Another good analogue is the Photoscape program. It's a bit simpler than GIMP, but it does the job. There is also work with layers, retouching, resizing, combining effects and much more, making it easy to process a photo using this tool. You can download the version for Windows from the official site, but for Mac the application is available in the Mac App Store. There is no Linux version of Photoscape.
Analogues of Microsoft Office: Libre Office and Open Office
Undoubtedly, Microsoft office applications are the most popular. Word, Excel, PowerPoint... Is there really a replacement for these programs? Of course, there are analogues for office software. In general, there are a lot of analogues, but we will focus on the two largest. One of the office suites is Open Office. The set of applications in it is in no way inferior to Microsoft programs. There is also a text editor, software for tables, presentations, programs for working with images, databases, as well as an editor for mathematical formulas.
Among professional editors and programmers working on computers with the Windows platform, in addition to the Adobe Acrobat software package, the Foxit Reader program is well-deservedly popular. Compared to the latter, the Foxit Reader 5.4.3.0920 application after installation takes up much less space on the hard drive, is not so demanding on hardware resources and has a high speed. An important advantage of this software product is that, starting from version 4.0, it belongs to the category of Proprietary Software. That is, it is distributed absolutely free for non-commercial use.
The Foxit Reader developers, striving for the widest distribution of their software product, have created releases designed to work in the environment of such operating systems as Windows Mobile, iOS, Android, Linux and even Symbian.
In addition to the above advantages, this file viewer with the “*.pdf” extension does not require a long installation with the introduction of boring serial numbers. The download of the installed package takes place in seconds without the appearance of a corporate logo on the monitor screen and, from the point of view of functionality, fully justifies its name: not an editor, but a viewer (“viewer”). In addition, "Foxit Reader" has the ability to copy text content to the clipboard and then export it to other applications. This software tool has the function of searching for a phrase in the text, supports "Text Viewer & Text Converter" and has a high speed of printing the document being viewed.
Useful features of "Foxit Reader 5.4.3.0920" include:
the ability to add your own user comments to the document being viewed, which are organized as a separate file and can be printed along with the main text;
For document security, Foxit Reader always asks you to log on to the Internet.
in terms of its user interface, the application is very similar to the Adobe Reader software package, which facilitates the user's transition from one software product to another;
"Foxit Reader" has the ability to convert "*.pdf" format into a plain text file with the extension "*.txt"
the latest version of "Foxit Reader 5.4.3.0920" is equipped with new tools such as "Leader", "Measure tools", "Typewriter" and "Text block";
the application can run on any operating system, from the forgotten "Microsoft Windows 98" to the most modern 32-bit or 64-bit "Windows 8.1".
Russian users consider the lack of a Russian-language interface to be a relative inconvenience of this program. This problem today has somewhat lost its sharpness due to the appearance on the Web of almost a dozen different crackers.
Of all the products of Adobe Systems, the most reproaches and ridicule fall on the free tool for reading PDF files - Adobe Reader, which many people remember under the name Acrobat Reader. Actually, the accusations are that from version to version the program becomes only everything more cumbersome and gluttonous to resources, can hardly be called unreasonable.For most users, new versions do not bring the necessary changes in functionality, despite the fact that the download speed of the "Reader" keeps falling and falling when switching to new versions.
This raises the question of choosing an alternative means for reading PDF files. What? It turns out that there are not so few of them, as one might expect, given the free and widespread Adobe Reader. It is about these programs that can make PDF reading more enjoyable that I will now tell. taste.
Foxit Reader
This program, of course, is not as common as the Adobe product, but it’s hard to call it unpopular, whatever one may say. Foxit Reader can often be found on collections of pirated software and on FTP servers of various providers. But in the event that the distribution kit of this software product could not be found there, it can be downloaded from the official website (www.foxitsoftware.com), the size varies, depending on the platform and "packaging", from one and a half to two megabytes.
Already by the size of the distribution, it is clear that Foxit Reader is noticeably lighter than Adobe Reader "a. It starts, as it turns out after installation, also an order of magnitude faster. The program interface resembles Adobe Reader up to version 8 (the interface has changed in the latter). In terms of compatibility there will be no problems with different versions of the PDF format either - the program can work with PDF 1.6 files and, of course, with all older ones.Print documents, search, zoom, copy text, leave notes and comments Foxit Reader also allows.But this , of course, if it is allowed by the creators of the document being viewed, since, as you know, the PDF format allows you to prohibit many of these actions.
Among other undoubted advantages of Reader "and from Foxit, I would like to point out its cross-platform. There are versions of this program for Windows desktop systems, for Windows Mobile, Embedded Linux and Linux, again, desktop.
