Best pdf viewer for linux

8 Best PDF Document Viewers for Linux Systems

This article is the continuation of our ongoing series about Linux Top Tools, in this series we will introduce you most famous open source tools for Linux systems.

With the increase in use of portable document format (PDF) files on the Internet for on-line books and other related documents, having a PDF viewer/reader is very important on desktop Linux distributions.

There are several PDF viewers/readers that one can use on Linux and they all offer related basic and advanced features.

In this article, we shall look at 8 important PDF viewers/readers that can help you when dealing with PDF files in Linux systems.

1. Okular

It is universal document viewer which is also a free software developed by KDE. It can run on Linux, Windows, Mac OSX and many other Unix-like systems. It supports many document formats such as PDF, XPS, ePub, CHM, Postscript and many others.

It has following features:

1. Embedded 3D model
2. Subpixel rendering
3. Table selection tool
4. Geometric shapes
5. Adding textboxes, and stamps
6. Copy images to clipboard
7. Magnifier and many more

To install Okular PDF reader in Linux, use apt or yum to get it as shown:

$ sudo apt-get install okular OR # yum install okular

2. Evince

It is a lightweight document viewer which comes as the default on Gnome desktop environment. It supports document formats such as PDF, PDF, Postscript, tiff, XPS, djvu, dvi, plus many more.

1. Search tool
2. Page thumbnails for easy reference
3. Document Indexes
4. Document Printing
5. Encrypted Document Viewing

To install Evince PDF reader in Linux, use:

$ sudo apt-get install evince OR # yum install evince

3. Foxit Reader

It is a cross platform, small and fast secure PDF reader. The latest version as of this writing is Foxit reader 7 which offers some security features that protect against vulnerabilities.

It is features-rich with features including:

1. An intuitive user interface
2. Support for scanning documents into PDF
3. Allows shared viewing of documents
4. Commenting tools
5. Add/verify digital signatures and many more.

To install Foxit Reader on Linux systems, follow below instructions:

$ cd /tmp $ gzip -d FoxitReader_version_Setup.run.tar.gz $ tar -xvf FoxitReader_version_Setup.run.tar $ ./FoxitReader_version_Setup.run

4. Firefox (PDF.JS)

It is a general-purpose web based PDF viewer built with HTML5. It is also an open source, community driven project that is supported by Mozilla labs.

To install PDF.js in Linux systems, follow the below instructions:

$ git clone git://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js.git $ cd pdf.js $ npm install -g gulp-cli $ npm install $ gulp server

http://localhost:8888/web/viewer.html

5. XPDF

It is an old and open source PDF viewer for the X windows system that is supported on Linux and other Unix like operating systems. It additionally includes a text extractor, PDF-to-PostScript converter and many other utilities.

It has an old interface, therefore user who care so much about nice graphics may not enjoy using it so much.

To install XPDF Viewer, use following command:

$ sudo apt-get install xpdf OR # yum install xpdf

6. GNU GV

It is an old PDF and Postscript document viewer that works on an X display by providing a graphical user interface for the Ghostscript interpreter.

It is a improved derivation of Ghostview developed by Timothy O. Theisen, which was originally developed by Johannes Plass. It also has old an graphical user interface.

To install Gnu GV PDF viewer in Linux, type:

$ sudo apt-get install gv OR # yum install gv

7. Mupdf

Mupdf is a free, small, lightweight, fast and complete PDF and XPS viewer. It is highly-extensible because of its modular nature.

A handful of its notable features include:

1. Supports a highly quality anti-aliased graphics renderer
2. Supports PDF 1.7 with transparency, encryption, hyperlinks, annotations, searching plus many more
3. Reads XPS and OpenXPS documents
4. Written modularly to support additional features
5. Importantly, it can also handle pdf encoded with Chinese GBK well

Visit Homepage: http://mupdf.com/

8. Qpdfview

qpdfview is a tabbed document viewer for Linux that uses Poppler for PDF support. It also supports other document formats as well, includin PS and DjVu.

Below is a list of its features and components:

1. Uses Qt toolkit for interfaces
2. Uses CUPS for printing purposes
3. Supports outline, properties and thumbnail panes
4. Supports scale, rotate and fit functions
5. Also supports fullscreen and presentation views
6. Enables text search
7. Supports configurable toolbars
8. Supports configurable keyboard shortcuts and many others

Summary

Many people these days prefer using PDF files because many on-line documents and books now come in form PDF files. Therefore getting a PDF viewer that meets your needs is vital.

I hope you find this article useful and if we’ve missed any tool in the above list, do share in the comments and don’t forget to share your additional thoughts, you can leave a comment in the comment section.

Источник

Best PDF Readers for Linux

The popularity of Portable Document Format (PDF) files has increased drastically in recent years. Being one of the most secure file formats to share on the internet, PDF files rapidly increase. Almost every Linux distribution is bundled with a basic PDF reader, but these have some limitations.

So today, we will look at the best feature-rich PDF reader you can use on Linux. Thanks to famous developer communities like GNOME and KDE, many PDF readers are available for Linux. These PDF readers come with features to enable users to accomplish more tasks and just read documents, while some come with very basic features.

In this post we cover the follow PDF reader software packages: Adobe Reader, Slim PDF, PDF Studio Viewer, Evince, Okular, Zathura, GNU GV, MuPDF, ePDF Viewer, Foxit Reader and Atril.

