Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

Zootopia3001 reviewed v3.1.2 on Aug 16, 2016

May be the most useless PDF reader for today's PDFs out there, and overall far too simple. May be OK for some who just need a very minor basic PDF reader. Given other third party readers are gaining in bloat I just went back to Adobe Reader(15.x) with auto-update enabled.

Aegis69 reviewed v3.1.10150 Pre-Release on May 22, 2015

Why bright yellow...?

lookmann reviewed v3.1.10150 Pre-Release on May 21, 2015

Tried a previous alpha. none too good. Happy with a stable version. beats DRM restrictions. 4 stars.

CyberDoc999 reviewed v3.0 on Oct 22, 2014

the only pdf reader you will ever need .... perfect

egg83 reviewed v2.5.1 on May 8, 2014

Works very well, my new favorite PDF reader!

Music4Ever reviewed v2.4 on Oct 2, 2013

Great program, small & light on resources & does all that most people need, but they end up with the bloated lumbering Adobe reader.

some guy reviewed v2.3 on May 22, 2013

light weight non bloat !

bogbasic reviewed v2.2.1 on Apr 23, 2013

I wanted a little pdf reader that doesn't nag every day about downloading updates and security fixes which take hours to install. No such probs with this and you can't get much leaner. Epic work - keep it up.

Zoroaster reviewed v2.2.1 on Apr 11, 2013

Just what I was looking for : a pdf reader, simple and fast.

Music4Ever reviewed v2.1 on May 4, 2012

Great program, does all I ask ~

Karol Mily reviewed v2.1 on May 4, 2012

I wellcome a support for ePub.

But I am missing some basic features, like save and automaticaly recover last position in all books I readed/opened. Table of contents and more...

Blaxima reviewed v2.1 on May 4, 2012

I jump back and forth between this and PDF-XChange Viewer which is also excellent BUT with the addition of epub reading, Sumatra has once again become my default. And in such a small package too!!

pjafrombbay reviewed v2.1 on May 4, 2012

Just installed version 2.1. It's now an eBook reader (ePUB format has been added to MOBI and of course PDF).

Gosh this is a great piece of software. Keep up the good work.

Peter

PS: I hardly ever rate anything with 5 stars!

Landsnes reviewed v2.0.1 on Apr 27, 2012

Best PDF viewer on the globe!

After about a year of usage, I've had no issues. Adobe Reader v 10.1.3 setup file: 52 MB. SumatraPDF setup file: 4 MB. Speaks for itself.

Fast, light & just right!

nusushika reviewed v2.0.1 on Apr 10, 2012

It is set to my default PDF reader as it renders the text fast and clearly.

4 stars for it doesn't have the ability to check fonts used in PDF files.

Music4Ever reviewed v2.0 on Apr 3, 2012

I've used this as my default PDF viewer for some time & have had no problems whatsoever - I really do miss much Adobe though with it's tiny download & low memory load.

Sorb reviewed v1.9 on Mar 20, 2012

Update: This is almost perfect already but it would be nice if it would let you edit forms also.

Sorb reviewed v1.8 on Sep 22, 2011

I love this, it's fast and lightweight. I am only sometimes missing tabs.
I used Foxit before but never again. I also still use Reader X on my work computer by tradition.

The Seeker 11 reviewed v1.8 on Sep 19, 2011

Does what it's supposed to and does it well. What more could you ask for?

Input Overload reviewed v1.7.3895 Beta on Jun 10, 2011

Does all I want & sometimes i want a lot. Brilliant. (Apart from the yellow) ;-)

GadgetPig reviewed v1.5.1 on Apr 29, 2011

This is a great PDF viewer alternative especially for older XP-era machines. Occasional rendering problems can sometimes occur on certain complex PDF documents with tons of images (rare); But mostly the compatibility is VERY VERY good, and getting closer to perfect with every release.

