* I assume that Adobe Reader is still bloated and also a major security risk. Nor can it handle PDFs from Microsoft Publisher, not being able to display semi-transparency correctly. It’s somewhat fast, but sadly it has a fat ugly gutter on double-page spreads which can’t be removed. Possibly this is because Evince is said to ignore DRM in PDFs, and/or because people think it’s not for Windows. Curiously it doesn’t feature on lists of the best Adobe Reader alternatives, or at Major Geeks (now the best freeware directory). Basically it’s Sumatra but without the advanced controls. * MuPDF, open source… but it’s what Sumatra is built on. There doesn’t appear to be a standalone version. Killing the downloader process revealed it was 32-bit anyway, something that was also confirmed by further research. This download stuck at 1% and never completed. It was a 13Mb download, then it needed to go online to get a “Startup module”. It’s still available free, but has been superseded by a more advanced paid version. The interface looks slick, like MS Office. Apparently the whole of CERN is forced to use this, for security. Painfully slow to render pages, uninstalled. I tried a few other free desktop readers, to see if anything had changed and there were any new contenders. But the gutter line still has to be removed by fiddling in Advanced Settings, to manually change: PageSpacing = 4 4 to PageSpacing = 0 0 Sumatra PDF is still the closest, with its Book view (Cover + Facing pages) which is found under Settings | Options | Book View. Surprisingly, no-one has yet produced a dedicated elegant free “PDF magazine reader” for desktops, with a big idiot-proof one-click button for: “two-page spreads + cover-page, no gutter line”. I took another look at the range of PDF readers, just now. Being able to do that is a vital feature, for viewing magazines that run pictures across double-page spreads. Sumatra won because, unlike MS Reader, you can turn off the “gutter” line for two-page magazine spreads. There were only two free ad-free winners, The Windows Reader desktop app and Sumatra PDF. Several years ago I surveyed PDF reader software for desktops, with an eye to: 1) speed of opening, and 2) being a “magazine reader”.
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