Good simple Windows PDF viewer/editor for tablet?

ShadowAndFlame@mander.xyz to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 15 points –

I have a Surface Pro 4, and I'm looking for a simple PDF viewer that works well in tablet mode. I used to use Edge, but after they switched to chromium it lost a few key features for me (pen input automatically being a pen instead of scroll, pen eraser working, full screen page swipe rather than scroll, etc). Everything else I've found is either way overpowered and cluttered, or doesn't work well with tablet mode and pen input. Any suggestions?

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No idea about tablet input, but on regular PCs SumatraPDF is absolutely amazing.

Firefox can view and natively edit PDFs now.

While true and useful, it does not do well with tablet mode and pen input in my opinion. For example, you can't erase ink, only delete an entire ink "session." Unless I'm missing something?

Can you tell us what you've tried already?

I have used FoxIt for a long time but might be considered "overpowered" and not sure how it does in tablet mode

For me, Edge, Firefox, Chrome are in the missing features category, and Drawboard PDF is in the overkill category.

Xodo is pretty close to what I want, but keeps spamming me with subscription nonsense. I'll give Foxit a try.

was gonna suggest drawboard pdf. For university if i have to write on a pdf i export it to onenote and draw on it with a pen

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I gave it another shot last night, and I think it's actually fine. The only thing I wish it could do is erase a whole inked line at a time rather than erasing only what ink my eraser is over. Not sure if that makes sense.

I have personally used DrawboardPDF on Windows tablets because it came with one that I bought, but it costs money and there may be better options out there. Nonetheless, it’s probably worth checking out.

Aside from that, I would probably consider looking at Xournal++. It’s technically a note taking program, so probably not quite what you’re looking for, but it handles PDFs and it seems to work well with a stylus. I’ve never used it to any significant extent, however. It’s also free, open source, and cross platform which are major pluses.