Why the hell is Acrobat Reader 435 megabytes?

Pawnless Endgame · 24 Apr 2018 at 18:19

About 10 years ago, Acrobat Reader surpassed 200MB on my home PC. On that principle, I switched to Foxit. This can open PDF files and its directory is under 10MB. Plus, it's portable, so it will survive on drive D: during a reformat and it's there ready to be used again.

On my work's PC, I notice that Acrobat Reader hangs a lot. I checked its footprint, and surprised I was (and not surprised at the same time) to see that it's now 435MB.

This isn't the full Adobe Acrobat program where you can create PDFs and it's not Adobe Page Maker either. This is just the bog standard Reader! So any idea why it's such a footprint? When I use a computer, I have high expectations i.e. programs to load up in a snap, so this frustrates me. Same with Word 2010, where first-time use per session takes around 30 seconds to load. Then Outlook 2010 and that's another 30 seconds. On my home PC, I tend to stick to older program versions. Bear in mind that both my work's PC and home PC have a similar CPU Passmark of around 8000.

AthlonXP1800 · 24 Apr 2018 at 19:24

Ahhh Adobe Acrobat and Foxit.

I first used Adobe Reader 28 years ago back in to college to read documents, last time I used it long time ago on Windows 8.1 but no longer used Adobe Acrobat on desktop PC and Foxit on tablet and laptops. I uninstalled both when Chrome and Firefox finally got built in PDF reader then Windows 10 finally got PDF reader.

Orcvader · 25 Apr 2018 at 11:52

Adobe became too bloated so I dumped it. I moved to Sumatra and it's very tiny:

There's also a portable version like Foxit so I guess it just comes down to personal preferences.

Some colleagues at work actually started having issues printing with the Adobe reader, and even with Edge's built in PDF reader, so installed Sumatra for them and it's had no issues with printing.

joey1211 · 25 Apr 2018 at 12:13

You should see the amount of rubbish Adobe installs with Creative Suite

darael · 25 Apr 2018 at 14:25

Orcvader said:
Adobe became too bloated so I dumped it. I moved to Sumatra and it's very tiny:

There's also a portable version like Foxit so I guess it just comes down to personal preferences.

Some colleagues at work actually started having issues printing with the Adobe reader, and even with Edge's built in PDF reader, so installed Sumatra for them and it's had no issues with printing.

The seeming lack of updates would concern me. The latest version, v3.1.2, was released on 14/08/2016.

https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/news.html

jpaul · 25 Apr 2018 at 15:04

The embedded pdf reader in chrome seems good, now frequently use that rather than pdf creator , although I suppose google might read the documents ?

(relating to other thread) compared to the firefox embed, google also allows me to copy pdf text w/o formatting problems

joey1211 · 25 Apr 2018 at 15:12

Chrome won't show any markup someone has added to the pdf i.e corrections

mrbazmondo · 25 Apr 2018 at 15:42

I stopped using adobe because it got huge, kept needing to update itself all the time and became known as a security hole. I moved on to foxit until browsers started being able to show pdfs, now I use chrome/edge/firefox.

Van_Dammesque · 26 Apr 2018 at 10:02

Adobe reader is longer just a PDF reader, it can display and rotate 3d models embedded into the PDF file.
Even isolate subparts etc...

Yes, acrobat reader was always bloated compared to the likes of foxit et al, but the above may explain why it is massive.

Marzipanogram · 26 Apr 2018 at 11:38

This is worth checking out:
Sumatra PDF
www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader.html

Lots of positive reviews in the "best PDF reader" awards.

jpaul · 26 Apr 2018 at 12:09

Marzipanogram said:
This is worth checking out:
Sumatra PDF

with the concern dareal remarked ?

jpaul said:
now frequently use that rather than pdf creator

I meant to say PDF-Xchange viewer, I like the fact you could add/save annotations, and had it OK'd for work use (pdf creator for printing)

bledd · 26 Apr 2018 at 16:57

Sumatra FTW

My boss in work made an even more cut down version of it (to disable hyperlinks within PDF)

Broken Hope · 27 Apr 2018 at 14:16

For how little I use PDF I just use Edge to view them.

Orcvader · 27 Apr 2018 at 14:37

darael said:
The seeming lack of updates would concern me. The latest version, v3.1.2, was released on 14/08/2016.

https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/news.html

The developer is still pretty active on the forums, but he just wants to keep it as simple as possible. Foxit does offer a lot more features though. Not really a fan of the UI however

.

Duke · 27 Apr 2018 at 20:37

My Adobe Reader folder is 265MB so sounds like you've got some old cached files in there or something.

jpaul · 28 Apr 2018 at 07:54

yes - maybe that is the X version /260MB as opposed to the plus sized XL/DC version ... the software+website obesity crisis ?
but I suspect adobe makes more from their video software ?? after effects ? (keep meaning to try the trial)

Duke · 28 Apr 2018 at 10:37

Mine is DC version.

AthlonXP1800 · 28 Apr 2018 at 18:02

jpaul said:
I meant to say PDF-Xchange viewer, I like the fact you could add/save annotations, and had it OK'd for work use (pdf creator for printing)

I checked out PDF-Xchange Viewer site, the app is discontinued and it was replaced by PDF-Xchange Editor.

Edge in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update supported markup/add/save annotations.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-...ows-10-fall-creators-update#annotate_pdf_edge

AthlonXP1800 · 28 Apr 2018 at 18:07

I had tested Redstone 5 Windows 10 Lean since last night, I installed Adobe Acrobat Reader DC to checked it out, downloaded latest updates and opened some PDF files.

Yes Duke is correct Adobe Acrobat Reader DC folder size is 265MB.

Pawnless Endgame · 28 Apr 2018 at 18:26

Lots of suggestions here, cheers, and interesting about the web browsers too like Edge and Chrome. Just jump onto Gmail or Google Drive and they can open PDFs without a reader. Firefox can as well, which is around 300MB on my computer, so still less than the 435MB Adobe Reader.

Computer games are in gigabyte territory which is more justified because of the number of operations that a computer game can perform. While 435MB isn't a lot these days with terabyte hard drives, it's still the principle as 435MB seems a lot to open / read / sign / print PDF files.

This bit 3D models below though looks interesting, so will need to look that up.

Van_Dammesque said:
Adobe reader is longer just a PDF reader, it can display and rotate 3d models embedded into the PDF file.
Even isolate subparts etc...