a £2,599 disappointment? (my first MacBook; PDF readers related)

[cubful]

Since I bought the iPhone 4, I have been falling increasingly in love with Apple, this love only grew using the iPad 2, 4, iPad Air 2, the original iPad Pro 12.9, and finally the iPad Pro 11. However, I never invested in a MacBook because Apple just missed the mark on multiple generations of MacBooks during my extended honeymoon phase. Enters the M1 MacBooks and the insane battery life they come with. I waited for the MacBook Pro 16 inch M1 patiently and bought it the moment it became available (1 TB, 16 GB RAM model).

I am not a power user by any means, I mostly bought it for the screen and battery life, and I am not disappointed by either. MacOS has been growing on me but there has major annoyances that I made sure to feedback to Apple; mainly the lack of a built in clipboard, inability to change the size of FaceTime video call window (it's too big at its smallest size), and the forced "beautifying" effect the webcam insists on applying during video calls.

However, my major problem so far has been the lack of any powerful or even decent PDF readers. As a medical professional this has halted turned my studying sessions into a nightmare. I rely on copy pasting text from different websites into my main PDF file that has been with me since the dawn of time. I copy notes to it from all over the intent using the "comments" feature that most PDF readers have. My document has around 4000 comments, all of them are purely text and nothing else.

I used to use PDF x-change on my windows laptop that I bought in 2014; It had 8 gigabytes of RAM, a slow 5200 rpm hard drive, and a dual core i5-4200M intel processor. Despite how outdated this laptop is, it can run the my document with all the comments/annotations without a hitch. My PDF usage is actually very simple; I use the highlight tool and inside the highlight I add a comment/annotation that is viewable on double clicking the highlighted text; a basic functionality present in all PDF readers.

I assumed that when I update to an M1 Pro MacBook with super fast SSD and 16 gigabytes of RAM, I will not have any issues running the same PDF. Oh boy, how wrong I was.

Here is my experience with the most popular PDF readers on the Mac


Adobe Reader:
- I can open the Document without an issue; the moment I click on comments to bring up the comments pane; it takes forever to generate the comments and during the time it tries to bring up the comments, not to mention, Adobe reader becomes unresponsive and it takes it 5-10 seconds to scroll up or down; the odd part is that I have over 5 gb of free RAM and the CPU usage doesn't exceed 22% when all of this is happening. After the comments are generated in the comment pane, Adobe becomes comically slow and frankly unusable. I am truly embarrassed for Adobe and I don't understand how a company that big can't make a PDF reader work properly. I have found my posts online of people having similar issues and generally frustrated with Adobe reader; some examples of people running into similar issues:

Comment list takes too long to load

Getting comment list to show in Acrobat DC takes way too much time. It's a drag. At least on Mac OS.

acrobat.uservoice.com

Acrobat scrolling is incredibly laggy and slow

Hello, For the last two years I have had consistent problems with Acrobat Pro DC being extremely slow/stuttery while scrolling, highlighting, commenting on a document. This happens no matter what the size of the PDF is from less than 1 MB to 10+ MB. It appears to be very poorly optimized...

community.adobe.com

PDF Expert:
- Hats off for generating the 4000 comments without a hitch (known as annotations on PDF expert) and being smooth all the way, however, I can't edit the annotations from the annotation pane, which is a shame because I will need to hunt for the comment, double click it, and then edit the text inside the annotation/comment box, this wouldn't be a problem if the text size in the annotation box is so small and I am not given the option to control the default text size of annotations/comments which is super frustrating. Also, the night mode on PDF expert is a joke.... (photos attached), which isn't a problem but it just goes show the state of PDF readers on the Mac

Preview:
- Mac built preview is as fast as pdf expert. However, my pdf file is filled with odd looking squares because apparently, in preview, the highlighted text isn't clickable like it is on other PDF readers, so preview generates squares for me to click on; these squares frequently block other elements of the page; it is seriously embarrassing (photos attached).


