Adobe Acrobat Reader is a powerful but space and resource hogging application which few users are going to utilize to its fullest potential. But there is an alternative and even better it is free! Foxit Reader 2.0 works just as well as Adobe Acrobat but doesn’t have the ton of plugins to load which on older and slower systems could prove fatal. CyberNet Tech News has done a nice review of the new Foxit 2.0 Reader.
In case you are wondering, this program works beautifully with Firefox and even more so when paired with the PDF Download Extension (which works with Firefox 1.5.0.X, Firefox 2.0/Bon Echo & (developmental) Firefox 3 Gran Paradiso/Minefield. Here are the steps needed to integrate Foxit with Firefox’s PDF Download Extension:
- Once PDF Download has been installed a new selection, “PDF Download – Options” will appear in your Tools Menu. Select this option.
- On the ‘General Tab’, for Default Action, select ‘Open PDF‘
- On the ‘PDF opening’ Tab, for the PDF File Opening, select ‘Use this viewer‘
- Click ‘Browse’ in Windows Explorer locate the Foxit Reader (FoxitReader.exe) and click ‘OK’
- Click ‘OK’ again to exit out of the PDF Download – Options.
Now whenever you come across a PDF File, Firefox will automatically load in the FoxIt Reader, a process which depending on your system speed with be nearly instant to a couple seconds. Note: Firefox downloads the PDF File in order to open it.
Update 09/23/07: Changed link to download page on FoxIt website
Is there an extension that will let me view .psd files?
Comment by Sam — Saturday, September 16, 2006 @ 1:23 PM
[...] * Some of these PDF documents can span upwards to 90+ pages and can be very large. For best results in viewing and loading the PDF files, I would strongly recommended using the FREE FoxIt Reader 2. Posted by ffextensionguru Filed in Uncategorized, Blogs, Microsoft, Windows Vista, Links of Interest [...]
Pingback by Microsoft’s Legal Woes « Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog — Sunday, September 17, 2006 @ 9:27 AM
[...] It has been 2 weeks since I moved the Blog from Blogger over here to its new home at WordPress. At first I was not sure if this was such a good idea, but I wanted to able to take advantage of the trackback features on CyberNet Technology News. One of the things I do like about WordPress is it provides stats for your blog. I’ve been reviewing those daily and seeing a steady increase of views, that was until the 13th. On Wednesday the 13th the Adobe Acrobat vs FoxIt Reader entry alone had 87 of the total 222 views! That is more than I was getting in an entire day. Even more impressive though, 75 of the visits to my blog came from the trackback link posted on the FoxIt article on CyberNet. [...]
Pingback by New Blog Home: 2 Weeks Later « Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog — Tuesday, September 19, 2006 @ 5:06 PM
Foxit reader rocks!!! thumbs down to Adobe Acrobat reader though I feel glad tht Adobe invented PDF format :D
Comment by Saawan — Thursday, October 12, 2006 @ 10:33 AM
In some cases (‘open link in new tab’) the plugin sometimes is not activated. Go to Tools/Options/Downloads button ‘view & edit actions’, find pdf and set it to use Foxit as well.
Unfortunately Foxit sometimes does not print a document as good as it shows it on screen, so i have to keep Adobe’s hog.
Comment by Chris H — Friday, October 13, 2006 @ 2:35 AM
[...] myself). A fine tutorial on how to integrate it with Firefox through an extension can be found here using the PDF Download Extension to direct all PDFs to open through [...]
Pingback by The Daily Tech Connection » Blog Archives » When JavaScript Attacks! — Saturday, January 6, 2007 @ 1:22 AM
[...] the past couple days I have noticed a rather large increase in pingbacks and overall traffic to my Adobe Acrobat vs Foxit Reader article. I thought it may have had something to do with including it in the “Posts of [...]
Pingback by Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog Adobe Flaw May Be ‘Worst’ Bug Of 2007 « — Saturday, January 6, 2007 @ 9:41 PM
[...] Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog Adobe Acrobat vs Foxit Reader « [...]
