PDFView for Mac0.14.3

Top app keep making for PPC

I am sad to see this little gem out of development. Still, it is available and it works very well. It is fast and easy-to-use. I like that it opens the PDFs in full-screen view. And I like that it automatically adjusts the size of the text based on the size of the window. A great little utility.

The best tool I've found for latex previewing.

A quote from SourceForge:- "PDFView is no longer in development. Thanks to all the people who supported it, but I have no time any more. You may wanna try Skim as a replacement/improvement."

I really like this application. Thank you, I just hate preview for viewing PDF's specially in my small macbook screen. This has saved me a lot of headaches :D

An incredibly useful app, with which I've had no problems and which frees me from the irritating habits of both Preview and Adobe Reader when I just want to take a quick look at a document. Many thanks for making it available-- and for free, no less!

I was eagerly waiting for the updated version of pdfview. Unfortunately, the refreshing of the document is still seems to be broken: for me it refreshes the first time the document is modified on the disk, but afterwards it does not refresh (and sometimes even crashes). So, waiting for the next update...

Hi, I was looking for a long time for a pdf previewer like that for latex. The automatic resize feature is especially nice. Thanks for this new app. There are some problems, though. In Texniscope, when a document is reloaded, not only the page is preserved but also a position in this page. It is inconvenient that PDFView jumps at the beginning of the page, especially, if you edit something in the bottom of the page and so, you have to scroll down to see the result. I also was not able to make pdfsync work. Does it work for intel macs? There seems to be a problem with pdfsync in texniscope for intel. In my case, PDFViw does not even complain if the respective *.pdfsync file does not present (and it's presence does not change this behaviour). Texniscope has complained that "the document does not have a sycronization info" in this case. I am on macbook pro 2GHz intel core duo, Mac Os X 10.4.8

It's never gonna be, as it uses *exactly* the same component Preview uses for displaying the PDF. The bonus for using PDFView is the other features: auto-resize, LaTeX support, and so on.

I tried opening various PDFs I had created, with varying levels of image content and resolution. I found that PDFView did not perform any faster than Preview. Tech specs: PowerMac 1GHz MDD, 1 GB RAM, Tiger 10.4.7, ATI Radeon 9600 PC/Mac edition

HOLY FLRLGLHHM LaTeX-specific features?! I've died and gone to heaven. Developer, you are the super winner.

Rarely have I found such a gem. First, I thought: Why would I need this? Now I get excited with every new update. Do not let yourself be deceived by the low version number - this is an excellent product that lifts working with PDFs to another level. Great attention to detail and fast-paced development without offering stability - at least until now ;)

Absolutely excellent!

I will only use this now... forget about Preview. Works insanely fast, and is very well made. great job

Great fast lightweight app, thank you developer. Being a user of a quarterly PDF with 60 to 80 pages, it would be nice to have the option of a list view again in the drawer.

Great application. It has everything that i want in a PDF viewer. Its lightweight, universal binary and defaults to a large zoom size when you open documents (unlike Acrobat Reader and Preview). The author has been quick to update the applications with user suggestions (the 'hand' tool i suggested was incorporated in the very next version). Its now the default PDF viewer on my machine at home and at work. Two thumbs up.

Great piece of software. Here are a few suggestions meant to further improve it. 1. Automatic zoom level currently fits the width of the page. Alternatively, some readers like to adjust it to fit the height of a page. It would be nice if the Command-= shortcut toggled this automatic zoom mode between width-fit and height-fit. 2. When I move down using the space key, the overlap between the former view and the new view seems very small (1 line of text or less), which can be confusing. 3. Readability could be greatly improved by displaying pages side-by-side instead of one above the other. The Tofu application (http://amarsagoo.info/tofu) is a good example of this for text files. It would be nice if PDFView supported this arrangement as an option. 4. In the case of a "horinzontal layout" of the pages (see point 3 above), the forward ("space bar") motion could be set (e.g. in the Preferences) to either 1 or 1/2 page (again, Tofu-like). This would be especially useful for documents typeset in 2 columns. 5. In full screen view, is the scroll bar on the right absolutely necessary? After all, the whole point of full screen is to hide control elements. 6. In full screen view, I like that the reader can use various keys without the command-key. This behavior should probably also apply to arrow keys ("Next" and "Previous"). Thanks for all the good work so far. I would donate a few bucks for a "Tofu-like" PDFView.

