The Portable Document Format, which you know simply as PDF, is in fact a very good format for documents mainly due to four facts:

1. They’re usually significantly smaller compared to a DOC (especially if there are images within).
2. They look exactly the same no matter what OS you use.
3. It is true WYSIWYG concerning printers. What you see on screen is precisely what will print out on paper.
4. The likelihood of a PDF containing a virus and/or malicious scripting is slim to none. Not impossible, but highly unlikely.

Before getting into SumatraPDF and why I think it’s the best PDF viewer ever, here’s an explanation of why we hate PDF.

What we hate about PDFs aren’t the files themselves, but the reader applications.

I wholly believe that Adobe Reader is evil. Very evil. Why? Well, first of all it’s a 26MB installer file. For a document reader? Yes. What’s in that 26MB? A whole lot of crap you don’t need.

The crapola starts even before you download the file. You specifically have to uncheck a box so you don’t download the "Free McAfee Security Scan."

The Adobe Reader installer as far as I’m concerned tries every way to hijack your web browser by installing a ton of useless garbage. You have to go through the installation procedure very s-l-o-w-l-y, else it will put install a plugin in all your browsers. What happens after that is that on any attempt to load a PDF from a web page, all this CRAP loads up from Adobe Reader asking you a whole bunch of questions on first run, and worst of all loads the PDF directly in the browser. This absolutely scares the daylights out of people because they think the browser is crashing due to the fact Reader is so bloated, huge and takes forever even to get started. And in some instances the browser does crash because of Adobe Reader.

Adobe Reader is evil. Period.

The significantly smaller FoxIt Reader was a good alternative. But now it has promotional banner graphics inside the reader. Evil. And it tries to do the same browser hijack crap Adobe Reader does. Eeeevil. And you now have to very s-l-o-w-l-y go through the installation process just like with Adobe to make sure a bunch of crap (like, oh, I dunno, a useless toolbar) doesn’t get installed. Eeeeeeeeeevil.

FoxIt Reader is now also evil. Sad but true.

Going PDF reader-less

I hated PDF readers so much that I simply uninstalled them and used Google Docs to read my PDF files. That system reads them easily – but with one huge drawback: It’s not the easiest thing in the world to print a PDF out of Google Docs. You’re better off printing direct from a PDF document reader.

Enter SumatraPDF

SumatraPDF has an installer that is only 1.4MB in size. It is free and open source. It does not have any stupid toolbar installers in it. It does not try to hijack your web browsers. The only thing it will ask you is if you want it to be the default reader for PDF files – that’s it.

It is wonderful. All I ever wanted was to just view the PDFs I download, and that’s exactly what SumatraPDF does with no fuss whatsoever.

Can SumatraPDF read all PDF files? Mostly. The only ones it would have a problem with are the super-advanced type with intricate fill-in forms and whatnot. But other than that it will happily read just about any PDF file you load into it.

Example: Let’s say you downloaded Form W-4 from the IRS, which happens to be a PDF:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

In SumatraPDF:

Loads perfectly. Prints perfectly. And that’s all you ever want out of a PDF document reader.

The only thing you ever hated about PDF files were the readers needed to view them. But after using SumatraPDF, you’ll happily dump FoxIt and Adobe to the curb.

SumatraPDF is the best PDF viewer ever because it opens PDF files with zero hassle and does so lightning quick; that’s why it’s the best (on Windows).

For those wondering, I am running the 32-bit edition of Windows 7. I did this primarily for application compatibility above all else.

The first response from those who are familiar with 64-bit environments are quick to say, "But you can run 32-bit apps in a 64-bit environment easily."

That’s not always the case.

Running certain 32-bit apps in 64-bit environments can present itself to be a problem no matter what OS you use. For example, many Mac people use Photoshop. All new Macs are 64-bit. But Adobe does not have a 64-bit edition for the Mac. Photoshop still runs fine but doesn’t take full advantage of the 64-bit environment. It also ticked off Mac users something fierce that Photoshop 64-bit will be for Windows first. And if I were a Mac user that would perturb me quite a bit as well.

Per conversations I’ve had with a few folks running Windows Vista or 7 64-bit, two particular types of platforms have exhibited some quirks, also both from Adobe.

The first one is Adobe AIR. It would appear AIR doesn’t "play nice" in 64-bit world except for Linux currently. But on Windows 64-bit, AIR is something which may or may not work. So if you wanted to run AIR apps like Twhirl or TweetDeck on Vista 64 or Win 7 64, it might not even be possible presently.