Pingback by Länkar « Vad jag ser när ni vill att jag ska titta på er. — Thursday, January 25, 2007 @ 6:30 AM
[...] Adobe Acrobat vs Foxit Reader [...]
Pingback by Firefox Quick Tip: Control PDF on Firefox with Add-on and Foxit Reader at LifeSpy — Sunday, January 28, 2007 @ 3:01 AM
Hmmm. I followed this tutorial, and what Chris H suggested as well. I still cannot get Foxit to open within Firefox. It opens, it just opens within Foxit’s own application window. Where the tutorial says “Firefox will automatically load in the FoxIt Reader,” does this mean that it will, in fact, open in it’s own application window? I ask because it already is a reader, so that can be taken a couple of ways.
What mine is doing might be the intentional way of working, but I’m not sure.
Comment by MagnoliaSouth — Wednesday, February 14, 2007 @ 7:29 PM
I’ll agree that Foxit PDF Reader is the best PDF reader for Windows. I can’t say I’m glad that Adobe conceived PDF… they still monopolize it. We could be using Envoy or Common Ground Digital Paper… provided we all agree on a given format, that’s what matters. Not only do PCs have Acrobat pre-installed, but they have the latest version installed. I needed to use Acrobat to read certain PDFs from my university for scholarships and tax forms, but I found an old version of Acrobat (v.5) and despite the fact that it’s bigger and slower than Foxit, it’s not nearly as big and slow as the later versions (6, 7 & 8).
I still use Foxit for any other PDFs, and I recommend PrimoPDF as a PDF printer driver (it’s free and allows security parameters to be established).
I still cannot get Foxit Reader to open within FireFox. I’ve managed all other combinations: Acrobat in IE, Acrobat in FF, Foxit in IE, but no Foxit in FF… the extension still would not allow me that possibility. Anyone know of a patch that could make it possible? It sure would be nice!
Comment by Kapitän Rotbart — Friday, March 16, 2007 @ 9:23 AM
The latest Acrobat is so much better at loading, and so much better all round that I’ve now junked Foxit (which I never thought I’d say!).
Version 8 I think – it’s far better than earlier ones…
Comment by bryan — Friday, March 23, 2007 @ 7:01 AM
To answer MagnoliaSouth’s question: no, Foxit does not load within a firefox tab, it loads up fireit reader. The Foxit developpers say they are working to make it more compatible with fire fox.
Source: http://lifehacker.com/software/productivity/download-of-the-day-foxit-pdf-reader-109741.php
And who knows, maybe the firefox community will beat them to it and make a plugin.
CrimsonS
Comment by CrimsonS — Saturday, April 7, 2007 @ 3:44 PM
Way late chiming in, but you actually don’t need the extension. Just go to Tools>Options (or Edit>Preferences on Mac and Linux)>Content>File Types>Manage>PDF>Change Action… and browse for Foxit_Reader.exe.
Comment by Hasan — Monday, April 23, 2007 @ 2:20 PM
This is just what I need, but it looks like it’s Windows-only. :-(
Comment by Ruby — Friday, April 27, 2007 @ 11:08 AM
I tried Hasan’s suggestion but can’t find pdf in the file types list. Is there any way for me to still get foxit to work in firefox?
Comment by kevin — Thursday, May 3, 2007 @ 5:13 AM
So i’ve tried everything on this site, and everything on the PDF Download extension site, and still my pdf’s do not open WITHIN firefox. Each time, it opens up Foxit; no seamless browsing. Any suggestions?
Comment by Simon — Tuesday, July 10, 2007 @ 11:09 AM
Simon,
here’s a link on how to do it. Just click my ‘website’.
Comment by Alwyn — Friday, July 13, 2007 @ 5:23 AM
[...] September 23rd, 2007 CyberNet , Free Software , Links of Interest , Something Different Foxit Reader is great alternative to Adobe Acrobat for viewing PDF files. But what if you want to create a PDF [...]
