Some PDFs are just useless for gaming. Benoist hooked me up with the OSRIC D&D rules a long time ago. With so few special graphics and black and white type, I can easily scroll through it faster than I could flip pages in a book. If I was going to run old school D&D, the pdf would be awesome. Unfortunately, I run Pathfinder.
I just got a new computer yesterday. Its an Asus with an i5 processor and pretty nice stats, brand new. Even with this computer I can't flip through the Paizo PDFs fast enough to make me want to use them. It takes a full second to load each page, making it just about useless to me because I can't use my eyes to quickly scan through the book for what I'm looking for.
Anyone know a way to change the settings or something, lower the file quality, isolate the text... anything like that to get it to load up faster?
I think you can tell Reader to ignore background graphics and such, but this is assuming the file isn't locked in the first place. If it is, you're out of luck, and I'm guessing the Paizo files very well might be.
It's so stupid. If I turn off the large images, it chops off all the text within a box around the image.
Kindle has some problems with PDFs in that you can't use the in built bookmarks and sometimes text is misaligned on the screen but I find it useful for those few books that are PDF only.
Otherwise I just go print!
For reading PDFs I highly recommend that you uninstall Adobe Reader, it has become the worst PDF reader out there. Install Foxit PDF reader.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/
Adobe has become a bloated monstrosity, it can seriously slow your computer down, especially the Autoupdate feature on it.
Quote from: greylond;479943For reading PDFs I highly recommend that you uninstall Adobe Reader, it has become the worst PDF reader out there. Install Foxit PDF reader.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/
Adobe has become a bloated monstrosity, it can seriously slow your computer down, especially the Autoupdate feature on it.
I just uninstalled Adobe and put on your suggestion. It is a bit faster. Thank you.
No problem. Also, check to see that you don't have a program installed called, "Adobe Updater."
That can be uninstalled also, otherwise it will run in the background and continue to slow you down a bit.
Foxit also has a pure text viewer, which renders your PDF as... pure text. That might be worth experimenting with as well (dunno about Pathfinder but it works good with Swords & Wizardry PDF).
I couldn't find Adobe Updater. I don't think I have it.
As far as the pure text feature, I found something that lets me view it as if it were typed into note pad, but it takes up too much space / loses its formatting. How do you start the feature you are talking about?
Foxit is almost as much a bloated monstrosity as Adobe Reader, and buggier to boot. I have been trying for ages now to explain why the hell people think that piece of shit is worth the time of day, and the only thing I can come up with is placebo effect and a desperation to believe anything is better than Adobe's reader.
If you want a PDF reader that actually is faster, lighter, and more stable, what you want is SumatraPDF.
Go here: http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/free-pdf-reader.html
You will thank me later.
Thank you sir. I'll check it out.
Quote from: J Arcane;480009You will thank me later.
Sweet Christmas, that's much faster. Why wasn't I informed about this earlier?
Thanks, J.
On my computer, I think Foxit is the fastest of the three, though it still isn't fast enough to make me want to use the Paizo PDFs. Blah.
Hey, all I can tell you is that I've been using Foxit for about 4 years now, on multiple computers, XP and Win7 and have never had a problem with it...
Adobe is the worst. I use Foxit these days too!
Note: Windows 8 won't be using adobe Flash and Shockwave. From what I understand they were stripped out of the spec.
The Adobe forced Flash updates every three days or so really ticked off the MS Devs. Glad to know I wasn't alone in with the unhappy state of affairs about the flashplayer that won't work unless it's the lastest up-to-date version. So much wasted bandwidth!
I'm thinking they are going to be using some kind of video converter with WIn8 considering that all youtube videos are just flash files. I wonder if you'll be able to auto-DL them and view them in Win8 using some kind of HD encoder.
Quote from: greylond;480047Hey, all I can tell you is that I've been using Foxit for about 4 years now, on multiple computers, XP and Win7 and have never had a problem with it...
Foxit seems awesome for my regular PDFs. Paizos PDFs just suck.
Quote from: Cranewings;480053Foxit seems awesome for my regular PDFs. Paizos PDFs just suck.
I couldn't offer an opinion about Paizo's, I've never bought any of their stuff.
Quote from: J Arcane;480009You will thank me later.
Well, I'm thanking you now :) It's really great. I installed it on my Toshiba netbook and is working wonders.
Quote from: greylond;480058I couldn't offer an opinion about Paizo's, I've never bought any of their stuff.
Eh, I imagine if he is trying to read the core rulebook as a PDF then that might explain why he is having trouble. That thing is massive.
I still use Adobe Reader myself, it drags on some files, but is fine for others.
Quote from: Cranewings;480008As far as the pure text feature, I found something that lets me view it as if it were typed into note pad, but it takes up too much space / loses its formatting. How do you start the feature you are talking about?
That would be the feature I was talking about. Sometimes it works pretty well (you generally have to zoom out a bit, using the mouse, to get a whole page on screen), sometimes it doesn't - unfortunately this seems to be one of those times. It does speed up rendering a fair bit when it doesn't make the document unreadably ugly, though.
Quote from: Lord Rocket;480071That would be the feature I was talking about. Sometimes it works pretty well (you generally have to zoom out a bit, using the mouse, to get a whole page on screen), sometimes it doesn't - unfortunately this seems to be one of those times. It does speed up rendering a fair bit when it doesn't make the document unreadably ugly, though.
Got ya, thanks.
There was a time and a place when Foxit was smaller and faster. It's since been spending it's time getting bigger, bloated and buggy while Adobe has actually gotten a lot smaller and more trouble free. Plus I constantly run across pdf's that Foxit or other readers can't open and only Adobe can.
That has never once happened to me, and I can't imagine why it would since PDF is apparently an open standard. Although, I see that PDF 2.0 came out very recently, and perhaps Foxit et. al. haven't caught up yet.
Can you give an example of a PDF that doesn't work outside of Adobe Reader, please? I'd like to see this for myself.
PS. I checked out Sumatra - not bad, not bad.
Sumatra is rocking this far. Pity I can't use it in my Ubuntu computer.
Quote from: J Arcane;480009If you want a PDF reader that actually is faster, lighter, and more stable, what you want is SumatraPDF.
Go here: http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/free-pdf-reader.html
You will thank me later.
Wheeelookitthatgo. I can't click faster than it's loading. I'll have to dig out my PF Bestiary PDF and see how that goes.
Quote from: J Arcane;480009(...)If you want a PDF reader that actually is faster, lighter, and more stable, what you want is SumatraPDF.
Go here: http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/free-pdf-reader.html
You will thank me later.
Hey, thanks! :hatsoff: