SumatraPDF: This 16K-Star PDF Reader Windows Users Can’t Quit

I gotta be honest, Edge on Windows technically opens PDFs, but when you’re dealing with a 500-page technical manual or ebook, the lag becomes painful pretty fast. That’s exactly how I stumbled onto SumatraPDF.

What This Project Is

SumatraPDF is an open-source PDF reader written in C, Windows-only. With 16.6K stars it’s not the flashiest tool out there, but the user loyalty is insane. It’s been maintained for years — the latest update dropped in May 2026, so the author is clearly still active.

The “Sumatra” name comes from an Indonesian island. No idea why the author picked it, but whatever.

What Stood Out to Me After Using It

The startup speed is ridiculous. Opening a PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader on an older machine easily takes 3-4 seconds. SumatraPDF is basically instant. Even scanned PDFs hundreds of megabytes in size open without a hiccup. Once you get used to that, everything else feels slow.

Memory footprint is tiny. I checked — opening the same 200-page PDF, Edge eats 200MB+. SumatraPDF sits around 30MB. For aging laptops, this is huge.

Supports more formats than you’d expect. PDF is the main thing, but it also handles ePub, MOBI, CBZ/CBR comics, DjVu, XPS, and even CHM help files. One tool replacing a whole suite of readers.

Command-line friendly. You can literally do SumatraPDF.exe -page 50 document.pdf to jump to page 50, which makes it great for automation and scripting workflows.

Portable version exists. Single exe file, runs off a USB stick, leaves no traces. Super handy for public computers or quick temporary setups.

Quick Start

Installation is dead simple. Grab the installer from GitHub Releases, or use Scoop:

scoop install sumatrapdf

Set it as your default PDF handler and you’re good to go. The interface looks plain — almost aggressively minimalist — but everything lives in keyboard shortcuts.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Blazing fast startup, minimal resource usage
• Multi-format support beyond just PDF
• Portable single-file version
• Completely free and open source (GPLv3)
• Excellent LaTeX-generated PDF support with inverse search

Cons:

• Windows only, no macOS or Linux builds
• Interface looks dated, stuck in Win32 era
• Zero editing capabilities, view-only
• No cloud sync or cross-device reading progress

Comparison

Tool	Startup	Memory	Cross-platform	UI	Price
SumatraPDF	Instant	Tiny	❌	⭐	Free
Adobe Reader	Slow	Heavy	✅	⭐⭐⭐	Free/Sub
Foxit Reader	Medium	Medium	✅	⭐⭐⭐	Free/Paid
Okular	Fast	Low	✅	⭐⭐	Free
Edge	Medium	Heavy	✅	⭐⭐⭐	Free

If you’re strictly on Windows and only need to read PDFs without editing them, SumatraPDF is pretty much the best option.

Who Should Use It

Two types of people, mainly:

1. Low-spec machine users — the lightness is a genuine necessity
2. Heavy readers — if you plow through technical docs, papers, and ebooks daily, startup speed and stability matter more than looks

I’ve been using it as my main reader for two months now. Sure, it’s ugly. But that instant-open feeling every single time? Honestly addictive.

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About the Author

Liudingyu is a full-stack developer and heavy GitHub user. With 900+ starred repos over the past 3 years, this site only covers tools I’ve actually used or deeply researched.

📧 Found a great tool to recommend? Email [email protected]