Qt Reader Alternative For Mac

Qt Reader Alternative For Mac Average ratng: 3,7/5 521 reviews

Qt's Graphics View framework can be a more suitable alternative for creating PDF documents with content that is mainly based on arbitrarily positioned and transformed 2D graphical items rather than continuous flowed rich text. Quicktime for Mac does not decode those very well (weird artifacts in black or dark screens). Yes, there are alternatives, but rather than making workarounds whenever a software company decides to arbitrarily drop support for one platform, let's get the support we are investing in by leasing the Adobe product.

  1. Qt alternative? Ask Question. Xorg releases, mac updates. I would hate to watch this happen as Qt is an amazing framework. C++ qt user-interface. Share improve this question. Asked Aug 3 '11 at 23:33. As a regular reader of Qt blogs and labs, I can say it for sure. The new Qt 5 is going to have lot of features.
  2. Most users probably never bother to look for alternatives, and therefore might miss out on one good alternative free PDF reader called Skim. This is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X which was originally designed to help users read and annotate scientific papers in PDF.
  3. An alternative to Adobe Acrobat for Mac is an awesome program that can let Mac users do anything they want with PDF documents. Even you have upgraded to the new Mac OS X 10.12 Sierra, you can edit, convert and create PDF with Adobe Acrobat Mac (macOS 10.13 High Sierra) alternative.

First released in 1993, Adobe Reader can be found on countless home, school, and businesses computers around the world. This free PDF viewer is available in most major languages, and its comprehensive support for the PDF file format is often used as a reference point for other PDF applications to meet. But just because Adobe Reader is the most widespread PDF viewer on Mac and other operating systems doesn’t necessarily have to mean that it’s also the best.

The goal of this article is to examine what makes Adobe Reader, and more specifically Adobe Reader for Mac, so popular and compare it to select PDF reader for Mac applications to see if it’s really as good as its download and user statistics would suggest.

Best Features of Adobe Reader for Mac

  • Adobe Reader for Mac is a capable PDF viewer that allows you to view, print, and annotate PDF files for free. If you register with Adobe, you can connect Adobe Reader for Mac to Adobe Document Cloud, which is a suite of cloud-based software applications from Adobe Systems that provides PDF-related services, including conversion and document exchange.

For example, EchoSign lets users send, e-sign, track, and file documents online; ExportPDF makes it possible to convert PDF files into editable Word or Excel documents; and Adobe Send is an alternative to email attachments and FTP sites for sending, sharing, and tracking large files. Adobe Document Cloud is fully localized in English, German, French, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish.

  • Apart from the cloud, Adobe Reader for Mac also supports your mobile devices, allowing you to work with PDF files on your iPad or iPhone thanks to the free Adobe Acrobat Reader mobile app. Just like its Adobe Reader for Mac, the mobile app supports Adobe Document Cloud, annotating, digital signatures, text editing, and more.
  • Wanting to take the mobile PDF experience to the next level, Adobe also released the Adobe Scan and Fill & Sign mobile apps. Adobe Scan quickly scans any documents and turns them into versatile Adobe PDFs, while the Fill & Sign mobile app lets you fill, sign, and send any form electronically from any mobile device.
  • Adobe Reader for Mac can also convert PDF files to Word documents with a single click. This is particularly useful in the business world, where documents are often shared as PDF files for compatibility reasons, only to be edited multiple times as they are passed around.
  • Another feature aimed at businesses and institutional users is the possibility to extend Adobe Reader for Mac using the free Acrobat SDK. This set of tools contains header files, type libraries, simple utilities, sample code, and documentation, and it helps software developers interact with Acrobat technology, allowing for inter-application communication and the creation of plugins and scripts.

As you can see, Adobe Reader for Mac is a highly capable PDF viewer, so it might surprise you to learn that it’s not even the most capable PDF application developed by Adobe, that would have to be Adobe Acrobat DC.

Steps on How to Download Adobe Reader for Mac

To download the free Adobe PDF reader for Mac, head to Adobe’s official website and follow our instructions:

  1. Select the “PDF & E-signatures” option from the menu at the top of the website.
  2. A pop-up menu will appear. Select “Reader DC” under Featured Products.
  3. Click on “Download now”.
  4. The download page should automatically suggest you Adobe Reader for Mac. If it doesn’t, click on “Do you have a different language or operating system?” and select the right version for your operating system.
  5. Pay special attention to the middle column, titled Optional offers. Unless you uncheck both offers, Adobe Reader for Mac will automatically install McAfee Security Scan Plus utility and McAfee Safe Connect.
  6. Click on “Install now” to download the Adobe Reader for Mac installer.
  7. Install Adobe Reader for Mac as you would any other Mac application.

