Choosing a powerful and feature-rich PDF reader plays a vital role in our daily work and life to make everything easier and more efficient. There are a number of popular and mainstream PDF solutions that come with a host of features and functionalities for all types of users and are backed by a well-trusted name on the market. If you are looking for an easy to use and versatile PDF viewer, here are our top 10 list of the best free PDF reader for Windows you can't miss. It’s time to say goodbye to complicated software & hello to easy-to-use PDF tools.
1. Web Browser
Web browsers like Google Chrome, New Edge, Firefox, and Safari all have integrated PDF readers. Therefore, reading PDF files on your web browser is the most effortless method. All you have to do is drag and drop your pdf file to your browser or right-click on the PDF file and select open with your browser. It is true that viewing PDF with your browser is hassle-free and saves you lots of system resources, but it lacks many features.
2. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC
Acrobat Reader DC is the world’s most popular PDF software by Adobe, the inventor of the Portable Document Format. Undoubtedly, it is the most full-featured PDF software out there as well as the gold standard in PDF software on the market. It’s a free download from Adobe’s site and is highly recommended for everyone. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, which has some of the core functionality of the Pro version, is a powerful software for viewing, printing, and annotating PDFs.
3. Slim PDF Reader
The new and improved Slim PDF Reader is a fast and resource-saving tool that easily opens and views PDF documents. Besides easy PDF viewing, Slim PDF Reader offers some of the most popular annotation options: underline, highlight, sticky note, stamp, watermark, link, attachment, and more. And the user interface of SlimPDF looks simple, clean, and easy to navigate.
4. Sumatra PDF
Sumatra PDF is a free and versatile reader designed for simplicity and ease of use. There are no fancy extras – just the essentials for viewing PDFs and ebooks, zooming in and out, skipping back and forth between pages, searching, and printing, navigating, and organizing them. However, Sumatra PDF starts up very fast and supports PDF, ePub, Mobi, XPS, DjVu, CHM, CBZ, and CBR files.
5. MuPDF
MuPDF is a fast, extremely small, high-quality PDF/XPS/CBZ/EPUB viewer for Windows users. It supports a variety of interactive features including annotations, form filling, digital signatures, and text search. Page Up and Page Down key can help you navigate to the previous or next page.
6. Foxit Reader
Foxit Reader isn't the only excellent freeware PDF solution out there, but it's certainly one of the top few. You can open a PDF, rotate left/right, zoom in/out, search text and much more. Foxit Reader is possibly the most powerful free PDF reader around – lightweight, feature-packed and remarkably fast. It is a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.
7. Cool PDF Reader
Cool PDF Reader is a wonderful freeware program by offering you an ultra-fast and simple way to view, print, extract, crop, and convert PDF files to TXT, BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, WMF, EMF, EPS, TIFF. It is ultra-small, only 3.2MB for download. You just need to download and run the .exe file. The interface resembles the new version of Word, making it super easy to find useful features and easy to use.
8. STDU Viewer
STDU Viewer is probably the world’s most compact and lightest PDF viewer that only takes only 2.3M. It is the best multi-format document viewer that supports a variety of popular file formats such as PDF, DjVu, XPS, TIFF, XPS, CBR-CBZ, TXT, MOBI, AZW, ePub, DCX as well as images like JPEG, PNG, GIF, PCS, and others. STDU Viewer is appreciated for lightweight, perfect stability, easy settings, and its feature to read a wide range of ebook formats using just a single application.
9. Soda PDF
Soda PDF is an extremely powerful piece of PDF software that is also user friendly, easy to use, and relatively intuitive. It lets you create, edit and even sign PDFs both online and on your PC. You can open several PDFs at the same time and find them all as tabs on the program, making it easy to jump between PDFs. You can also read your PDFs in 3D with the app’s unique page-flipping technology. Take control of your files by modifying the content and customizing the structure of your documents to better suit your needs.
10. Sorax PDF Reader
Sorax PDF Reader is a free and hassle-free PDF viewer. It has a small size, fast launch speed and a lot of features, like printing PDF files, zooming in and out, rotating displayed pages, displaying document bookmarks and page thumbnails, selecting the text, copying to clipboard, searching text. There is no need for installation. Just download and run.
Bonus Tips:
If you want to use the above PDF readers to view your files, here are some tips for you:
If your files are encrypted and purchased from Amazon/Kobo/Google Play/Nook books, you can follow this guide to remove DRM and convert them to PDF if they are not in PDF format. And if your files are DRM free, however, they are not PDF files. You can also use Epubor Ultimate to convert to PDF effortlessly.
Amy Lopez crafts informative articles on eBooks and eReaders, uncovering optimal methods to enhance your eBook reading experience, and eagerly shares her findings with you.