I can go on and on and on, but honestly, If you can't get comments/annotations right in a pdf app, then what are we doing here? Don't get me start on PDF elements or other PDF readers on the Mac, I have tried all of them, and the three above were the least problematic.

Suggestions? solutions? am I missing something?

I really feel cheated buying this MacBook and not being able to use it for what I use laptops the most....

 

[JMacHack]

Have you tried Adobe Acrobat by chance? I use it in my day to day and it works very well.

 

[Leon1das]

PDFpen Pro replaced my Adobe Acrobat and I never looked back.
Single purchase, Apple Silicon native app and almost same capabilities as Acrobat.

Landing Page - PDFpen is now Nitro

Only Nitro PDF Pro for Mac gives you powerful PDF productivity at just a fraction of the cost of Adobe Acrobat. Create, convert, edit, sign, review, and protect PDFs.

pdfpen.com

 

[Internaut]

Give Microsoft Edge a try? I only use it for annotating, so caveat YMMV.

 

[Nermal]

the lack of a built in clipboard

I realise that this is off topic, and PDF isn't my forte, but can you elaborate on this? MacOS has had a clipboard (cut/copy/paste) feature for decades (possibly since version 1) so are you talking about something else?

 

[Internaut]

I realise that this is off topic, and PDF isn't my forte, but can you elaborate on this? MacOS has had a clipboard (cut/copy/paste) feature for decades (possibly since version 1) so are you talking about something else?

Never tried it with a PDF but I have used Preview to copy text from a screenshot.

 

[cubful]

Have you tried Adobe Acrobat by chance? I use it in my day to day and it works very well.

Is Adobe Acrobat any different from the Adobe Acrobat reader?

 

[cubful]

I realise that this is off topic, and PDF isn't my forte, but can you elaborate on this? MacOS has had a clipboard (cut/copy/paste) feature for decades (possibly since version 1) so are you talking about something else?

Windows 10/11 have a clipboard manager, it's built-in and very lightweight and works really well. I can copy anything including pictures and just paste them when in it's time to start pasting.

 

[cubful]

Give Microsoft Edge a try? I only use it for annotating, so caveat YMMV.

I just did. Managed to quickly to open the PDF and show comments. The comment pop us is too small though and I can re-size it (my comment pop ups contain a large pieces of texts so I need them to be bigger in size by default or at least somewhat re-sizable)

 

[cubful]

PDFpen Pro replaced my Adobe Acrobat and I never looked back.
Single purchase, Apple Silicon native app and almost same capabilities as Acrobat.

Thanks, I tried it before making my original post. It was slower than I would like it to be. It struggled with scrolling and opening up comments' pop ups, it is miles faster than Adobe acrobat but not fast enough.

I have opted to buy PDF expert despite how lacking it is features wise. But I just can't return my MacBook at this point and out of all the options available, besides Preview, the only other app that is handling my existing PDF without a hitch (speed-wise) is PDF expert.

 

[lcubed]

Is Adobe Acrobat any different from the Adobe Acrobat reader?

are you at least running the apple silicon version of either reader or acrobat?

Apple Silicon M1 processor support | Acrobat and Acrobat Reader

Learn about the Apple Silicon M1 processor compatibility with Acrobat and Acrobat Reader.

helpx.adobe.com

 

[JMacHack]

Is Adobe Acrobat any different from the Adobe Acrobat reader?

I didn’t realize there was an “Acrobat reader” so I had to Google it.

Five Differences between Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader

Learn five differences and one similarity between Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader to help you decide which is best for your PDF projects.

erinwrightwriting.com

I use Acrobat for pdf editing and it works well but haven’t used reader

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

I'm confused... You say "a £2,599 disappointment", so did you spend all that money for PDF functionality?

 

[LinkRS]

Is Adobe Acrobat any different from the Adobe Acrobat reader?