However, in a barrel of honey there is always a place for a fly in the ointment. Foxit Reader is not completely free in parts. That is, the program itself does not require money for use, but some of the features provided by the developers (copying text, exporting a PDF document to a text file, and some others) are available only with the purchase of a special Pro Pack "a. However, the program can be perfectly used and free of charge .
eXPert PDF Reader
This program is not as widespread as Foxit Software's product, but it also deserves attention from users. You can find it on the Internet at www.visagesoft.com/products/pdfreader, but the size of the distribution is already a little larger - about seven and a half megabytes.
Otherwise, the program differs little from FoxitReader "a (except perhaps in the interface, but not too much). The program uses skins, and there are several different options for" skins "as standard. Like Foxit, eXpert PDF Reader can print , work with annotations, search in the document.In terms of compatibility with different versions of the format, there should also be no problems.Among the useful features, it is also worth noting the work in full screen mode.
In general, eXpert PDF Reader, although 100% free, is still less preferred than Foxit Reader. Mainly because of the size. Although, perhaps, for lovers of skinned interfaces, it is still more pleasant than Foxit Reader.
PDF-XChange Viewer
The third candidate to replace Adobe Reader is called PDF-XChange Viewer and lives on the World Wide Web at www.docu-track.com/home/prod_user . The size of the distribution is even larger than that of the eXpert PDF Reader, and is just over ten megabytes.
The interface is normal, as close as possible to the interface of the classic "reader" from Adobe. The program loads faster than Adobe Reader, but slower than the first two programs in the review. But as for the speed of displaying pages, it is somewhat lower than that of the first two review programs, although it is also not at all bad.
The rest of the set of features is fairly standard. Of the pluses, you need to name the ability to export a document as a picture (both the entire document and individual pages), as well as the ability to delete pages (if the options of the document itself allow this). The program is completely free.
Summing up, we can say that the best choice of an alternative PDF reader is, of course, Foxit Reader. The remaining two PDF viewers are larger, and the latter, in addition, also lags behind in terms of speed. But, in general, any of them is smaller and faster than Adobe Reader, which is installed everywhere. Therefore, if reading PDF documents does not cause you anything but negative emotions, then you should install one of the programs described above instead of the gluttonous giant - maybe after that the situation will change.
Vadim STANKEVICH
Another good analogue is the Photoscape program. It's a bit simpler than GIMP, but it does the job. There is also work with layers, retouching, resizing, combining effects and much more, making it easy to process a photo using this tool. You can download the version for Windows from the official site, but for Mac the application is available in the Mac App Store. There is no Linux version of Photoscape.
Analogues of Microsoft Office: Libre Office and Open Office
Undoubtedly, Microsoft office applications are the most popular. Word, Excel, PowerPoint... Is there really a replacement for these programs? Of course, there are analogues for office software. In general, there are a lot of analogues, but we will focus on the two largest. One of the office suites is Open Office. The set of applications in it is in no way inferior to Microsoft programs. There is also a text editor, software for tables, presentations, programs for working with images, databases, as well as an editor for mathematical formulas.
As a rule, if we have PDF files at our disposal, this means for us that we can do only one thing with them: view them. Well, or at best, divide them into graphic files and view them separately. But in reality, with the right software, you can do a lot more with PDF.
One of the most useful software solutions is presented by iSkysoft: the application is called and allows you to create real miracles with your PDF files. Let's consider the work of the program on a specific example.
Let's say you were sent a contract in an envelope, which is printed on paper, but requires some adjustments. Of course, the first thing you do is scan it and export it to the most suitable format for this - PDF. Further, it would not hurt you to recognize the text in this document so that you can edit it. This is where you will come to the rescue.
You launch the program, open your file, download the OCR package - and in a couple of minutes you will have at your disposal a version of the contract you received, but only with the ability to edit it.
Now you can do whatever you want with the document: edit text, make edits, highlight sections of text, add marks, stamps, watermarks, and so on.
If you need to add interactive elements to your PDF, you can add inline forms to your PDF, which can be organized as checkboxes, dropdowns, a button, a radio button, or a text box. In the application, you can choose how you will then dispose of the received data.
The finished file can be exported in any of the popular formats: both in PDF or graphic, and . After all, if you want to send it to colleagues for further editing, the Word format will be the most suitable here.
Other useful features include the ability to combine multiple documents into a single PDF file. You open the corresponding mode, drag the necessary files (PDF, pictures, Office documents, etc.) into a special window, click on the button - and the output is one large PDF file. This can be useful if you want to send someone a few documents for review, but are afraid that some of them will be overlooked.