A little known but very capable viewer (as mentioned here on Betanews from another member) is STDU viewer:

http://fileforum.betanew...TDU-Viewer/1241899538/1

OAKsider reviewed v1.5.1 on Apr 27, 2011

An amazing, tiny PDF reader that's made of Awesome.

war593122 reviewed v1.5 on Apr 26, 2011

So sweet, portable too. :D

Input Overload reviewed v1.5 on Apr 26, 2011

I use this all the time, it's capable of opening very complicated drawings and schematics. Great program.

dejavu reviewed v1.5 on Apr 26, 2011

Yeah! Great tool!

Sorb reviewed v1.5 on Apr 26, 2011

This just keeps getting better. It really whips the llama's ass! The llama in this case being Foxit/Adobe.

Input Overload reviewed v1.4 on Mar 16, 2011

No issues with latest version. It's never crashed on me & opens very complicated schematics without problems. One of my best free finds.

Haaglander reviewed v1.4 on Mar 15, 2011

Great PDF reader. No bloatware hence minimal risk for malware like Adobe Reader.

DudeBoyz reviewed v1.3 on Feb 10, 2011

Very solid viewer. One of the best, and leanest out there. If you don't need all them fancy features of the 100 meg Adobe version, give this one a try.

cowgaR reviewed v1.3 on Feb 7, 2011

well, a nice project for very basic PDF manipulation...

example? find feature is a complety joke compared to Adobe Reader, try reading technical book with complex terms, indexing, code snippets, chapters and more, how much more convenient it is in reader (and how fast you can find what you're looking for) and how stupidly basic it is in this 5 star application.

I appreciate the project, it is nice to have something like this on a mobile device, but not on a working machine. Sometimes speed is not everything, not to mention Adobe Reader flies on my rig.

Input Overload reviewed v1.3 on Feb 4, 2011

Brilliant. I've tried it on some large PDF's I have & it worked flawlessly. Does all I want. Great viewer. And so small too.

The bright yellow page is a bit much on the eyes, it about the worst colour the author could have chosen
It makes the software look amateurish which it is not.

CowaR, it's just opened an extremly complicated electronic manual for the Alpha_UPS_AC_OM_X31S_8-20kVA, which has many detailed electronic schematics etc with no issues. (around 80 pages)

I would have to be paid to have Adobe on my system.

New Doraemon reviewed v1.3 on Feb 4, 2011

What an amazing, lightweight PDF reader! Best of its kind!

Purrrfect for my demanding tits!

Aegis69 reviewed v1.3 on Feb 4, 2011

Tabs and Linux please, I hate evince.

guti reviewed v1.1 on Oct 6, 2010

If you are interested in SumatraPDF optimized x86 and/or x64 compiles, find them at: http://guti.webcindario.....php?page=SumatraPDFOpt

RollDatKernelMyBrotha reviewed v1.1 on May 21, 2010

Just opened a test 56page PDF file with graphs and charts and paged down until end and back up several times. Memory usage hovered around 46 megs, not even an issue with 2gig ram laptops. No problems here. YMMV depending if the PDF contains huge amounts of scanned fullpage/hi-res images.

http://www.frvt.org/FRVT...006LargeScaleReport.pdf

Working fine and very fast for most PDF viewing applications. Use portable PDFexchange viewer if memory/speed is an issue for certain PDF's.

swaxhog reviewed v1.1 on May 21, 2010

I agree the memory issue should be addressed. It's not a bug but maybe an option to keep cache or not while using. My PC as 12GB of RAM but using this on a netbook can suck most of your ram quickly.

What is happening is a bitmap is being created for each viewed page, which take can be quite large. This bitmap is then saved (cached) in memory so the next time you go back to that page, it renders faster.

Ramp4me reviewed v1.1 on May 21, 2010

Finally a worth replacement for that malware called FoxIt.