Howdy cubful,

Adobe Acrobat is the full suite of PDF programs, that included Adobe Reader. Unlike Rader, Acrobat is not free and a paid-for app. Before a bunch of third-party options became available, you needed Acrobat to create, mark-up, edit, and convert PDF files. I used to use Acrobat to convert image based PDFs, to Microsoft Word docs (used OCR to convert words), for editing. https://www.adobe.com/acrobat.html In some cases, Acrobat is still preferred when you want to ensure compatibility, but for most non-business use, the third-party options work just fine. Good luck!

Rich S.

 

[philosopherdog]

i would stay clear of acrobat on a Mac. Have you tried Skim?

 

[cubful]

are you at least running the apple silicon version of either reader or acrobat?

Apple Silicon M1 processor support | Acrobat and Acrobat Reader

Learn about the Apple Silicon M1 processor compatibility with Acrobat and Acrobat Reader.

helpx.adobe.com

Yup, I have tried this. I also have tried ticking/unticking boxes in the app settings and it didn't really make enough of an impact. I wanted to make screen record it and send it as feedback to Adobe but I am really too busy with my shifts and studying schedule.

 

[cubful]

Howdy cubful,

Adobe Acrobat is the full suite of PDF programs, that included Adobe Reader. Unlike Rader, Acrobat is not free and a paid-for app. Before a bunch of third-party options became available, you needed Acrobat to create, mark-up, edit, and convert PDF files. I used to use Acrobat to convert image based PDFs, to Microsoft Word docs (used OCR to convert words), for editing. https://www.adobe.com/acrobat.html In some cases, Acrobat is still preferred when you want to ensure compatibility, but for most non-business use, the third-party options work just fine. Good luck!

Rich S.

Thank you Rich.

I just tried Acrobat (I got 7 day of free trial so I thought I'd give it a shot). The major issue seems to be loading the comments section and navigating through it smoothly, let alone edit the comments! It just doesn't work. Slow, glitchy, and I could never pay for such a mess of an app. I uninstalled it and I sent feedback to Adobe.

I have to say, Acrobat was never that smooth on Windows either and it's why I switched to PDF-xchange and it ran everything I throw at it beautifully despite the limited hardware. PDF Expert on the Mac seems to handle the same PDF Acrobat is struggling with with no issues at all, I just feel like PDF expert is in its early stages compared to PDF x-change, but I am happy to pay for it and continuously send feedback to the devs.

Thank you for your help again.

 

[cubful]

I'm confused... You say "a £2,599 disappointment", so did you spend all that money for PDF functionality?

I spent the money for the screen (mostly), the fact that I have an iPad and iPhone (a big fan of both), and the battery life and the powerful hardware. Any laptop with similarly beautiful display is similarly expensive on the Windows side of things. The PDF functionality is one of my major things I use computers for. I wasn't expecting PDF functionality to be a problem on such a powerful machine since my very old laptop didn't struggle at all, as a result, I didn't bother testing PDF apps within the 2-week trial period through which I could've returned my MacBook but here we are...

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

I didn't bother testing PDF apps within the 2-week trial period through which I could've returned my MacBook but here we are...

Out of curiosity, why not?

 

[LinkRS]

Thank you Rich.

I just tried Acrobat (I got 7 day of free trial so I thought I'd give it a shot). The major issue seems to be loading the comments section and navigating through it smoothly, let alone edit the comments! It just doesn't work. Slow, glitchy, and I could never pay for such a mess of an app. I uninstalled it and I sent feedback to Adobe.

I have to say, Acrobat was never that smooth on Windows either and it's why I switched to PDF-xchange and it ran everything I throw at it beautifully despite the limited hardware. PDF Expert on the Mac seems to handle the same PDF Acrobat is struggling with with no issues at all, I just feel like PDF expert is in its early stages compared to PDF x-change, but I am happy to pay for it and continuously send feedback to the devs.

