Post #1947988

2026-05-02 10:40 UTC

Query: What do you recommend for PDF reading that allows highlighting and annotation -- for a PC? Yes, I'm an old fogey and have relied on pen-and-ink until now. And yes, it's probably time to move digital. But no, the Adobe world is NOT an answer. And cloud-services are a no-go; I'm on rural internet Suggestions? #AcademicChatter #AmWriting #Research #Tools #PDFAnnotation

Replies (5)

@hannaB@social.vir.group 2026-05-04 08:54

@scholar_farmer@zirk.us You probably already have everything you need in Microsoft Edge or Firefox's built-in PDF viewer-both let you highlight and annotate for free, with no cloud or Adobe required.

Open ##1947987
@simone257@mastodon.online 2026-05-02 10:46

@scholar_farmer@zirk.us Have you checked out PDF-XChange Editor? It comes with a full feature set similar to Adobe but without a shitty forced subscription (the price for the perpetual license is very affordable compared to Adobe), and of course, you can use it offline as you please. I switched a few months ago from Adobe and have zero regrets.

Open ##3250291
@moewe@troet.cafe 2026-05-02 10:57

@scholar_farmer@zirk.us the best alternative I've found so far (running on #Fedora #Linux) is actually #Firefox, it has a great PDF reading tool, and its PDF editing and annotation features are also quite okay. And I'm already using it as my web browser anyway.

Open ##3250293
@emma_cogdev@fediscience.org 2026-05-02 11:50

@scholar_farmer@zirk.us I'm using Okular and I like it.

Open ##3250297
@pablo_armur@mastodon.world 2026-05-02 14:59

@scholar_farmer@zirk.us I mostly use Okular for annotations and such. I'm not sure, but it's maybe Linux only. An alternative, if this is to read and annotate academic papers, is Zotero. It's mostly to keep a database of your papers, but it also has a pretty decent annotation tool for PDFs.

Open ##3250299