About the Nitro Reader Beta
The history of Nitro Reader
Our users kept asking why we hadn't released a free PDF reader — something for the users who don't always need the kind of functionality Nitro Pro offers, but still need to work with PDF on a regular basis, in a way that works for them.
It took a few years, there were some challenges along the way, and we couldn't be more proud of the end result. Within our Product team, the hours put into building Nitro Reader have strained personal relationships, caused the death of a plant or two, and brought social lives to a standstill (even more than usual!) — this is their story…
It took two years, but we built our own dedicated PDF renderer for Nitro Reader — from the ground up. Our "Special Ops" team were locked away — continually building and breaking the renderer to a point where they were happy with it and it was ready for wider release.
We wanted Nitro Reader to be usable by anyone: from power-users all the way to those who don't know what PDF stands for. It needed an interface that was simple, uncluttered, and looked as good onscreen as it was to actually use — we wanted something intuitive and simple enough for just about anyone to open up and start working immediately.
We believe in providing high-quality free software, with no strings attached. It goes without saying that we were vehemently against compromising the user experience with in-application advertising, forced registration, or deliberately restricted functionality. With Nitro Reader, "free" actually means free — even if the guys in Finance weren't too happy about it…
Finally, we spent months debating amongst ourselves and talking to our users, trying to establish what we would include, and — equally important — what we'd leave out. We argued about adding more and we argued endlessly about unnecessary feature-bloat.
What you see today, is our attempt to create a free PDF reader that does everything users want to do with PDF files, and nothing they don't. We're proud of Nitro Reader, and we hope you enjoy using it.
Our vision
Nitro Reader is the product of more than a decade spent in the PDF software space, a whole lot of hard work, and our passion to provide truly great PDF solutions.
We're enthusiastic about PDF, no doubt about that. We're also PDF software users — like you, and hundreds of millions of people worldwide. We go to events, we fly in planes, and we file tax returns. We get asked for feedback at work, and we apply for insurance.
Almost every single time we do these things, it involves a PDF file. And, like many, many people out there — there simply wasn't a free solution that did the things we needed it to. The way we wanted it to.
Five years ago, we launched the award-winning Nitro PDF Professional — the world's first true Adobe® Acrobat® alternative. Two years ago, we started building a family of free PDF solutions, which combined have now been downloaded more than 34 million times.
The next step seemed logical.
We looked at the options available. We thought long and hard about what was missing, what was needed, and put the focus back on the user. We asked what people really wanted and needed to do with PDF, and set out to develop a solution that made working with digital documents as simple as pen and paper.
Nitro Reader is the fruit of our vision to provide a better option. We hope you enjoy using it.
What to expect from our beta
Nitro Reader is currently in Beta and it's a brand new product. It's ready to be used, and everything works, but the purpose of a Beta is to test the software beyond anything we can do internally, and get the feedback from our users and beyond that will shape the its long-term direction and development.
We've worked long and hard getting to this point — and now we need your help. The renderer (used to display your PDF files) has been in development for years, but we can't test every single one of the billions of PDF files in existence — it's not going to be common, but some users may experience inconsistencies. We'll be releasing updates between now and the end of the year based on your feedback.
If you find something you believe isn't right, or working the way it should, we want to know.
See below to find out how you can get involved, spread the word, and help shape the development of Nitro Reader.