Adobe Reader

Adobe Reader is a very popular PDF reader on almost all popular platforms. If you have recently switched from Windows, you must be familiar with Adobe Reader. Earlier it was not available for Linux, but now it is available with all the features you experience on Windows and Mac.

Adobe Reader seems to be #1 PDF reader in terms of features and overall user experience. It offers features like adding annotations documents, document printing, etc. You need to install it manually on Linux by running the following commands one by one because it is not available in Ubuntu Software Centre.

$ sudo apt-get install gtk2-engines-murrine:i386 libcanberra-gtk-module:i386 libatk-adaptor:i386 libgail-common:i386

$ sudo add-apt-repository «deb http://archive.canonical.com/ precise partner»

$ sudo apt-get install adobereader-enu

Slim PDF

Slim PDF is a feature-rich PDF viewer that lets you view PDF files and lets you add comments and other annotations, fill out interactive forms, and validate digital signatures.

It comes with a beautiful user interface supporting light and dark themes. Navigation is quite easy, thanks to the simplified user interface. It is one of the smallest PDF readers out there, with a download size of 15 MB only.

PDF Studio Viewer

PDF Studio Viewer is a free software that runs on Linux. It is easy to install with a shell script following the linux install instructions. PDF Studio Viewer prides itself on high quality PDF display viewing. Integrations are provided for web services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and Docusign. Annotation and Markup of PDFs are available as well as integrated feature to use PDF forms. High quality printing support is also available. If you want to upgrade for even more professional features the same company provides additional premium products such as PDF Studio Professional and PDF Automation Server for automated PDF processing.

Above is a screen shot of PDF Studio Viewer in action.

Evince

Evince is a document viewer basically designed for the GNOME desktop environment. It comes bundled with all Linux repositories, and you can install it manually using the command given below. Evince is a lightweight and simple PDF reader which offers a very good overall user experience.

Evince offers Thumbnails, Search Tool, Printing, and Encrypted Document Viewing features. It supports document formats like PDF, XPS, Postscript, dvi, etc.

Okular

Okular is a cross-platform document reader developed by the KDE community for the KDE desktop environment. Okular offers more features than Evince and supports document file formats like PDF, PostScript, DjVu, XPS and many others.

Okular features include page annotations, extracting text from a PDF file to a text file, bookmarks and many more. It works smoothly on low-end machines and also handles large PDF files effortlessly. You can install Okular manually using the following command.

Zathura

Zathura is a free and easy-to-use lightweight document viewer popular among Linux users. Zathura offers features like search, mouse-free navigation, synctex support, bookmarks, automatic document reloading and easy customization.

Zathura has a very simple user interface that works on minimal hardware resources. It supports document file formats such as PDF, PostScript, DjVu, etc. You can install this document viewer from Ubuntu Software Centre or manually from Terminal using the following command.

GNU GV

GNU GV is a document viewer which helps you view and read PDF documents on an X display by providing a graphical user interface for the Ghostscript interpreter. It is a very simple and easy to use document viewer which supports document file formats like PDF, PostScript, etc.

GNU GV offers very basic features which you will find in any normal document viewer. You can install GV document viewer from Ubuntu Software Centre or manually from Terminal using the following command.

MuPDF

MuPDF is a free and open-source document viewer developed in C. It is a lightweight document viewer which supports document file formats like PDF, XPS, EPUB, OpenXPS, etc.

MuPDF is a simple yet powerful document viewer which offers features like software library, command-line tools, document annotations, edit and converts documents to HTML, PDF, CBZ and many other file formats. To install MuPDF you can head over to Ubuntu Software Centre or install it using the following command.

ePDF Viewer

ePDF Viewer is a simple and lightweight document viewer which supports document file formats like PDF and PostScript. Its user interface is very simple and runs smoothly on minimal hardware utilization.

ePDF viewer offers features like search, bookmark, annotations, etc. You can install this document viewer directly from Ubuntu Software Centre.

Foxit Reader

Foxit Reader is a cross-platform PDF reader that offers shared viewing, creating and editing, and digitally signing and printing PDF files. It has a very slick user interface that offers a good overall user experience.

Foxit Reader supports many document file formats including PDF, PostScript, XPS and other document file formats. To install Foxit Reader run following commands in Terminal one-by-one.

$ cd / tmp
$ gzip –d FoxitReader_version_Setup.run.tar.gz
$ tar –xvf FoxitReader_version_Setup.run.tar
$ . / FoxitReader_version_Setup.run

Atril

Atril is a document reader which comes bundled with the MATE desktop environment. Atril is very similar to Evince, the default document reader on Linux. It is a lightweight and simple document reader that you will find very easy to use.

Atril offers very basic features such as user interface customization, bookmark and thumbnails on the left side of UI. It supports document file formats like PDF, PostScript and many more. You can install Atril by running the following command in Terminal.

Conclusion

So these are the best PDF readers you can use on Linux contact us if you have any feedback.

About the author

Swapnil Tirthakar

A Software Engineer who loves football and passionate about traveling. I often spend my free time playing with gadgets and exploring new possibilities in tech world. I am Linux enthusiast and have about 6 years of experience in web development. I have good command on Python, Java, SQL and system security.

RELATED LINUX HINT POSTS

Источник