LRN reviewed v1.1 on May 21, 2010

For people with 500Mb-and-rising memory usage - OMG, people! Have you EVER heard of bugs or memory leaks? Now, it's still a good reason to rate it lower (such bugs are definitely nasty and they hurt the experience), but let's not mislead people by claiming that SumatraPDF is defective _by design_.

File a bug report.

Also, it should be noted that 1.0.1 fixed a lot of memory leaks, according to changelog. I guess someone DID file a bug report instead of whining.

Myself, i still thing there are some rough edges to SumatraPDF (such as uncomfortable view relocation when zooming), so i'll rate it 4. Not sure though whether it can be fixed without also fixing underlying pdf libraries.

Jen Smith reviewed v1.1 on May 20, 2010

Light and fast, I prefer this over Foxit's. (And both of which are 1000% better than Adobe's.) It's very barebones though, but if all you're doing is wanting to read a document, it's a good pick.

anonymouscowturd reviewed v1.0 on Nov 17, 2009

Got to agree with Diam0nd on this one. The memory does skyrocket. That said it is rather snappy. But the memory usage really does make me down rate this. It's promising but has a way to go yet.

Diam0nd reviewed v0.9.3 on Nov 6, 2008

A great PDF reader both in terms of looks and functionality. I really love that it's very basic.

But tell me, how can it be the biggest memory hog ever? Let me illustrate this: I opened a 113-page PDF file. Scrolled up and down (from 1 to 113) 10 times. Memory use went up to 500 mb (yes 5 0 0). As I continued scrolling up and down, memory KEPT rising. Do you know what that might mean for a simple user? If I want to keep a PDF opened and look through it from time to time during the day, such memory use might completely screw my pc up at some part of the day.

Now, try doing the same basic scrolling with FoxIt Reader. Memory use goes up 5-10 mbs during scrolling, but it GOES BACK to previous value after you stop scrolling.

So again, I think Sumatra PDF is great and really IS very promising, but I'll stick to FoxIt for the time-being.

android_04 reviewed v0.9.3 on Oct 9, 2008

Very good, light PDF reader. They made it so Sumatra remembers the window position and size. The only thing left to do for me to ditch Foxit Reader is to have Sumatra remember Zoom and View settings, though they are not as important as windows position and size.

DudeBoyz reviewed v0.9.2 on Oct 8, 2008

Just found out about this, and I like it a great deal. It helped to remind me of just how large the official Acrobat Reader has become. It's a startling contrast.

All I want is a basic PDF reader. I don't want to view multimedia, have it be able to execute java or javascript code, allow for editing and group revisions, etc.

So I'm very glad to see this type of open source alternative. It does a great job of meeting my needs.

I'm also happy to see that they have allowed the user to disable the auto-update feature.

It's simply a matter of principle for me - users should always be able to control any "phone home" type of features, so kudos to the coders. :)

minasinahanmetehe reviewed v0.9.1 on Aug 28, 2008

Project is moving fast. Excellent.
Last v got destinations and now links work.
This is enough for me. This is default pdf reader now. Adobe only for back up and maybe for printing.

bigmama reviewed v0.9 on Aug 11, 2008

nice alternative

maybe the best

adobe reader is bloated but does everything
you might need (still my first choice)

sumatra is good for your usb , older machines etc.

ajua reviewed v0.8.1 on May 28, 2008

Is great for quick looking at PDF's.
Unfortunately, this program lacks some basic features, such as remembering window size.

But it's great to see that it is improving.

pihug12 reviewed v0.8.1 on May 28, 2008

I love it !

caplanepourmoi reviewed v0.8 on May 25, 2008

I like the fact that it is open source and lightweight.

Unfortunately it could not render PDF files that use Japanese encoding correctly and could not open PDF files that are protected with a password, therefore I had to install Foxit Reader which can do both of those things.

