PDF Readers are dime a dozen these days thanks to the explosion in popularity of pdf files. Everyone has their own favourite software for reading pdf files – most popular options being Adobe Reader, Foxit Reader and Sumatra PDF. All of these are awesome options. But allow me to suggest another wonderful free viewer that can open not only PDF files but also DjVu, TIFF and TXT files.
STDU (Scientific and Technical Documentation Utility) Viewer has a clean and simple layout. It features a tabbed interface and all documents are opened within a single window. This works great and is definitely better than opening half a dozen windows to handle all of my open documents. However, this feature isn’t exclusive to STDU Viewer also present in some of its competitors like Foxit Reader. Taking a leaf out of Opera’s (and other modern browsers) book STDU Viewer helpfully prompts to open the documents opened during last session. The ability to resume sessions is present in almost all modern day browsers and works wonderfully in STDU. I don’t need to manually open all the documents I was studying before I took my lunch break. STDU does it for me.
The good stuff doesn’t stop there. The reason why I switched to STDU is its ability to remember which page of a document I was last reading. When you open a document unlike other readers it doesn’t open the first page. Instead it opens that page that you were reading the last time. Folks who read a lot of novels are surely going to appreciate this feature. They don’t need to fret even if you forgot to create a bookmark before closing the document.
Another handy feature in STDU Viewer is the brightness and contrast control settings. This allows you to change the appearance of documents to ensure maximum viewing comfort and minimize stress on your eyes. Besides these STDU Viewer contains all standard features like document search, pdf/djvu to txt or image converter.
My only complaint is that STDU briefly pauses momentarily while loading a new page of a document. This can get slightly annoying on occasions. However, this is only a small blemish on an otherwise excellent product. STDU Viewer is a lightweight yet competent PDF, TIFF and DjVU Reader with a small but compelling feature list. Give it a try, it may just convince you to switch.
Download STDU Viewer (1.52 MB)
Official Website
Platforms Supported : Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7
Version Reviewed : 1.5.264
License : Free for Non-Commercial Use
Thanks for sharing this tool
Will check this out.
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This is a really nice software. I am sure you would like it.
We added support xps and cbr(cbz) format in last version and increased speed of pages rendering.
It requires admin rights to be installed. With all due respect, guys, it sucks. For the reader there is no really need to change anything system-important.
Changing file associations requires admin rights. Doesn’t it?
I answered in the main thread, sorry, missed the “Reply” option.
@Pallab De: I doubt so. Apollo and Media Player, for instance, rewrite accotiations without admin rights. And it makes your program uninstallable for those who has no admon rights – all this kind of people who use company-leased laptop. I use it on my own machines, but on my working laptop I couldn’t, and that’s a shame, albeit I would be ok without rewritten associations for pdfs.