If someone knows how to disable this fuckery, please tell me or i have to install adobe acrobat, it makes me crazy as it floats on all the open PDFs, covering text/content
Just use Firefox for reading PDFs
Wait, what, seriously?! Firefox keeps on giving and I only switched back recently.
Yeap you can even add text and draw on PDF now. This means you can easily fill in forms or sign documents with nothing but your favorite browser.
If you really need to “edit” pdf, like moving or editing existing text, I heard libre office draw can edit pdf. https://www.libreofficehelp.com/modify-edit-pdf-free-libreoffice-draw/
It gets buried in my pile of Firefox tabs, so I usually use edge. I could probably set up a different user or something to keep them separate, but I’ve been to lazy so far.
Preview is pretty good.
deleted by creator
Just use Firefox.
I just want to comment to push this comment higher. On a PC, the answer is usually Firefox.
One of the biggest problems with this AI-spam in every app is that there is no workable business model. You can’t run the AI locally on most end user computers. And running it in the cloud or via OpenAI API is expensive and won’t work in the long term. So you’re looking at another one of those stupid subscriptions, but who really wants to pay monthly for his PDF reader so he can ask it questions?
Hey Moonrise2473, Do you still have this issue? I opened foxit today and was reminded of your post. I figured out how to get rid of the “AI assistent” and “support centre”.
go to file>preferences
image (sorry, I don’t have time right now to figure out how to insert images properly)
(below the arrow in this image is the “disable support centre” button for the other floaty thing)
Then restart foxit and it’s gone!!
eventually i got rid of it by checking “disable all features that need an internet connection”
i would’t have imagine that the ai assistant was placed in “application startup”
This. Op, remove foxit and use a proper pdf reader.
Foxit have been a bloated mess for years now, no reason for them to change.
Linux PDF readers don’t have this bullshit in the first place
I love Linux and I use it quite a bit but I’ve not really found a Linux software that is good at editing PDFs.
If you have recommendations I would love to hear them though
I know it’s kind of a meme to call some software bloated, but foxit reader is bloated AF
The sad thing is that foxit used to be the great alternative, back in the day.
Is this FoxIt? What the hell, FoxIt used to be cool.
Anyway, if all you need is a .pdf reader and don’t need any editing or form fill BS, just uninstall all your .pdf readers because they’re totally redundant these days. Firefox and all other browsers can natively read .pdf’s. If you need to mess with the content of a .pdf, Inkscape (open source) does a competent job of taking them apart and letting you edit them nowadays.
I’m of the opinion that bloated memory hog .pdf applications full of subscriptions and ads and other bullshit can just die in a fire. I haven’t actually needed one for years.
You can just sign using your mouse/trackpad, and then copy and paste the signature to fill in the entire form.
I’ve had assignments that involve editing a PDF template. So far, LibreOffice Draw has worked for me.
Why not just use acrobat?
Because Fuck Adobe.
Fair enough, but the free version of acrobat is still a good product for basic PDF functions, and doesn’t benefit them at all by using it.
For the record, I use FF 99% of the time, and GIMP or LibreDraw if I need to edit them.
Yeah, I used to use it to fix my RPG PDFs. (Seriously, it’s astounding how many publishers either omit or completely fuck up bookmarks.) I found out it went to shit when trying to help someone else do the same, and the newer free version was significantly cut down.
I used to use Foxit for the longest time, but Firefox’s pdf reader has improved so much lately that I actually prefer it.
I like to have things not in firefox. It makes it easier to manage the 50 windows and tabs that I have open
But be warned; pdfjs has a bunch of XSS vulnerabilities every month, which aren’t possible outside the browser environment.
There’s also okular. Basically anything that the kde foundation puts out will invariably be cross platform and pretty good.
I’ll give them both a try.
The main issue that I’ve run into is that foxit has a pretty decent signing system for signing PDFs which comes in handy from time to time and foxit and adobe both have batch editing for PDFs which is really handy for taking a bunch of random documents and sizing them to be all the same view size and rotating pages and the like to make everything nice and uniform for sharing with others.
FoxIt is Chinese. If you don’t care about your data potentially being transmitted across the globe, it’s a well working software.
Firefox added a decent signing feature. idk bout batch editing tho
I still use Foxit 9.72 on my pc (which I don’t have open ATM, so I can’t check to be certain I gave the right version). I have tried newer versions, but there always was some kind of enshittyfication change that annoyed me and I always reverted back to that last good version.
Maybe use Sumatra PDF instead?
I moved to Sumatra from Foxit years ago. No idea what Foxit did anymore to make me change, but this just confirms that decision.
This is the way.
i need n-up, booklet, zoom control, a preview and batch printing. Sumatra PDF just invokes the standard barebones print dialog with no extra frills. It’s ok for viewing but not for printing
Nitro Reader has a lot of features too.
no i mean open 50 PDF files and print them with a single click
I never had that floating over the document I was viewing, just in the home tab of the menu, but I did find a way to switch it off. ‘File > Preferences > General’ has an option to ‘disable all features which require an internet connection’. There are also options in there to disable that opening splash screen if you don’t want that.
yes! it fixed it
thanks
Acrobat also added an unclosable floating menu. It’s a massive pain in my ass.
That’s why I use edge (I know ugh) when I don’t need to comment sign or edit PDFs. I don’t want to use Firefox so it doesn’t get mixed up with all my other open tabs.
At least in a browser I can delete elements when it gets bad enough