Pingback by PrimoPDF « Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog — Sunday, September 23, 2007 @ 12:08 AM
[...] Foxit Reader w/PDF download: This replaces Adobe Acrobat Reader, with a small footprint, a fast and clean reader. It can convert the pdf to a text file, or even annotate it. [...]
Pingback by Fusion Finds » Blog Archive » FAQ: Why do you use FireFox? — Monday, December 10, 2007 @ 6:12 PM
Plugin not needed. Hansen suggestion works.
Comment by Ramu — Thursday, January 10, 2008 @ 3:32 PM
Unfortunate indeed that it’s Windows-only… but that is no longer an issue for me. Since the version of Gnome released in fall 2007, the Evince document viewer now handles forms, meaning I do not need Adobe Acrobat Reader anymore (despite Acrobat being available for Linux). In fact I no longer need Windows, nor any of its native applications, thanks to the applications available for Linux.
Comment by Kapitän Rotbart — Monday, February 11, 2008 @ 5:55 AM
[...] why their Windows takes so long to start, it because all these programs such as QuickTime (and Adobe Acrobat) that load themselves into the background during startup. Further, unlike some programs (AOL) you [...]
Pingback by QuickTime Quirkiness « Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog — Sunday, March 23, 2008 @ 4:18 PM
[...] did have the problem of integrating it into Firefox, but then I found a great article at The Firefox Extensions Guru Blog that laid out step by step instructions. It only took a couple of minutes, and now everything is [...]
Pingback by New Foxit PDF Reader — Thursday, April 10, 2008 @ 2:24 PM
Capitalism Killed The FOXit reader
And yet another one bites the dust.
Foxit Reader is no longer a free product. O yeah, sure you can get a one year license for free if you buy something else (where they get 50% commission on the sales). Wonderful. I hardly blame them, they are developers and need money, but at least they could make their 2.0 version open source and continue with their commercial pro line.
This truly and utterly sucks, as pre 2.0 versions do not understand the Firefox plugin concept.
If I had a Hammer,
I´d smash all injustice.
Keywords: foxit not free anymore foxit reader no longer free gratis download
Comment by UHammerIT — Sunday, April 27, 2008 @ 5:30 AM
[...] Tags: Foxit Reader This morning I opened my Thunderbird to find an alarming comment on the Adobe Acrobat vs Foxit Reader article. UHammerIT wrote: Capitalism Killed The FOXit [...]
Pingback by Foxit Reader STILL Free « Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog — Sunday, April 27, 2008 @ 10:47 PM
I just learnt that Adobe Acrobat reader 9 is announced along with Acrobat.com.
I visited Acrobat.com. Contains great features. But i got somewhat confused. But i got detailed information about it later here – Adobe introduces Acrobat 9 & Acrobat.com
It also contains detailed and fabulous review of Acrobat 9 and Acrobat.com which was a lot helpful.
Adobe Acrobat 9 – Preview
Acrobat.com (BETA)
Comment by Yogesh Amberkar — Monday, June 2, 2008 @ 7:54 AM
Yeah Acrobat reader 9 is announced but it is of 33 mb in size. Reader 8 was of 22 mb and installs on nearly 100+mb so what do you think how much this version 9 would take
I don’t like adobe reader but i have to.
first of all opening in firefox just like adobe, printing multiple pages per sheet which is now available in foxit 2.3 version but i am still confused about using foxit
it should be that accessible as acrobat…..
Comment by talib — Wednesday, July 2, 2008 @ 1:29 AM
I have to work with pdf files (no srvival without pdfs). I have tested both acrobat reader & foxit) I love to choose foxit aong them for following reasons:
1. installation file just 4 mb.
2. installs in a minute or less
3. opens & closes fastest.
4. multiples files can be opened at once in a single browser (like IE 7)
5. Even you can edit makes comments, (need to purchase full version for that)
Enjoy Foxit Reader
Comment by rahul — Wednesday, July 9, 2008 @ 4:39 AM
[...] Foxit Reader w/PDF download: This replaces Adobe Acrobat Reader, with a small footprint, a fast and clean reader. It can convert the pdf to a text file, or even annotate it. [...]