Thank you for your help again.

Hi cubful,

I hope that PDF Expert works out for you, as these new Macs are very nice. Just to make sure of no confusion, please don't take my post as an endorsement of Adobe Acrobat. Personally I hate using it, and the only place I do is at work, where I don't have to pay for it. My post was really meant as informational for folks who were not aware of or familiar with Acrobat

Rich S.

 

[exoticSpice]

Suggestions? solutions? am I missing something?

Try Skim. It is a wonderful open source app. It has lots of features.

Skim | Home

Skim project web page

skim-app.sourceforge.io

Here is an screenshot of a PDF in Skim I took. As you can see the notes/comments are very easy to see and are on the right side if you want to search for them. Skim is very smooth as well.

 

[exoticSpice]

I have tried all of them, and the three above were the least problematic.

You did not try Skim because If you did all your problems will be fixed easily.

 

[mi7chy]

Keep an eye on Zotero PDF Reader which is currently in preview.

https://www.zotero.org/support/pdf_reader_preview#how_to_try_it

 

[Big Jobs]

Since I bought the iPhone 4, I have been falling increasingly in love with Apple, this love only grew using the iPad 2, 4, iPad Air 2, the original iPad Pro 12.9, and finally the iPad Pro 11. However, I never invested in a MacBook because Apple just missed the mark on multiple generations of MacBooks during my extended honeymoon phase. Enters the M1 MacBooks and the insane battery life they come with. I waited for the MacBook Pro 16 inch M1 patiently and bought it the moment it became available (1 TB, 16 GB RAM model).

I am not a power user by any means, I mostly bought it for the screen and battery life, and I am not disappointed by either. MacOS has been growing on me but there has major annoyances that I made sure to feedback to Apple; mainly the lack of a built in clipboard, inability to change the size of FaceTime video call window (it's too big at its smallest size), and the forced "beautifying" effect the webcam insists on applying during video calls.

However, my major problem so far has been the lack of any powerful or even decent PDF readers. As a medical professional this has halted turned my studying sessions into a nightmare. I rely on copy pasting text from different websites into my main PDF file that has been with me since the dawn of time. I copy notes to it from all over the intent using the "comments" feature that most PDF readers have. My document has around 4000 comments, all of them are purely text and nothing else.

I used to use PDF x-change on my windows laptop that I bought in 2014; It had 8 gigabytes of RAM, a slow 5200 rpm hard drive, and a dual core i5-4200M intel processor. Despite how outdated this laptop is, it can run the my document with all the comments/annotations without a hitch. My PDF usage is actually very simple; I use the highlight tool and inside the highlight I add a comment/annotation that is viewable on double clicking the highlighted text; a basic functionality present in all PDF readers.

I assumed that when I update to an M1 Pro MacBook with super fast SSD and 16 gigabytes of RAM, I will not have any issues running the same PDF. Oh boy, how wrong I was.

Here is my experience with the most popular PDF readers on the Mac


Adobe Reader:
- I can open the Document without an issue; the moment I click on comments to bring up the comments pane; it takes forever to generate the comments and during the time it tries to bring up the comments, not to mention, Adobe reader becomes unresponsive and it takes it 5-10 seconds to scroll up or down; the odd part is that I have over 5 gb of free RAM and the CPU usage doesn't exceed 22% when all of this is happening. After the comments are generated in the comment pane, Adobe becomes comically slow and frankly unusable. I am truly embarrassed for Adobe and I don't understand how a company that big can't make a PDF reader work properly. I have found my posts online of people having similar issues and generally frustrated with Adobe reader; some examples of people running into similar issues:

Comment list takes too long to load

Getting comment list to show in Acrobat DC takes way too much time. It's a drag. At least on Mac OS.