Blaxima reviewed v0.8 on Jan 23, 2008

I use to be very happy with this lightweight reader but like another reviewer said, it just stopped working. It hangs on certain files and I'm guessing its having a problem with the size but the thing is that I WAS able to view the same files before

Darkman00 reviewed v0.8 on Jan 11, 2008

it says here at Betanews - size over 11 mb

But the actual file is only over 1 mb :)

guti reviewed v0.8 on Jan 10, 2008

Not as stable as Foxit, but a good Open source product.

Personally I miss a native x64 Windows build.

brucola reviewed v0.7 on Nov 1, 2007

I've been using it for 6 months with satisfanction. It was very light and effective but now... it's not working anymore.

yokozuna reviewed v0.7 on Aug 9, 2007

Sumatra PDF is a lightweight and highly intuitive PDF viever. It still lacks some features like mouse scrolling, but I think that the app deserves 5/5.

For more advanced features I advice PDF-XChange Viewer (available from http://www.pdfxviewer.com ) or broadly known Foxit.

adamlau reviewed v0.7 on Aug 4, 2007

Not quite up to par with Foxit and certainly not up to par with Foxit Pro. A viable, lightweight alternative PDF viewer that shows promise. The addition of annotation features would earn Sumatra PDF a four out of five.

taxis reviewed v0.7 on Jul 31, 2007

Nice new open-source viewer - now it supports localisation. The rendering engine makes a very good impression. At present, some features are still lacking (e.g. support for internal hyperlinks).

feather reviewed v0.7 on Jul 31, 2007

Great, but lacks some common features like shortkeys to zoom in/out.

AntiochMedia reviewed v0.7 on Jul 31, 2007

Wow... somewhere between the last version of this and the latest version, this actually renders files MUCH better...

There are some issues with overlayed images / transparencies / alpha blending / color profiles. BAD issues that make some advanced PDFs for print advertising / brochures display very ugly.

I'm also having difficulty with this supposed copy + paste feature ... I think that it may support copy + paste on certain PDFs depending on their composition...

Lands reviewed v0.7 on Jul 31, 2007

"Added ability to select the text and copy to clipboard"

Excellent!

zapatero reviewed v0.7 on Jul 30, 2007

I could not use it to select and copy text (or graphics).

bellgamin reviewed v0.6 on Jul 7, 2007

It works just fine! If you seek a pdf reader that is plain, simple, tiny, fast, with zero bells & whistles -- Sumatra is THE one.

Since I am a devout minimalist, I give Sumatra a 5.

Lands reviewed v0.6 on Jun 7, 2007

This is a great piece of software. Finally a very good alternative to Foxit.
Smaller and faster also.

Darkman00 reviewed v0.6 on May 4, 2007

I made it default viewer, and it opens up .PDF files on my computer here (it's still running Windows ME) :)

It opens .PDF files on my computer just fine..

But i clicked on the net on some .PDF files..and Adobe is still kicking in ..

Let me know please if there is any way to make Sumatra PDF Viewer to open PDF files if click on them when browsing internet with Internet Explorer (i think i am on IE 6.0)

Thanks

guti reviewed v0.6 on May 1, 2007

Since 0.6 you are not allow to print documents that disallow printing.

Still some features missing, and in my case, not as fast as Foxit.

Look at the changelog here: http://blog.kowalczyk.in...re/sumatrapdf/news.html

dono1216 reviewed v0.6 on Apr 30, 2007

The good (or bad) thing about Sumatra (I have v0.5, haven't tried 0.6) is that it allows you to print "protected" PDFs that you can't print with Adobe or Foxit.

Coupled with PDFCreator, you can "unprotect" those files !

zridling reviewed v0.6 on Apr 30, 2007

Simple smallware, does what it's designed to do. Could use a few more features, but for 99% of my PDF needs — which is merely reading them — Sumatra PDF is a sensible option.

Ulmo reviewed v0.6 on Apr 30, 2007

Ouah !

Less than 1 second to load a 10 Mega Bytes PDF.
No display bug seen for now.

Foxit has finally a challenger :D