PalmPDF Brings Native PDF Support

Posted By: Ryan Wednesday, November 2, 2005 2:48:55 PM

PalmPDF is a new native PDF file viewer for Palm OS 5 devices. While still in the early stages of development, the program shows a lot of promise.

Palm OS PDF reader PalmPDF supports viewing native Adobe PDF documents. It has support for anti-alaising and truetype fonts and five way navigation. It is based on the open source Xpdf program. The app is freeware and the developer accepts donations.

The developer warns that the program is still in a very early state. It is recommended you backup your device before installing it, as errors and crashes are very likely. The program has been improving significantly with each new version released.

DataViz has also announced they are developing a native PDF program for Documents to Go. It is expected to be released later this fall.

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Freeware ... Bring Em' On!

LiveFaith @ 11/2/2005 5:03:50 PM #

Wow, will test soon. A little technical to get loaded, but we'll see how see performs on the dreaded TT3. Thanks.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: Freeware ... Bring Em' On!

MegaManXcalibur @ 11/2/2005 5:09:09 PM #

I've tested this on my Palm T|X and I wasn't able to get it to open and .pdf documents (it would throw error messages when trying to open one). Of course I'm not surprised or dissapointed since I knew this program was in very early development. But I have to say I like the idea of being able to read .pdfs natively on my PDA and I can't wait until this program becomes a stable release.

RE: Freeware ... Bring Em' On!

karol.pl @ 11/3/2005 7:34:43 AM #

Works on Tungsten T2 with FargoHeapFix v0.14. Only black and white rendring usable, but works.

RE: Freeware ... Bring Em' On!

pascanu @ 11/3/2005 10:13:30 AM #

Works fine no my Treo650. Waiting for this for soooo long! Great work!

Handspring Visor -> m505 -> Zire71 -> Zire72 -> Treo650

RE: Freeware ... Bring Em' On!

joeags @ 11/3/2005 12:24:33 PM #

Thanks to karol.pl, this works on the Tungsten|T also when using Fargo Heap Resizer. Same B&W redering. Pretty slow on this, but it works. Plus I lose 1 meg space with FHR + 1.2 megs with PalmPDF, so it won't be staying on my Palm!

RE: Freeware ... Bring Em' On!

arp @ 11/3/2005 2:47:25 PM #

At least it's better than the adobe pdf converter that came with my z72.

--
http://arpx.net/palm/

I really like this one.

VampireLestat @ 11/2/2005 7:09:33 PM #

I tried, I like it, I donated 5$. I encourage everyone to chip in. We need this program badly for Palm OS.

If this project is continued, Palm OS will pretty much be armored with all the best mobile programs of any mobile OS.

RE: I really like this one.

joad @ 11/2/2005 7:13:33 PM #

Great to hear someone is successful already with it.

It's nutty that a "Portable Document Format" (PDF) reader is not available for the leading "Portable Device!" I can view Excel Spreadsheets, play MP3's, watch movies on my Palm... but can't even view a common pdf yet...

Adobe tried passing off that terrible reader for the Palm years ago - didn't support native files and gave many people a very bad impression of Adobe's capabilities as a software developer. Picsel viewer "kind of" works, though it takes up a ton of RAM, often requires extra programs to get it installed and seems klunky since it wasn't made for current devices.

Strange that with all the creative commercial developers that it may take the freeware community to develop a decent .pdf reader for the Palm (doubtful I'm paying $30 to DataViz just to have this capability). Then again, maybe it's a sign that Palm OS moving to Linux will be the best thing that ever happens to it.

RE: I really like this one.

joeags @ 11/2/2005 8:35:23 PM #

Not working on the Tungsten|T. At least not on mine!

RE: I really like this one.

ChiA @ 11/3/2005 6:42:01 AM #

It's nutty that a "Portable Document Format" (PDF) reader is not available for the leading "Portable Device!

