CNET Editors' review
For many people, Adobe Reader is their go-to PDF reader. The program is free, easy to use, and very popular. But it's a PDF reader in the strictest sense of the word; there's really not much you can do with it besides view a PDF file. Foxit Reader Portable is a versatile program that adds many useful features to the PDF-viewing experience. Much more than just a reader, the program is actually a limited PDF editor, allowing users to make marks and notes on PDFs and easily share them.
The program's interface is attractive and intuitive, utilizing the typical PDF reader format; there are menus across the top, and a couple of toolbars beneath them. The usual PDF reader features are here; users can search for text within the document, zoom and rotate pages, attach the document to an e-mail, and so on. But where Foxit Reader Portable really shines is with its editing features. It's not a full-fledged PDF editor--you can't actually change the content of the document--but there are plenty of options for making notes and marks. Users can add text, arrows, strikethroughs, insertion marks, and more. We were also impressed that the program allows users to select certain portions of the document to be copied as an image file. Images and even videos can be inserted into the PDF, another nice touch. The program comes with a lengthy PDF Help file that covers all of its functions in detail. Overall, we think that Foxit Reader Portable is a great program; it works well as a basic PDF reader, but it offers plenty of useful features for users who need to make annotations and other additions to their PDF documents.
Foxit Reader Portable installs and uninstalls without issues. We highly recommend this program to all users.
Publisher's Description
From PortableApps.com:
Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size, breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set. You can view PDF files on the go and it's in PortableApps.com Format for easy use from any portable device. It is incredibly small. The download size of Foxit Reader is just a fraction of Acrobat Reader 20 M size. Breezing-fast: When you run Foxit Reader, it launches instantly without any delay.
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All versions:
3.0 starsout of 11 votes
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Current version:
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"lighter than Adobe Reader"
Version: Foxit Reader Portable 5.1
Pros
no annoying & resource consuming Adobe updater in backgound
Cons
none - though adding print to PDF functionality would be great
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"Simple to use"
Version: Foxit Reader Portable 5.1
Pros
- Comment tools
- Tab
- Able to add pictures into pdf.Cons
- Menu bar is useless. it should be hided as in web browsers.
- The developers don't what to add in Favorite toolbar.
- there is no pdf splitter. -
"It's Insidious"
Version: Foxit Reader Portable 5.1
Pros
It reads pdf documents (big deal).
Cons
I just installed it, and I've seen enough and want to uninstall it, but it doesn't show up as an installed program, and doesn't come with an "uninstall" feature. It changes the file type to all pdf files to "Foxit Reader PDF Document, it overrides my print preference settings even after I change them to print a document. I'm sure I'd find more things I don't like about it if kept using it, but I won't.
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"Love and Hate"
Version: Foxit Reader Portable 5.0.2
Pros
Love because it's light and doesn't have a lot of bloatware like Adobe
Cons
Hate because it doesn't work on pdf files embedded in webpages.
Summary
I installed this pdf reader because a number of people had recommended it including CNET. It didn't have problems when I first installed it, but about a year or more ago, I started experiencing problems with it. My main, but biggest, problem with Foxit is that it hangs my entire browser when I click on a link that opens up a pdf file. I have several tabs open on my Firefox browser and it hangs my entire browser instead of just one tab. A popup would come up saying another program was busy and whether I would like to retry or switch to that program. It doesn't matter which option you click, the same popup comes back in less than a second asking you to pick an option again. If you click retry, the same popup comes back. If you click switch to, your Start menu opens up and that's it. What I usually do is repeatedly click retry until finally my browser unfreezes. If I'm lucky, the pdf file actually loads up. If I'm unlucky, I get an error screen that says it crashed and the pdf file couldn't be loaded. The latter (error screen) happens more for me and it's a real waste of my time. I have become scared of clicking pdf file links. If it's a pdf link, I try to download it to my computer first because reading pdf files on your computer works fine with Foxit. This is a known Foxit problem if you search about it and it's been a few years now and there's still no fix! I currently have Windows Vista so I don't know if that could be a reason for the problem. Today I decided to uninstall Foxit because I've had enough. I decided to check CNET for great alternates and decided to write this review. Be aware!
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"Mostly doesn't work"
Version: Foxit Reader Portable 5.0.1.0523
Pros
It's not Adobe, with all its bloatware and mandatory updating requirements.
Cons
It doesn't work in multiple browsers.
Summary
Most of my reading of PDFs is online as webpage PDFs, and if you're like me, then Foxit probably won't work for you either. In Firefox, Foxit repeatedly causes PDFs, then the entire browser window to freeze and/or crash. There are error popups and other nonsense. Iin its mild defense, Foxit does work as a reader for PDF files already on my computer. Sometimes Foxit decides to work anyway after a lengthy pause and error message, but you never know. Uninstalling/reinstalling/updating my browser and Foxit have not fixed this problem. There are threads online of people experiencing the same issues. I installed SRWare Iron browser the other day, and Foxit won't work with that browser at all - SRWare says that the program is "not working." So I'm moving on to a new program.
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"Doesn't install"
Version: Foxit Reader Portable 5.0.1.0523
Pros
Don't know
Cons
Publisher is unrecognized; tries to install to a bogus directory
Summary
Who reviews this stuff? Sounds simple enough. If anyone on the CNET staff had tried to download it, they would find these errors. No quality control...
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"Never finished the install."
Version: Foxit Reader Portable 5.0.1.0523
Pros
Never used Foxit Reader only heard good things about it.
Cons
Now to this part. For some reason when i go to install i get a security warning saying not to proceed this product can harm your computer, so for now I'm playing it safe.
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"Want no "search bar""
Version: Foxit Reader Portable 4.3.1.0323
Pros
fast download
Cons
It will not install without a "search bar". beware.
Summary
Download from here was corrupt. I went to Foxit home. Disappoint.
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"My favouritepdf reader"
Version: Foxit Reader Portable 4.3.1.0323
Pros
does everything and does it fast a--- light and strong
Cons
nothing to tell ... for a reader
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"fast and good"
Version: Foxit Reader Portable 4.3.1.0218
Pros
opens pdfs right away ... free ... does what it must ... my favourite PDF READER
Cons
nothing to tell
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