Top Alternatives to Adobe Reader for Mac

Adobe Reader for Mac is often the only PDF application people know about, but there are actually many excellent alternatives, most free and some with more features than Adobe Reader for Mac.

1. Foxit Reader

Foxit Reader is a lightweight and fast PDF solution with a familiar user interface and plenty of features. Going being PDF viewing, Foxit Reader features ConnectedPDF, cutting-edge technology that powers document intelligence, security, and collaboration services for PDF files.

With ConnectedPDF, users can grant and revoke access to the document, grant specific readers with specific document access rights, track document usage, view all versions of the document in an intuitive document version tree, and share content quickly, easily, and securely by generating a file link and sending it via email or to social media, among many other things.

Because Foxit Reader utilizes a familiar ribbon toolbar, learning about its capabilities and accessing all of its features is effortless. PDF compatibility isn’t a problem with Foxit Reader. You can leverage existing forms and workflow with standard PDF (Acroforms) and XFA (XML Form Architecture) form filling, and open any PDF file without being greeted with an indecipherable mess of letters and numbers.

2. Okular

Okular is a universal document viewer developed by KDE, an international free software community that develops free and open source software. Apart from Mac, Okular also runs on Linux, Windows, and *BSD. It supports PDF, Postscript, DjVu, CHM, XPS, ePub, and several other document file formats. Okular is a suitable Adobe Reader Mac alternative for those who only want to open PDF files and aren’t concerned with their editing.

To use Okular on Mac, you first need to install KDE. You can learn how to do so on this page. We recommend using Homebrew, a package manager for macOS.

3. Skim

Skim is a compact yet capable PDF reader and note-taker for macOS. It was designed to help Mac users read scientific papers in PDF, but you can, of course, use it to open and read any PDF file you want. Its features include text highlighting, making snapshots for easy reference, navigating using the table of contents or thumbnails, convenient reading in full screen, magnification, smart cropping tools, Spotlight support, and more.

Bonus: Disk Drill

None of the PDF applications we’ve mentioned so far support one critical feature: PDF recovery. To recover your lost or deleted PDF files, you need to install a dedicated data recovery application, and Disk Drill for Mac is easy to recommend. Unlike many other data recovery applications, Disk Drill is extremely easy to use, featuring a signature one-click data recovery process that makes data recovery absolutely effortless. Apart from its ease of use, Disk Drill also stands out with its support for over 200 file formats and most storage devices.

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Your Companion for Deleted Files Recovery

Adobe Acrobat Reader for Mac Versus Adobe Acrobat DC

Adobe Acrobat DC is a complete PDF viewing and editing solution packed with best-in-class tools to satisfy all PDF needs. Whereas Adobe Acrobat Reader for Mac is aimed chiefly at the consumers of PDF files, Adobe Acrobat is aimed at the authors of PDF files.

You can use it to easily scan and transform any document into an editable PDF file, compile multiple PDFs into a single one, or convert files into rich PDFs in a single click. Let’s say your boss sends you a year old white-paper that she would like to be updated. Instead of having to recreate the whole thing from scratch, you can simply open it in Adobe Acrobat DC and individually edit each element of the document.

Versions

Adobe Acrobat DC is available in two versions: Pro and Standard. Compared to the Standard version, the Pro version adds one-click creation of rich PDFs from the Acrobat ribbon in Word, the option to add or edit text in a PDF on your iPad, the ability to scan paper to PDFs you can edit instantly with fonts that match the original and compare two versions of a PDF using an easy-to-scan results summary of all differences, and it also supports the creation and validation of PDFs based on WCAG 2.0 and PDF/UA accessibility standards.

Price

As you might expect, Adobe Acrobat DC, both Pro and Standard, isn’t free. Individuals can purchase Acrobat Pro DC for €18.14 if they pay annually or for €30.24 if they pay monthly. Adobe Acrobat Standard DC costs €15.72 a month when paid annually or €27.82 when paid monthly. Adobe also sells Acrobat DC for teams and enterprises with several extra features, including advanced 24/7 tech support.

