Is Sumatra PDF the best PDF reader for Windows?

[lokmac]

I just found Sumatra PDF, looking for a PDF reader on Windows that is most similar to Preview for macOS, and it is really great, having tried others (Adobe Reader, PDFgeart, Foxit, PDF Reader Pro). But I'm curious if anyone thinks otherwise, and what is their favourite.

[lokmac]

Apart from it being lightweight, it's clearly a user's PDF reader. I love the very trim interface, and it's the only PDF reader on Windows that I could find that has a true full-screen mode without any displayed toolbar. I love the joined-page continuous mode too. The installer is hilariously ugly, and the interface obviously not as polished as others, but really great tool and my new default for PDFs.

[GitHubRulesOK]

well it is relative so the core MuPDF was simpler and historically should have been faster but recently I see the same slowdown / lagging as others complain they see in SumatraPDF hence we could surmise SumatraPDF is now slower due to more MuPDF "enhancements".

That phenomenon is why modern Windows is like treacle compared to earlier versions on the same device. PCs of 64bit can be slower than the same 32bit system hence I am running this Edge in 32bit Windows, But Microsoft will soon put a stop to that.

[ZX-Commodore-ST]

I was using Foxit Reader in XP era but later on it became bloated so I just keep old versions on old PCs. Xelitan PDF Reader is another one which is interesting but I don't think it's as good as Sumatra.

[Moortu]

summatra is great, but also outdated...
last release from 2023
last pre-release from 2024...

I'm encountering bugs with epubs.
And it has 600 open issues.
To me it seems like sumatra is in a bit of trouble.

[GitHubRulesOK]

@Moortu
A number of issues should have never been kept open since requests (often unrealistic) to add more features and many other GitHub sites would have closed them as "Stale" or WontFix long ago.

The major problem with eBooks such as ePubs is the "Many" odd variations in layout, so currently SumatraPDF is AFAIK defaulted to a median output of plain text at nominal A5 pages?

Partly some limitations are firmly down to MuPDF as the screen rendering engine.

Whilst there has been little visible activity the latest commit was last week 52ff138

[Moortu]

the last 3 commits were translations.
and then the prelease in 2024...

it's a solo dev as far as I can tell.

all other epub reader I used read the epub just fine. but they all aren't as good as sumatra with it's no fuzz continuous scroll and performance.

[GitHubRulesOK]

@Moortu All I can say is I surmise if SumatraPDF had just a very very small fraction of the income generated by its clones
the developer could be paid fulltime and be very rich, rather than loosing money on certification.