It's not as nutty as Palm's having better software support for Microsoft Office files than Microsoft's Pocket PC!

It's one of the reasons I chose a Palm over a Pocket PC
I'm looking forward to NativePDF support; it's been long overdue.

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog" - Dwight D. Eisenhower

RE: I really like this one.

pascanu @ 11/3/2005 10:17:38 AM #

VampireLestat wrote: If this project is continued, Palm OS will pretty much be armored with all the best mobile programs of any mobile OS.

Still waiting for Skype... :-))

Handspring Visor -> m505 -> Zire71 -> Zire72 -> Treo650

PPC actually does have good M$ Office support

ackmondual @ 11/6/2005 10:48:08 PM #

QUOTE
It's not as nutty as Palm's having better software support for Microsoft Office files than Microsoft's Pocket PC!
/QUOTE

Nevermind Windows Mobile 5's Office Mobile being MUCH better off than Pocket Office. There have been at least one 3rd party Office app for PPCs that support full formatting, images, and graphics. pOS gets some good credit here b/c unlike PPC, Documents To Go is bundled with most pOS PDAs. With PPC, you can still get it. You just have to shell out an extra $30 to $50.

"Do you know the difference between an error and a mistake? Anyone can make an error, but that error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it."
-Grand Admiral Thrawn

the secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse

My PDAs: Visor --> Visor Neo (blue) --> Zire 71 --> Tungsten T3 (with 4 of 6 screws still remaining) ~?~> zodiac 2?

Promising

Scud @ 11/2/2005 9:18:57 PM #

Easily opens pdf on my Treo -- apparently when there is enough memory; reset when I tried to zoom in (which was not surpising).

Very promising work, although pdf documents created with "regular" computers in mind obviously need to be re-formatted for handhels.

Why won't Palm just license Picsel Viewer?

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/3/2005 12:52:07 AM #

Picsel is one of the most amazing apps that most people have never heard of. It's included in the ROM of most recent CLIEs and is a pretty slick PDF (and other file types!) viewer. No conversion needed. No crashing. Flawless zooming.

Palm should have licensed Picsel Viewer around the time that they started bundling Desktop To Go. I wonder if Sony had a exclusive contract that precluded anyone else bundling the app.

TVoR

------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------

The Palm eCONomy = Communism™

The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038

NetFrontLinux - the next major cellphone OS?: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=8060#111823

RE: Why won't Palm just license Picsel Viewer?

Frenchie @ 11/3/2005 3:43:34 PM #

Paln never liscensed Picsel because they didn't want to(yea that's what Twizza said a while back). I personally prefer Picsel Browser over Blazer anyday.

The world will end in 2006. Just as it was predicted in the bible along with the release of Microsoft Longhorn.... :p

RE: Why won't Palm just license Picsel Viewer?

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/3/2005 9:26:00 PM #

Paln never liscensed Picsel because they didn't want to(yea that's what Twizza said a while back).

I hope that's not true.

------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------

The Palm eCONomy = Communism™

The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038

NetFrontLinux - the next major cellphone OS?: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=8060#111823

RE: Why won't Palm just license Picsel Viewer?

Frenchie @ 11/3/2005 11:06:40 PM #

If it isn't then why hasn't Palm liscensed Picsel yet?

The world will end in 2006. Just as it was predicted in the bible along with the release of Microsoft Longhorn.... :p

RE: Why won't Palm just license Picsel Viewer?

joad @ 11/4/2005 4:11:16 PM #

Maybe the question is "why doesn't Picsel viewer tweak and then license itself for other devices, especially since Sony is dead." The same could be said for mmflash.

If it were left up to Palm, we'd still be stuck with "smartphones" that have about 23MB of RAM hardcoded into the OS, new premium PDAs that don't even have a vibrating alarm, reset holes that require you to screw off the tip of your stylus in order to reset them....

Oh.