acrobat.uservoice.com

Acrobat scrolling is incredibly laggy and slow

Hello, For the last two years I have had consistent problems with Acrobat Pro DC being extremely slow/stuttery while scrolling, highlighting, commenting on a document. This happens no matter what the size of the PDF is from less than 1 MB to 10+ MB. It appears to be very poorly optimized...

community.adobe.com

PDF Expert:
- Hats off for generating the 4000 comments without a hitch (known as annotations on PDF expert) and being smooth all the way, however, I can't edit the annotations from the annotation pane, which is a shame because I will need to hunt for the comment, double click it, and then edit the text inside the annotation/comment box, this wouldn't be a problem if the text size in the annotation box is so small and I am not given the option to control the default text size of annotations/comments which is super frustrating. Also, the night mode on PDF expert is a joke.... (photos attached), which isn't a problem but it just goes show the state of PDF readers on the Mac

Preview:
- Mac built preview is as fast as pdf expert. However, my pdf file is filled with odd looking squares because apparently, in preview, the highlighted text isn't clickable like it is on other PDF readers, so preview generates squares for me to click on; these squares frequently block other elements of the page; it is seriously embarrassing (photos attached).


I can go on and on and on, but honestly, If you can't get comments/annotations right in a pdf app, then what are we doing here? Don't get me start on PDF elements or other PDF readers on the Mac, I have tried all of them, and the three above were the least problematic.

Suggestions? solutions? am I missing something?

I really feel cheated buying this MacBook and not being able to use it for what I use laptops the most....

Ur problem is u need a properly optimised PDF app for an M1 mac, not extortionware microsoft or adobe junk.....
LibreOffice is Apple Silicon native: opens and allows editing/saving of any PDF file. [and it is FREE ]

I use it on my M1 MacBook Pro it is lightning fast and a lot less bloated than equivalent software.

Maybe give it a try just be sure to download the correct APPLE SILICON native version, good luck>

 

[Herbert123]

I have to say, Acrobat was never that smooth on Windows either and it's why I switched to PDF-xchange and it ran everything I throw at it beautifully despite the limited hardware. PDF Expert on the Mac seems to handle the same PDF Acrobat is struggling with with no issues at all, I just feel like PDF expert is in its early stages compared to PDF x-change, but I am happy to pay for it and continuously send feedback to the devs.

Thank you for your help again.

I completely agree with you: there's nothing comparable to PDF-Exchange Editor on the Mac, excepting Adobe Acrobat (not the reader). The problem with Acrobat is performance, though, and the GUI that went downhill since version 8 pro.

It's the one piece of software I really miss when I work on Macs. Preview is pretty dreadful, as are all the other PDF viewers. The major issue is that no Mac alternative can compete with Acrobat, and that Acrobat is a bloated mess nowadays.

That said, PDF Exchange Editor still is missing prepress functionality that is readily accessible in Acrobat. But for Office environments and CAD/architecture businesses (full 3d PDF support) PDF Exchange is the one to beat.

Keep an eye on Zotero PDF Reader which is currently in preview.

It is by far too limited in overall functionality, but great for its niche audience. Not usable though for business environments where PDF Exchange and Adobe Acrobat rule.

Ur problem is u need a properly optimised PDF app for an M1 mac, not extortionware microsoft or adobe junk.....
LibreOffice is Apple Silicon native: opens and allows editing/saving of any PDF file. [and it is FREE ]

LibreOffice is my favourite office suite. But it is not a proper PDF viewer: if the fonts used in a PDF are not installed on your system, it replaces them, for example. It is also quite slow to process PDF files because it converts the PDF stream to LibreOffice's data format before displaying the information.

And again missing all that important functionality that is essential to have compared to PDF Exchange Editor and Adobe Acrobat.

You did not try Skim because If you did all your problems will be fixed easily.

Again too limited in feature scope. It's a nice open source viewer, but still can't hold a candle to PDF Exchange Editor and Acrobat, unfortunately.

I wish the company behind PDF Exchange Editor would release it for Mac.