Just by reading what features Adobe Acrobat DC brings to the table, it should be obvious to you whether you need it or not. Generally, everyone who works with PDFs on a regular basis should consider upgrading to Adobe Acrobat DC from Adobe Acrobat Reader Mac.

When it comes to PDF, Mac users have everything they need built in, supported natively by the OS. Creating a PDFHow To Easily Create & Annotate PDF DocumentsHow To Easily Create & Annotate PDF DocumentsRead More is as easy as printing a document, while reading and modifyingHow To Dissect & Assemble PDF Files Using Preview [Mac]How To Dissect & Assemble PDF Files Using Preview [Mac]Read More one can be done from Preview. Most users probably never bother to look for alternatives, and therefore might miss out on one good alternative free PDF reader called Skim.

This is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X which was originally designed to help users read and annotate scientific papers in PDF. But it is also great for viewing any PDF document.

Focus On Readers

The first thing that I noticed from Skim was the unique features of the table of contents pane on the left. Chapters that I have read are marked differently to unread chapters. And if you hover your mouse above a specific part of the document, Skim will show a quick glance of the content. I think this is a very useful feature for doing quick skimming.

Best Pdf Reader For Mac

This table of contents pane also allows you to do a quick search on a specific word or phrase from the document. This feature will be very handy if you are dealing with a very thick text book with thousands of pages. You can choose to see the results by words or by relevance.

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If you want to focus on your reading and free yourself from distraction, go to “View – Presentation (or Fullscreen)” menu.

Skim will show only the document with other things blocked out.

If you combine the feature with “Tools – Rotate” menu

Along with “PDF Display – Single Page” and “Zoom To Fit” under the “PDF” menu, Kindle reader for mac.

You could turn your MacBook into a nice eBook reader -athough holding a laptop sideways is a little bit uncomfortable.

Focus On Learners

Skim lets users create notes easily within the PDF document. So if you find something useful in the book or you want to be reminded about things that you need to do regarding the text that you read, just add some notes directly on the page.

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There is another kind of note called “Anchored Note“. This type is used for longer notes. You can assign a title and icon to it. It resides on a page as a small icon and will pop up if you double click on it.

To further the ability to annotate documents, Skim also allows users to draw circles, rectangles, and lines; and also to highlight the text.

Another tool that can help users in their learning is taking snapshots. You can take “snapshots” of important sections of a PDF document, to keep them on your screen for easy reference. This way you don’t have to leaf back to the section every time you want to see it.

All of these annotations and snapshots could be found quickly by using Notes Pane. You can show/hide the pane via “View – Show/Hide Notes Pane“.

If you need to remove one (or more) of the notes, you can do so by right clicking on the item(s) within this pane and choose “Delete“. It’s possible to use other basic editing commands here such as Copy, Edit and Select. Choosing “Show” will bring you the notes from wherever you are in the document.

These are only a few basic features of Skim that I was able to explore during my short encounter with it, but it covers what ordinary users need. Power users might want to dig deeper to more advanced features such as AppleScript support; Interaction with LaTeX, SyncTeX, and PDFSync; and Integration with BibDesk and other third party applications. Refer to the Help menu for more help.

Adobe Reader Alternative For Mac

What do you think of Skim? Have you tried it? Do you know any other good free PDF readers that we might have missed? Please share them using the comments below.

Explore more about: eReader, PDF, PDF Editor.

  1. And with the 'Issues' mentioned recently about Preview being more hackable then previously thought, it is nice to have an out. Nice program.

  2. Hi David,

    I tried to find more info on this but couldn't find any. Sorry.

  3. Thanks for this, Jeffry. I’ve always thought someone could develop a better PDF reader than what Apple‘s Preview app provides. This app is ten times better.

  4. Thanks for this, Jeffry. I’ve always thought someone could develop a better PDF reader than what Apple‘s Preview app provides. This app is ten times better.

    • Your welcome. This one is a keeper.

  5. This seems like a useful program. Will it allow you to view PDFs within a browser? I know Chrome is working on this support for Mac, but I'm wondering if Skim will provide this for Safari, Firefox, and others.

    • Hi David,

      I tried to find more info on this but couldn't find any. Sorry.

      • Thanks for checking. I'll install it and see what happens.

        • let us know!

        • I just got around to testing Skim and found that it does not support viewing PDFs within a browser.

        • thanks for follow up