In my 9-5 job I go through a ton of PDF's online, mainly for parts research and quoting purposes.  Adobe is obviously a bear to handle, requires far too many unnecessary updates and just generally pisses me off when using it.  Today I discovered a new piece of software called Foxit Reader, by Foxit Software.  It's free and so far has saved me a ton of heartache.

Foxit Reader promises to load faster, light weight, more intuitive, more uses, and again Foxit is free.  The latest version of Foxit Reader is 3.0 and offers a lot of increased functionality over previous versions.  Since is the first I've used the software, I can't vouche for the upgrade.  Let me just say, I love this software no matter the number!

• Incredibly small: The download size of Foxit Reader is just a fraction of Acrobat Reader 20 M size.
• Breezing-fast: When you run Foxit Reader, it launches instantly without any delay. You are not forced to view an annoying splash window displaying company logo, author names, etc.
• Annotation tool: Have you ever wished to annotate (or comment on) a PDF document when you are reading it? Foxit Reader allows you to draw graphics, highlight text, type text and make notes on a PDF document and then print out or save the annotated document.
• Text converter: You may convert the whole PDF document into a simple text file.
• High security and privacy: Foxit Reader highly respects the security and privacy of users and will never connect to the Internet without users' permission. While other PDF readers often silently connect to the Internet in the background. Foxit PDF Reader does not contain any spyware.

Once you start using Foxit Reader you will never go back to Adobe ever again.  The time I save on loading the application alone probably shaves an hour out of my day by itself.  I'll keep my eyes peeled for bugs, but for now I'm more than satisfied.

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