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Currently I read papers by printing them and manually highlighting and commenting on them. I am looking for a PDF reader for Windows (a Windows 8 App is fine as well) that will do the following:

Required

  • Easily highlight text phrases (should be snapped to the text instead of "freely drawing").
  • Easily being able to comment on certain text phrases. Comments should remain visible in the sidebar, not hidden behind some kind of sticky note.
  • Zooming in/out.
  • Being able to rotate pages (preferably one page at a time, but all pages is fine as well).
  • Supports built-in bookmarks in the pdf (from LaTeX hyperref for example).

Preferred

  • Easily freely annotate.
  • Touchscreen-friendly (larger buttons).
  • Being able to open .ps files as well.
  • Being able to add more bookmarks/favorites manually.
  • List of comments, to easily jump to the comments.
  • List of recent PDF's.

I have found quite some PDF readers that support most of these requirements, but they do not support the "Comments should remain visible in the sidebar, not hidden behind some kind of sticky note." requirement. I am looking for software that does support this requirement.

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2 Answers 2

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You can use Acrobat Reader:

  • highlight text
  • comment on certain text phrases
  • Zooming in/out.
  • rotate pages
  • Supports built-in bookmarks in the pdf (from LaTeX hyperref for example).
  • List of comments, to easily jump to the comments:

enter image description here

(screenshot from Adobe Acrobat Pro XI, but the comment list option should also be available in Reader)

Support the "Comments should remain visible in the sidebar, not hidden behind some kind of sticky note." if you uncheck this option:

enter image description here

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  • 1
    I can confirm the list is visible in the free version.
    – Nick Dickinson-Wilde
    Jul 25, 2014 at 17:25
  • Actually, if you want to work with PostScript files, you would need Acrobat (which comes with Distiller, which creates PDF from PS), or, to spend less money, you would have to get Ghostscript to create the PDFs from the PS files.
    – Max Wyss
    Jul 26, 2014 at 8:06
  • I can use PostScript files with ps2pdf from MiKTeX. It would just be easier to have a PDF reader that didn't need conversion :) Seems like the win-8 app version doesn't support the comment list (yet?). I'll get myself the desktop version then :)
    – Snicksie
    Jul 27, 2014 at 8:17
2

Foxit PDF Reader

Required

  • Highlighting text phrases is possible.
  • Comments are possible although not really attachable to specific text phrases (as far as I know).
  • Zooming is possible.
  • Rotating specific pages is also possible. Unfortunately, in the standard version you cannot save any rotation you applied.
  • Bookmarks (generated by LaTeX among others) are accessible.

Screenshot of Foxit PDF Reader
(source PDF file generated by MediaWiki from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format)

Preferred

  • You can annotate by creating text boxes and some types of forms.
  • I doubt that Foxit PDF Reader supports touch (i.e. provides larger buttons). I don't know that for sure though.
  • .ps cannot be opened.
  • You can add, edit, and modify bookmarks.
  • A list of comments is available in the left side bar.
  • A list of recent PDFs is also available.
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