PalmPDF Version 1.0 Released

MetaView Soft's open source PDF document viewer has now reached version 1.0. PalmPDF is a free native PDF file viewer for Palm OS 5 devices. More...

Palm OS PDF readerPalmPDF enables users to view native Adobe PDF documents on your mobile device. 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.

Some feature highlights include:

  • Native PDF on almost every Palm OS 5 device
  • File Browser to pick up your PDF file from anywhere on your card
  • Handles received PDF files from EMail, Bluetooth or WWW
  • Very small on-device memory footprint by moving the renderer to the card
  • "Find" support in your PDF files
  • Presentation mode for PDA based overhead presentations
  • On-device conversion of your PDF files to plain text

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First thoughts

visage @ 1/17/2006 8:51:51 PM # Q
It's certainly faster than the last release, with progressive rendering, and there are more useful in document menus.

However even with improvements it still doesn't work comfortably in landscape mode (for 320x480 Palms it's the best way to get readable text while being able to see the entire width of the page).

Errors are still thrown, especially if you run in color mode, but they no longer seem to be show stopping.

Overall I'd say 1.0 is now officially a "usable" PDF reader, in comparison to the 0.8 release which ranked more as a novelty due to it's slow speed and frequent crashs. Though I still think it has a way to go before it is polished enough to rank as a "good" PDF reader. While improved the interface still feels like a horror born of GNU.

RE: First thoughts
Patrick @ 1/17/2006 11:24:42 PM # Q
Wow. If I were you, I'd definitely ask for my money back.

RE: First thoughts
Tech72 @ 1/18/2006 6:35:52 AM # Q
HA!.... Money back....:) I do Believe that it was a fair Cretique,
If not a bit Harsh... Good review...Good re

RE: First thoughts
joad @ 1/18/2006 1:54:24 PM # Q
I'm asking for DOUBLE my money back. And a cease and desist order on software like this stealing money from poor kittens.

.8 was extremely stable on my 650, more stable than many other software - beta or not. True, the GUI isn't as polished as some of the others out there - but I'll never pay Dataviz another $30 to do the same thing no matter how pretty the GUI.

Moreover, Desktop to Go 7 was the most miserably crashy program I have ever used on the 600/650, and version 8 would have to be MILES better to even spend the RAM on it to try it - their registration is terribly complicated to boot, and there is a suspicious persistent Dataviz cookie that keeps reappearing..



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Fantastic PDF Reader

jfme @ 1/18/2006 7:08:30 AM # Q
I tried this reader in my LifeDrive and it works like a charm. I loaded several drawings in pdf format and they look and read great in landscape mode. However, you cannot rotate the image with the LD rotate button, you have to rotate from the program's menu (which replaces Palm OS Menu).

Do not waste 600Kb on the bundled Acrobat PDF Palm reader, use this one instead.

RE: Fantastic PDF Reader
palmdoc88 @ 1/18/2006 8:20:19 AM # Q
Definitely miles better than Acrobat.
It renders the pages reasonably fast on my Treo650. Scrolls around the document well.
Hey and the price is right!
Two thumbs up to the author!!

T3 & T5 user
RE: Fantastic PDF Reader
KultiVator @ 1/18/2006 10:38:56 AM # Q
I hope this developer keeps plugging away at this - as it shows real promise (this is the same developer who has ported Doom, Quake and Duke Nukem to the humble Palm platform.)

Will be keeping an eye on how this develops.

RE: Fantastic PDF Reader
LiveFaith @ 1/18/2006 11:59:56 AM # Q
Wow, Downloaded it directly and ran on my T3 last nite. Awesome. Much better than I remember the 0.7 etc version from before. I did get one freeze after doing about 30:00 of testing on a variety of about 6 PDFs. Allows a variety of settings for specialization and even allows the rendering engine to be offloaded to the SD card since it's a bit beastie at around 1MB.

I encourage ramping up your CPUs horsepower all you can to render as fast as possible, but it is very useable and worthy IMO. I'll keep testing it and if it remains so stable, I'll PayPal these guys a little "love offering". :-D

For that price with that functionality on HVGA ... this is a suuuuper product. I'm impressed. Had this been out 6 months ago, it would have a cult following by now. I'm sure the guys at Picsel and DV do not share my optimism. :-/

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: Fantastic PDF Reader
cervezas @ 1/18/2006 12:37:29 PM # Q
I'm impressed with how a comparatively small group of talented and committed Palm developers have done so much to keep the Palm platform vibrant in the last year or two. I don't think I'll list them here since I'd certainly leave some important ones out, but the MetaView Soft developer(s) are definitely in that group of stars.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog
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can some1 who's used both DTG8 Premium and PalmPDF v1.0.....

ackmondual @ 1/18/2006 11:14:58 AM # Q
compare the 2 on usability and features? Which one would you recommend?
RE: can some1 who's used both DTG8 Premium and PalmPDF v1.0.....
hkklife @ 1/18/2006 11:41:20 AM # Q
I have not used PalmPDF YET but I did upgrade to DTG8 Premium a few months back. While I was sorely disappointed some form of DTG8 was't included on the TX and/or a discount offered to new TX purchasers I went ahead & bit the bullet for PDF viewing.