RE: Why won't Palm just license Picsel Viewer?

twizza @ 11/4/2005 5:25:46 PM #

Wow, its a long day when I get quoted.

But yes, speaking to Palm about it they said that they did not want to pay the licensing fees for it. I imagine thats why DTG is getting a native PDF viewer asap. I would imagine though that the other native PDF viewer in development now would get their attention a bit more.

Sony did have an exclusive license on Piscel, as it did with Decuma and Flash. I dont know perosnally the status of those deals now, but its clear that Palm doesnt want to go teh liscencing route if at all possible. Cant really blame them, they want to make some kinda profit.

mobileministrymagazine.com
antoinerjwright.com

RE: Why won't Palm just license Picsel Viewer?

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/5/2005 12:53:41 PM #

Wow, its a long day when I get quoted.

;-O

Thanks for the clarification. That's too bad - Picsel Viewer is one of the slickest Palm apps I've ever used and had essentially no competition in the PalmOS world for several years. While I don't like the PDF format, Adobe has managed to get themselves entrenched as a standard in the business world. If Palm is serious about positioning themselves as a company that makes PDA products for businesses, they should support PDFs right out of the box (much like they already do with Word and Excel). Proper email/Exchange handling is another area where Palm dropped the ball. Palm needs to stop screwing around with half-baked software and start using quality code. Documents To Go was a big step in the right direction, as was MultiMail, until Palm smothered it and then brought it back to life as that crash-happy monstrosity known as FrankenVersaMail. And why the **** hasn't Palm bothered to include a backup app with its devices? This isn't exactly rocket surgery. Or brain science*.

*Though Jeff Hawkins may disagree...

http://www.rni.org/directors.html

Flash is fluff™ and Decuma is arguably superfluous, especially now that most of Palm's money is coming from devices with a keyboard. Support of core business software is a strategy that should have been obvious to those running a PDA company.

TVoR

------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------

The Palm eCONomy = Communism™

The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038

NetFrontLinux - the next major cellphone OS?: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=8060#111823

nothing new

ackmondual @ 11/6/2005 10:59:18 PM #

Same deal with Sony hi-res and Palm hi-res. Palm finally decided to grapple aboard the spaceship that is hi-res. Since Sony already developed the coding for hi-res support, they asked Sony to use their code, but Sony wanted $$ for it. So Palm developed their own and programmers were left to develop support for both Palm hi-res and Sony hi-res. And to think there were several times I couldn't run many apps b/c they were made only for Clie' devices ....... (OK, that and I didn't have a color handheld at the time).

Palm already has a backup program. While Hotsync isn't quite the same as an SD card backup, i guess it still counts. But in this regard, ppl also ask why M$ doesn't include full version of it's tools like defragger, M$ Office, etc. as part of Windows

"Do you know the difference between an error and a mistake? Anyone can make an error, but that error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it."
-Grand Admiral Thrawn

the secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse

My PDAs: Visor --> Visor Neo (blue) --> Zire 71 --> Tungsten T3 (with 4 of 6 screws still remaining) ~?~> zodiac 2?

RE: Why won't Palm just license Picsel Viewer?

twizza @ 11/7/2005 10:08:09 AM #

[i]Flash is fluff™ and Decuma is arguably superfluous, especially now that most of Palm's money is coming from devices with a keyboard. Support of core business software is a strategy that should have been obvious to those running a PDA company.[/i]

If Palm would have licensed competiting technologies right afterwards (except for Flash, IMO and as a Flash designer, it could have been a heck of a boon to the lanucher and web browser side of things) the Palm would be looked at not just for Pilots, but for actualyl piloting personal tech into the future.

You are right though TVOR, native PDF viewing should have come as soon as the TT shipped with the ability to play MP3s, it should have been at the top of the things to have list. And the fact that Handspring and Palm couldnt/wouldnt do it in Treo models says a lack of forsight as well.

mobileministrymagazine.com
antoinerjwright.com