This app is tha SHIZZLE

Yes! Hand tool, woo hoo! I love this app! It's fast, free, friendly, and fairly feature full. However, there are still a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out: 1) With the hand tool being automatic, there is no longer any way (that I can find) to select text from the document. Text selection should be the default action, and the hand tool should be invoked by holding down the space bar (as per many applications where the document can be repositioned within the window.) Or, simply provide two "buttons" to select the desired function. 2) PDFView needs to handle multiple monitors better. (e.g. going full screen on second monitor makes it black, but no document is displayed, and the application has to be quit in order to get the display back. Also, when opening the drawer with the document on the main screen, the window (correctly) resizes to fit the window and the drawer on the screen; but with a second monitor, the window doesn't reposition itself to the fit the main screen. Instead, the window "narrows" itself but otherwise stays where it's at while the drawer simply juts out onto the second screen.) And a feature request: I'd love to have some simple draw and text tools in PDFView. Not to actually edit the PDF, but to be able to superimpose comments, lines, diagrams etc. on top of the PDF and then save it. This would be similar to what Preview does, only with better tools (e.g. a freehand draw tool). Nevertheless, this is a great application and I appreciate it's rapid development!

Great app,love the fullscreen function

Great application. I've used it to replace Preview as the default PDF application on my Mac. The only feature i miss is being able to use the cursor as a hand to move the page (rather than having to use the scrollbar the whole time). I just find it gives me more precise control over moving the page around. Otherwise two thumbs up.

Once again thanks for the wonderful program that PDF view is and for the amazing speed with which you add features.

This is great! I use Preview to view my LaTex documents and it dies nearly every time I recompile and try to reload the PDF. However there are still a few problems before it is perfect: - PDFView reloads automatically, but it does that too soon: pdfLaTeX doesn't have enough time to finish regenerating the PDF... maybe PDFView should watch the file less often, or reload only if the file has stopped changing, or at least if it's a complete PDF. - Also, the two-page layout is incorrect for typographical purposes, since once printed, odd pages are on the right and even pages on the left.

This app is really great. Since OSX is so well thought out I'm really surprised at the glearing shortcomings like Preview with PDFs. Luckily there are programs like this to fill the gaps. The rapid pace of development adds to the feeling that this app will go far in a very short time. It is already an OSX essential - go get it!

I LOVE THIS APP!!! Thank you sooo much for creating it. My biggest gripe with preview is exactly what this application addresses, and it just keeps getting better and better with every update!

@aqtinc I stand corrected. After I waited for AR to open for I while I did find the page box there at the bottom. As for the rest of what I said...the sarcasm comes from reading one to many of these 'I work in the real world comments.' And if you don't think you are one of those types of commenters, you might wish to consider why there are so many comments responding as if you were.

Wow...these updates just keep coming. You are on the ball! Glad to see a developer that cares. :)

@Bebop: You could simply type "17" in the page # area...just like PDFView. We can forgive your lack of knowledge about using Adobe Reader, but please spare us your sarcasm until you know enough to have an opinion that matters. @Germano60: Go to the IRS website; download the W-9 form; open it in PDFView and you'll see that PDFView can't display it correctly. Adobe Reader displays and allows form-filling correctly. That's just one example. By the way, nobody said that you weren't a professional, but you clearly don't understand the range of functionality that I'm referring to, that PDFView doesn't offer.

This is the app I have been waiting for a long time. Adobe Reader is extremely slow and Preview never showed pdfs the way I wanted. PDFView is now my default pdf viewer. I like it very much.

@AQTINC Just for your info: I *AM* a professional. And a *BIG* professional. I started working in 1979, nice times when M$ DOS wasn't present on any computer in the world except on those of its developers. I know this can sound surprising to you, but I can assure you that you're not the only guy working as professional in this world. And your opinion is not the Truth and not even just true just because you claim being professional. Unless you're professionally God. Bye.

