman said:
Freda does register itself as able to open EPUB and FB2 - so you can open them direct from internet/file explorer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have run into this while using your app and it is a great feature! Yours is the best epub reader available for the SurfaceRT, and I will be keeping an eye on it.

Jim Chapman said:
There will be a couple of further releases in the next weeks - adding various features (including the one you mention - removing imported ebooks). In the current version, you don't need to use Calibre - you can also use a filesystem/SkyDrive browser, and Freda does register itself as able to open EPUB and FB2 - so you can open them direct from internet/file explorer.
I've posted more info on the Freda development roadmap here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info! Freda is currently my favorite epub reader.
Is highlighting supported for epubs?

Montastic said:
Is highlighting supported for epubs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, once the next release passes through Microsoft certification (in the next few days if we are lucky) it will support bookmarks/annotations - so you can select a word, and associate some annotation text with it. Bookmarked words are shown with a diamond-shaped tag, rather than a highlight stripe, though. I have been looking at a feature that would let you select several words or a whole block of text for highlighting, but it's tricky to get right (mainly because the UI for selecting text is complicated).

Jim Chapman said:
Well, once the next release passes through Microsoft certification (in the next few days if we are lucky) it will support bookmarks/annotations - so you can select a word, and associate some annotation text with it. Bookmarked words are shown with a diamond-shaped tag, rather than a highlight stripe, though. I have been looking at a feature that would let you select several words or a whole block of text for highlighting, but it's tricky to get right (mainly because the UI for selecting text is complicated).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info.
I'm not sure what kind of use case others have, but for me, highlighting is pretty important. I have PDF and epub versions of the same periodical and the only reason I go to PDF is so that I can highlight text.
Thanks for your effort though - Freda is an awesome app and I'm sure it will get better with your continued effort.

Desktop PDF reader for WinRT (SumatraPDF)

Since I can't seem to post this in the correct place (Windows 8 > Windows 8 Development & Hacking on one of the jailbroken RT app threads):
SumatraPDF 2.2.1 - look it up on Wikipedia or Google since I also can't post links...
This is a reasonably capable PDF reader. (Also, from my use of it today, it's certainly more friendly t- o touch than Foxit Reader is on a touch-capable Win8 Pro system.) It also appears to support many other formats - I tried an ePub with it and that also worked well.
I had to make a few minor patches to the source in places (expectations of x86/x64 in a few libraries), and replace the bundled JPEG library to get it to build. I'm assuming printing support will work, but I haven't had reason to test that.
A few visual anomalies seem to exist, but they also seem to be pretty minor. (The toolbar doesn't render quite right, which looks like broken icon references.)
I've attached the binary; contact me and I'll send the link to the source.
Chris

Do you know a good open source PDF editor for Windows? I am not saying you have to compile it to ARM, I can take a look at it myself
SumatraPDF is only a reader as you said.
I need to annotate PDFs and fill out forms. One app at the store does this to some extent, but it's kind of limited.

Thanks for the port; it's added to the list!
@someniceguy: You can actually ue Word 2013 to edit PDFs. If you just need annotation and form filling, though, those can be done with the built-in PDF reader (the Metro-style one). Note that annotation requires a stylus, though, so not available on Surface RT.

First of all, thanks for the info.
GoodDayToDie said:
@someniceguy: You can actually ue Word 2013 to edit PDFs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It asks me to convert the PDF to a Word document first. That's a deal break for me.
GoodDayToDie said:
If you just need annotation and form filling, though, those can be done with the built-in PDF reader (the Metro-style one).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can use Reader to make basic annotations such as highlighting with a given color and adding notes. Nothing else, it seems. It's a very limited program.
The only semi decent program I found is PDF Touch, but it too has limitations. For example, it gives you a very limited selection of colors for highlighting. And it does not support all types of annotations (or I could not see them), such as adding notes. The worse of it, though, is that it does not show the table of contents of the PDF, and I could not find any way to search inside the PDF.
Use ezPDF (Android) for a brief time and you realize Store Apps for PDF handling are from the stone ages.
Again, thanks for the suggestions, but still looking for that open source advanced program for PDF manipulation.

The progromm is a little bit ugly but works realy fine ! even faster then the mtro app

Yeah, it doesn't take too much to beat the speed of the Reader app. Of course, I was interested in using it with big PDFs - on average, 300 pages, mostly D&D books actually, which left me wanting a program that responded in a timely manner, and would allow me to have multiple files open at the same time, since I'm usually using them as reference material while playing... Reader blew chunks for that on an i5-480m @ 2.66, so there wasn't a chance it would do better on a far wimpier processor...

Has the developer integrated GPU rendering yet? I know he previously complained about the cost/reward ratio. Without it, though, Sumatra really lags all other readers on scanned (old) PDFs or complex ones.

Merconium said:
Has the developer integrated GPU rendering yet? I know he previously complained about the cost/reward ratio. Without it, though, Sumatra really lags all other readers on scanned (old) PDFs or complex ones.
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Didn't look like it had any Direct2D dependencies or other such things in it. I also ended up potentially slowing it down a bit by replacing libjpeg-turbo with the original libjpeg, which had it's own gcc dependencies.
On the other hand, at least for the purposes that I wanted a PDF reader for - multiple files open at once, easy access to bookmarks, decently quick rendering - it seems to be good enough. The rendering speed isn't great, but it's better than Reader, which is the other reader I tried before building this one.

The version of SumatraPDF posted here did not work for me. I got the error message "SumatraPDF crashed Sorry, that shouldn't have happened!".
However, this version worked for me. https://github.com/plumeqi/RT_Arm32_Porting/tree/main/SumatraPDF3.3.3/Bin
Now I can read PDF as well as DjVu and ePubs on my Surface RT.

apandada1 said:
The version of SumatraPDF posted here did not work for me. I got the error message "SumatraPDF crashed Sorry, that shouldn't have happened!".
However, this version worked for me. https://github.com/plumeqi/RT_Arm32_Porting/tree/main/SumatraPDF3.3.3/Bin
Now I can read PDF as well as DjVu and ePubs on my Surface RT.
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Thank you, bro. I can use it now in 2022.