I've been reading some feedback on my earlier post about why Reader remains the Standard for PDF viewing. Some people just love to hate the big company that gives away great and reliable software for free. They are sure that they'll have little or no use for bookmarks, form-fields, JavaScript, and so many other PDF features supported in Reader.
Nope, it's all about the speed for some people. So, I decided to perform a little test.
The Environment
Intel 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with 4GB RAM running OS 10.4.11 and Adobe Reader 9. In other words, a fairly basic Mac.
The Files
To perform this test, I selected two PDFs at random from the web. I made sure they were large enough so the significance of the inevitable errors in my timekeeping would be minimized. Both files were downloaded to my desktop for testing purposes.
- The 911 Commission's Report, a 7.2 mb Fast Web View optimized PDF.
- A report on the effects of Hurricane Katrina, a 7.8 mb PDF without Fast Web View optimization.
The Trials
Before each test I ensured that the software (Preview or Reader) was not running.
For timing purposes, I used a digital stopwatch (on my iPhone, if you must know). The timer started on the mouse upclick and ended the moment the first page of the PDF displayed. Each file received three trials, the trial-results were averaged.
Results
911 Commission Report
Preview: 1.9 seconds
Reader: 1.5 seconds
Hurricane Katrina Report
Preview: 1.6 seconds
Reader: 1.2 seconds
That settles that.