Great program, I'm using it all the time!!! Thanks a lot!

@aqtinc: You know what sets me off? Reading for the ten-thousandth time, some variation of "If you were a professional like me...in the real world...swingin' a big hammer...in production...doing serious work..." Serious work...like fatuous software reviews? Here's an example of what "faster to use," might mean to one of us "non serious" types. Page 17 of obscure_doc.pdf contains irrelevant info I need for unimportant work I'm doing. Start Preview or PDFView go to page 17 read/copy info, move on to next thing. or, Start Adobe Reader, wait, wait, wait, wait, locate pager in top heavy toolbar. Oops! Not one. Use the menu. View->Go To->Page... Another Dialog, go to page 17 read/copy info, move on to next thing. You know, I'm sure it's just me, but it seems SLOWER TO USE for a "reader" and all. Need to do something to a PDF? Use Adobe stuff. It's magic. Really. (Just observe complex mysteries of the update process.) Need to read a pdf? Sort of funny when you think about it. For all those set off by caffiene driven sarcasm I do sincerely apologize. But seriously, there is a long tradition in the UNIX world of increasing productivity by incorporating simple tools into a custom work flow. If you're an Adobe workflow guru, go on with with your bad self. Then keep it to your bad self thanks.

Can't download PDFView or connect to developer's website. Tried with two different browsers but no go. Anybody else?

Small suggestion - modify the icon so that when you set it as default "open with" the new icons of the pdf files are better recognizable among other icons (closer to the original red flagged Acrobat icons)-

@AQTINC: I listen. But I can't understand such kind of hard criticism toward a guy who spent his time to provide an honest application who's just doing what is claimed to do in the way it meant to, simply and efficiently. You may have your reason not to use it and to prefer something else, but in the same way there are also others who, for their reasons as good as yours, prefer using something simpler and that they consider fit enough to their needs. I think that just reading the majority of comments in this thread may give you a better perception about this point. And sorry, but IMHO starting a comment with a sentence like "Why should I use this ...?" and starting criticizing something that *it's working as it claims* is everything but an objective position: I'd say it's a pure subjective matter of pure personal preferences. And sorry again for being very direct - I don't mean being blunt :) - but this kind of comment is everything but useful or helpful and it's a little bit respectless toward the developer (by the way, I haven't any kind of connection with that guy, just to be precise). I think that if there aren't *real* technical or operational considerations to be highlighted to claim (in the substance) "this application sucks" it would be better stating that what you're expressing are just your personal preferences more suitable to your needs, which may happen not to be universal needs appliable to everyone. Thanks for you listening as well. (

Within 2 minutes I changed my system defaults so that PDFView would open all my PDFs. This blows away Adobe Reader and Preview. Here is the thing: it works fast and the image it opens is big and clear on the screen. When need to use a PDF file this is what I want 90% of the time. For that 10% of the time when I need to do something funky with a PDF file then I might need a different program, but since that happens only 10% of the time I really don't need to open a PDF, by default, in something more robust. Fantastic!