I really wouldn't sa that DTG8 is feature-laden but it WORKS for viewing PDFs and hasn't brought my device to a screeching halt in the way the old Adobe Palm viewer used to do to my T|T. Sadly, that's about the ONLY notable improvement made to DTG8 but if you require PDF viewing on your POS device it's a fine solution IMO. DTG8 also seems a bit more stable and "smoother" in its transitions and opening fils (NVFS optimizations?)

Do note that I have not looked at multi-hundred page filings or e-books or anything like that. My uses of it are limited mostly to personal material and a few work docs such as brochures/sales flyers/propaganda/short documentation etc. that usually ends up being just a dozen or two pages in length. Some of them are less than 10/12 pages total and those pose no problems whatsoever for my TX to read them off of an SD card.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

RE: can some1 who's used both DTG8 Premium and PalmPDF v1.0.
fporter @ 1/18/2006 1:09:39 PM # Q
PalmPDF can search the .pdf and open password protectted .pdf. DTG8 can do neither. DTG8 rendring is a bit better and handles screen rotation via the palm virtual button. DTG8 also offers a text only mode for easier reading. That said though, PalmPDF has options that include 3 grades of rendering, skip lg images, inverse viewing, anti aliasing and is sensititve to memory issues. Both offer zoom. It seems that with PalmPDF rendring engine in RAM and a consumer grade SD card that PalmPDF is a bit faster. PalmPDF has a standard file browser whree as DTG uses its own file finder. Both work but DTG can take a while to find your files. You can't navigate to a folder in DTG, it finds the files for you. In PalmPDF you navigate to your data. PalmPDF is free and well worth a donation. DTG is not free. Not at all. Adobe's Palm PDF reader is a waste of time.
RE: can some1 who's used both DTG8 Premium and PalmPDF v1.0.
Ronin @ 1/18/2006 1:43:43 PM # Q
DTGs pdf reader does not have any find function, palmpdf does.

In the Spirit of Umoja,
Ronin
RE: can some1 who's used both DTG8 Premium and PalmPDF v1.0.
LiveFaith @ 1/18/2006 3:02:18 PM # Q
fporter,

That's a good comparison. Although, I thot I rotated a PDF last nite with the palm orientation button? I did notice that feature there and wondered why I would need it for HVGA.

I was very impressed.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: can some1 who's used both DTG8 Premium and PalmPDF v1.0.
KultiVator @ 1/18/2006 4:12:32 PM # Q
Are you guys are cross purposes about the rotation button... option 1 being the hardware orientation button found on LifeDrive and option 2 being the more common soft button on the status bar of T3/T5/TX?


RE: can some1 who's used both DTG8 Premium and PalmPDF v1.0.
KultiVator @ 1/18/2006 4:14:27 PM # Q
Soory - I'm tired, it's late, I'll try again!

Are you guys *AT* crossed purposes about the rotation button... option 1 being the hardware orientation button found on LifeDrive and option 2 being the more common soft button found on the status bar of T3/T5/TX?

RE: can some1 who's used both DTG8 Premium and PalmPDF v1.0.
twrock @ 1/18/2006 6:09:36 PM # Q
On my TX (and I assume other machines as well), PalmPDF rotates the screen to any orientation via its own "software button" (0, 90, 180, 270 degrees).

It might not be the "mythical color HandEra", but I'm liking my TX anyway.
RE: can some1 who's used both DTG8 Premium and PalmPDF v1.0.
KultiVator @ 1/19/2006 6:46:00 AM # Q
twrock wrote...

>> PalmPDF rotates the screen to any orientation
>> via its own "software button"

Yes - that's what I've been using.

Text based PDF's (that is PDF's where text content is store as text and not as a pixel-based image / bitmap) are pretty quick to open. Image heavy PDF's can be chuggy to load, but are rendered better than expected on my T3.

Could give Repligo a run for it's money - especially since this software can handle the PDF's natively - wheras Repligo requires a conversion to it's own format first.

Thanks for all the responses so far.....
ackmondual @ 1/19/2006 4:37:42 PM # Q
Thanks for all the posts so far. I use PDFs, but not badly enough to pay for DTG8 Prem or even install PalmPDF. That could change someday.

.

Ronin @ 1/18/2006 1:43:43 PM
"DTGs pdf reader does not have any find function, palmpdf does."

At the very least, does the Palm global find/search also search/scan PDF documents loaded in DTG8 Premium?


@hkklife
'Be eternally disappointed'
PDF compatibility through DTG will never be bundled with a Palm handheld. If you check out Dataviz' site, you'll see that PDF compatibility is only avaiable on DTG8 **Premium Edition**. If you click on the link on DV' homepage "does my handheld come with Documents To Go?", you'll see that at best, previous handhelds only came with DTG Professional Edition.

"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?

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