What is your favorite PDF reader ?

[Mechatrommer]

my fav? open with adobe acrobat, print it on paper, read it. i never liked something that cannot flip pages quickly and slip my fingers in, not even kindle can do that i think.
edit: and if its dropped, it still work water? it has some level of survival, depending on what ink you are using.

[JoannaK]

"Foxit Reader" FTW. I can't stand Acrobat, it's such bloatware.

Seconded.. Foxit does the necessary stuff.

[codeboy2k]

To be honest, I don't mind Adobe Reader. I know that it's fat and ugly, but I used to use Foxit and sometimes stuff just didn't work, images not rendering correctly and 3D hardly worked. So I reinstalled Adobe.

I'm considering switching back because those problems have probably been fixed and Foxit was much lighter.

I found the same, when I first started using Foxit, it was fast, but some PDF's just didn't work.  I went back to Acrobat Reader for a short while.  However, the latest Foxit reader is still faster than Adobe Reader, and I haven't found a PDF it can't render yet.  The latest release is more bloated than it used to be, but still faster and lighter than Adobe Acrobat Reader.  I don't think it supports 3D rendering well. If you need that, stick with Adobe. 

[NiHaoMike]

On a PC, Okular. On Android, EBookDroid.

[Zero999]

Adobe of course. Duh !

That's not an option for everyone.

What happens if you're using a platform not supported by Adobe?

Adobe does not release the full specs of the format..

They should. The PDF format should be a fully open, free standard.

The same bullshit with all those pdf printer programs. Just get the real thing.

I've never actually tried the real Adobe PDF creation software.

Currently, I use the freeware Adobe reader. I tried others but they didn't work for all PDFs but I agree with others here, it'd be nice to have a faster lighter alternative. If Adobe released the full PDF specification, then there'd be more chance of a decent alternative implementation.

For creation, I use the built-in PDF creator in OxygenOffice Professional (which I know is dated, some day I'll try LibreOffice or Apache OpenOffice) and the open source PDFCreator which I like because it can output in other formats than PDF: png, svg, eps etc.

It's probably not worth buying the real thing for casual hobby use and it's not an option for those using a platform other than Mac OS X or Windows.

[BravoV]

Using this amazing format, which requires no power or additional technology:

Yeah, guess you forgot how did this format came from, do these words like "electricity bill", "printer" and "computer+PDF reader" ring a bell ?   

[free_electron]

What happens if you're using a platform not supported by Adobe?

then you switch platforms . no ?
If i need to open a box that is fit together with torx screws ... i buy torx screwdrivers. And if my regular tool brand does not have them i will have to use a different brand .I really don't get this 'platform fanatism' A computer to me is a tools to run software that lets me do my work. And some software is specific to a certain os. So simply get amachine with that os.

Why restrict yourself by fanaticiscm of the type 'i will only use xyz because the others are bloaware or capitialistic tripe'.. You are only doing yourself a disservice and stifling your own advancement.
It's like buying a british , right hand card , that only runs on distilled spit , bringing it to a country where everyone drives left hand cars and then mope and complain that it is hard to drive when everyone is going the wrong way and that distilled spit is really hard to get by ... suck it up , adapt or do like the dinosaurs...

They should. The PDF format should be a fully open, free standard.

why ?  it was created as a commercial product. The people at adobe work for money too.. Feel free to creat your own free open standard and see if you can get traction... but make sure you find a way to make money off it so you don't starve to death ...

the PDF mechanism is great. you can read and print for free. wat to make one ? pay ... great. because for people that 'consume' inofmration it is costless. For people that want to create 'information' : they foot the bill.

If Adobe released the full PDF specification, then there'd be more chance of a decent alternative implementation.

why would they want to shoot themselves in the foot ? if they open it up they invite competition to eat their lunch.

[NiHaoMike]

I can tell you that it's very rare to find a PDF that doesn't open properly in Okular or some other open source PDF viewer. And with tablets becoming more popular, you can be sure they'll likely make sure PDFs can be viewed on those.

The last time I used Adobe's own viewer, it was very poorly designed. It would be slow and tended to lock up at times, certainly making you not want to buy their paid version!

There's also plenty of open source software for making PDFs. LibreOffice is one common example. In fact, (back when it was OpenOffice), they have had that support long before Microsoft Office had it.