Did you get Adobe AIR running on Windows Vista or 7 64-bit along with your favorite AIR apps? Let us know in the comments.

The second is a biggie, Adobe Flash. Some I’ve conversed with say Flash runs fine on 64-bit while others say it’s "tolerable" at best.

Did you get Adobe Flash running on your 64-bit Windows Vista or 7? Let us know in the comments on this one too as many would love to hear your experience.

Most people could live without AIR, but as for Flash, there are tons of web sites that simply require it. And going without Flash would be trying on the nerves to many.

Situation: You use an app that requires Adobe AIR but decide you don’t want it anymore and uninstall it. The app was easily removed by going to Add/Remove Programs, but AIR is still installed and there appears to be no way to uninstall it.

Update: The latest version of AIR does have an Add/Remove entry after installation but older versions do not. If you’re running an older version, read below for how to uninstall AIR.

Can you uninstall Adobe AIR completely?

Yes.

Perform the following steps.

1. Uninstall all AIR apps first.

Being that you’re not going to use AIR anymore, uninstall any app that uses it. You most likely know which apps these are, and they can all be uninstalled via Add/Remove.

2. Download the AIR intstaller executable file.

Available here: http://get.adobe.com/air/

The file downloaded will be AdobeAIRInstaller.exe. Download this direct to the desktop. You’ll understand why in a moment.

Note: If you run this file by double-clicking it, all it will do is update your existing AIR installation but not uninstall it.

3. Launch a Command Prompt.

Click Start, then Run, type cmd and click OK.

You get something that will look similar to this.

4. Type cd Desktop and press Enter.

It looks like this:

5. Type the following command exactly as shown:

AdobeAirInstaller.exe -uninstall

It looks like this:

You must type it exactly as shown, then press Enter.

Adobe AIR will then be uninstalled from your computer.

It seems like in the past couple of weeks a lot of security risks are popping up. So to add to the list, I read about a critical security risk with Adobe Reader versions 8.1.2 and lower (this exploit is not applicable to version 9). The vunerability comes from the use of JavaScript inside the PDF file:

Engineers from CoreLabs determined that Adobe Reader could be exploited to gain access to vulnerable systems via the use of a specially crafted PDF file with malicious JavaScript content.

My first thought is why does a PDF document even need JavaScript? I seriously cannot think of a single reason a PDF document would need this ability. Perhaps I have opened PDF’s in the past which had JavaScript in them and I didn’t know it, but overall I just use a PDF reader to open “static” documents.

To avoid issues such as this, just use a ’simple’ PDF viewer, such as Foxit Reader which is not effected by this exploit. If you do need the additional functionality of Adobe however, just make sure you keep it updated.

What is a "cloud" application?

It’s any application that has the power of a desktop (as in installed locally to your computer) app – except it’s all on the web.

You probably use cloud apps already and probably didn’t even realize it. Do you use Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail? That’s all in the cloud.

But this is about Photoshop, the famous high-priced image editor.

Except this one is free – and it’s still Photoshop.

Photoshop Express is an Adobe product available here:

https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html

As with most cloud apps it does require you to register an account in order to use it.

Here’s a quick overview. (Click each image to enlarge)

Above: The sign-in screen. If you don’t have an account you can sign up from there.

Above: The landing page. I have no images in here yet so I click the "Upload Photos" button at the top left.

Above: I cancel the upload on purpose because – LOOK AT THAT ON THE LEFT – there a Flickr login (as well as Photobucket and Picasa too!) Nice. I choose Flickr since I use that already.

Above: I’ve validated my Flickr account and loaded in an image – direct from Flickr. Very cool. Now I can start editing.

Above: I chose the "Crop and Rotate" tool and selected a portion of the image.

Above: I clicked the top right green check arrow to see the edit I just made.

From here I can either continue editing, save it, do whatever I want, etc.

Seriously.. this is frickin’ cool.

This is what cloud apps are supposed to be like. Simple, friendly, powerful, and of course – free.

Adobe Photoshop Express is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best cloud apps I’ve ever used.

Try it out – you will love this.

We all love some of the internet-based applications that are out there and what they can do for you. But, what if those kinds of applications could be moved to your computer? That is what Adobe Air does.

In this 101-level article, I’m going to talk about what Adobe Air is and why you might want to take note of it.

Continued