Pingback by FAQ: Why do you use FireFox? « Fusion Finds — Sunday, September 14, 2008 @ 5:19 PM
It was interesting to read, thanks
Comment by Mark Phone — Wednesday, October 15, 2008 @ 11:53 AM
I got some reports in Citrix Resource Manager and did some tests with 85 users using PDF Readers (70 using Acrobat Reader 8 and 15 using FoxIt Reader 2.2 through XenApp 4.5 in diverted departments of a construction company, and I discovered:
Time analysed: 2 months (40 weekdays)
Adobe Acrobat Reader 8 (70 users)
• Count: 22.512 – The average is each user opening 8 pdf files per weekday)
• Average CPU utilization while active: 19.6%
• Maximum memory set while active: 1358 MB
• Maximum memory peak working set: 1905 MB
• Average memory while active: 23.4 MB
• Average memory peak working set: 52.3 MB
• Maximum time active: 01:23 (hh:mm)
• Spool print size of CPS 4.5 admin guide (414 pages using HP LaserJet 4 driver): 9.52 MB
• Spool print size of CPS 4.5 admin guide (414 pages using HP DeskJet 660C driver): 9.53 MB
• Spool print size of CPS 4.5 admin guide (414 pages using ThinPrint driver): 9.25 MB
Fox IT Reader 2.2 (15 users)
• Count: 8.148 – The average is each user opening 14 pdf files per weekday)
• Average CPU utilization while active: 12.5%
• Maximum memory set while active: 569 MB
• Maximum memory peak working set: 1071 MB
• Average memory while active: 14 MB
• Average memory peak working set: 31.5 MB
• Maximum time active: 00:37 (hh:mm)
• Spool print size of CPS 4.5 admin guide (414 pages using HP LaserJet 4 driver): 447 MB
• Spool print size of CPS 4.5 admin guide (414 pages using HP DeskJet 660C driver): 66.2 MB
• Spool print size of CPS 4.5 admin guide (414 pages using ThinPrint driver): 61 MB
http://www.robertoalves.com/?p=176
Comment by Roberto — Friday, January 2, 2009 @ 2:51 AM
Adobe reader 9 seems better in terms of appearance than foxit reader 3. But foxit reader has added capabilities…
Comment by sai — Saturday, March 14, 2009 @ 12:53 PM
Since I read a software review for Foxit Reader and installed it on my PC, I have never stop using it.
It is portable and much lighter then the acrobat, make a huge deferent for me.
I love the Foxit :) and do recommand it to everyone.
Enjoy
Amit
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Comment by attalievy — Thursday, June 11, 2009 @ 6:49 PM
Hi guys, I need to create PDF document from my Microsoft word file. How do I do it?
Comment by marywilliams — Thursday, July 16, 2009 @ 1:08 AM
Hi Mary You can use Magic PDF software for creating PDF document from Microsoft word file. Check it out at. http://www.magic-PDF.com. albert
Comment by alberts — Thursday, July 16, 2009 @ 1:09 AM
Or download cutePDF and then anything that can be printed can be printed into a PDF.
Comment by Bob — Saturday, August 15, 2009 @ 8:41 AM
Wow, thanks for that information! Foxit is a great and, that is more important, very fast pdf viewer. I like to use it with Firefox =).
Comment by English — Wednesday, August 19, 2009 @ 1:13 PM
Nice post. I like adobe but foxit is nice. I like the comparison.
Comment by ryan — Tuesday, September 1, 2009 @ 2:57 PM
foxit reader is my favorite PDF reader, has many tabs that’s why make it easier ;)
Comment by hanum — Saturday, October 24, 2009 @ 8:49 AM
Foxit Reader is light, fast and has features like that of Adobe.
It rocks!
It is an end to Adobe’s long time rule!
Comment by Jay Shukla — Saturday, November 7, 2009 @ 2:58 AM
Hats off to Foxit Reader!
Comment by Jay Shukla — Saturday, November 7, 2009 @ 2:59 AM