Adobe Reader 8.1 vs. Xpdf and Evince

PORTABLE POSSIBILITIES

Article from Issue 86/2008
Author(s):

The creator of the PDF format, Adobe, has released Adobe Reader 8.1. Does the proprietary display program offer more than free software alternatives Xpdf and Evince?

The Portable Document Format (PDF), based on the PostScript page description language, has established itself as a standard for crossplatform document publishing, and readers are available for any popular operating system. That said, the PDF format is not designed for publishing documents that anyone can read.

Pre-press is another important area in which PDF is deployed. Professional Postscript printers and CTP machines process PDF documents directly, with the use of preflight to check the layout of a PDF document before publishing. The developers of the PDF format, Adobe Systems, had publishers and printing companies in mind when they designed PDF and the Internet was still new.

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • PDF Readers

    PDF readers are easy to find in the Linux space. We tested 10 candidates, including a few fast and minimal alternatives, as well as others that offer convenience and additional features.

  • Evince

    Evince is quickly becoming Gnome’s standard viewer for PDF and other document formats.

  • Webconverger 4.7 with Firewall and Adobe Reader

    Webconverger, a Linux distro to drive web kiosk systems, is now available in version 4.7. Some updates improve its security.

  • Adobe Reader Under Threat

    Speaking at the RSA security conference in San Francisco 2009, chief security officer of F-Secure, Mikko Hypponen, advised against the use of Adobe's Acrobat and recommended users switch to an open source PDF reader.

  • Adobe Reader and Acrobat Security Updates

    Adobe has released security updates for its PDF Reader and Acrobat 9.1 and earlier versions.

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News