So you say, but I don't buy your argument because you most obviously don't work in a world that relies heavily on .pdf files for presentations, faxing, professional printing, storage and archiving, securing intellectual property (from the average user), secure digital signatures, etc.,... In other words, the real working world. Your app is probably fine for the student/casual user community out there, but so is Preview and Reader. Does it outperform Preview...probably. Does it outperform Reader...maybe in some limited respects, but for the most part, defintely NOT. Anyway, let's address the counterpoints: "1) it's faster" Yes, it's fater to load, but not is use. Just exactly how fast can anyone read? The human is ALWAYS the gating factor in document processing, so speed is largely irrelevant and has never been a problem on my machines. Admittedly, Reader's relative performance on Macintels (compared to PPC) is very annoying up through version 7. Version 8 of Reader and Acrobat Pro are now in Universal Binary. (upgrade time again arrrrggh!!) "2) it automatically open up at the maximum screen size,....." Just set your preferences in Adobe Reader--which by the way offers a full screen option. They also provide far more control over preferred presentation style and default magnification through the preference settings. "3) about the "plenty of features" in adobe reader: what are you needing....." I believe I answered that above. "4) last but not least: it's damn simple and friendly to be used;...." Of course it's simpler. It has less functionality. The reviews just came on way too strong. It almost read like a developer (or friends) logged in with different user names to pump up the app. They just lacked a certain amount of objectivity. That's what set me off in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I applaud anybody that makes an effort to help make Macs more usable, to as wide a range of people as possible, especially when they offer it without charge. However, many of us rely on objective reviews in here, and this thread just smacked of developer bias. It's not some breakthrough app. It's just another "me too app", and its over-glowing, almost hyperbolic representation here didn't sound at all objective. I think that the description in the opening page on MacUpdate, and on the developer's website was terrific and accurate. It's the reviews that were over the top. More objective reviews would call this a "simple" PDF viewer, with certain advantages over Preview while not attempting to portray it as the be all, end all, of PDF readers. There are other alternatives without the shortcomings of this one. It's a disservice to everyone when reviews lack objectivity. Let the users decide...download a copy of Reader for Mac. I have no doubt that its compatibility (particularly with graphics and web) and feature list will persuade those out there that actually do need an industrial strength PDF reader. Also, when we post a review, please let's try to keep it objective, truthful and helpful for others. Tell uswhat apps you're comparing against. Tell us about your platform and software versions. Tell us the pros and the cons. Once in a while we actually see an app that really does merit rave reviews, but that's almost never the case with "me too" apps. Thanks for "listening".

why should I prefer this to adobe reader? 1) it's faster 2) it automatically opens up at the maximum screen size, for an optimale reading. not that way with adobe reader 3) about the "plenty of features" in adobe reader: what are you just needing? 99% of the times you access a pdf is just for reading it, at most you search something inside or you select some text to copy&paste: this app does all of that and does it well. I don't care missing the Yahoo! search capability. 4) last but not least: it's damn simple and friendly to be used, much more "Mac" than Adobe Reader

...and you all would use this in preference to Adobe Reader (which has all of the functions, plus many, many more, plus no problems with graphics and complex page constructions, etc., etc., etc.), which is also free, why again?

After a few minutes with this program, it is my PDF reader of choice. Why? Not only for the reasons already stated (and being over 40, I REALLY need to have a large view of the PDF display to read comfortably), but because 1. I can use my scroll wheel to continuously scroll down to the next page and keep on scrollig adn 2. Because hitting page-down goes to the TOP of the next page when you have scrolled to the bottom of the previous page. In Preview, if you scroll to the bottom the page, to get to the next page by hitting page-down or clicking on the next page in the drawer, you go the bottom of that page and first have to scroll up WHAT A PAIN. The thing that I would really love is for this program to work with other graphics formats, especially JPEG. Anyway, a great and highly useful program.

Excellent. And free! I was tired of resizing PDFs EVERY FREAKING TIME I OPENED ONE IN PREVIEW! Was very annoying. I wish there was an option to be able to drag pages down by click-holding, but other than that, great app! Thanks! I've already set this as my default PDF viewer. 5 STARS.

Just love the auto zoom feature that actually works! Worth installing just for that - thanks very much!

What would make this a killer app for me is if it could integrate Formulate's PDF overlay code so that we have a nice and simple PDF "editing" app that's free. In case anyone wondered what Formulate is, just do a search here. It's a nice PDF overlay-style editing app, with a weird interface. This + that would be wonderful.

It seems like since it's just a one-trick pony, why not just make it an "add-on" or patch for Preview, instead of a whole app? Just a thought.

Excellent! Only wish is that you could have it memorize the settings you can switch between, in the View menu (or right-click contextual menu). That is, if you choose to view the page in 'Two-up Pages' mode and you zoomed it in a bit, you should have an option to memorize those settings on a per-document basis. But that's all. Irregardless of that, I love it! Thanks.

This is my PDF viewer of choice from now on. Thanks!