Linux pdf reader best reader

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.

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Best PDF Reader for Linux

The Adobe PDF file format is commonly used for instructions, manuals, boarding passes, and lots of other types of documentation. You are bound to run into a PDF document eventually. Is your Linux system able to open and read them?

In this tutorial, we have compiled some of our favorite PDF readers for Linux. You will learn about our top picks and what makes them solid choices for installation.

In this tutorial you will learn:

• Best PDF readers for Linux, with installation instructions

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions

Category	Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System	Any Linux distro
Software	Firefox, Chrome, Chromium, Evince, Okular, Atril, Adobe Reader, MuPDF, Zathura, GNU gv
Other	Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions	# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Best PDF Reader for Linux

Any web browser

You do not need any special software to open PDF documents. Your web browser can open them just fine. Whether you have Firefox, Chromium, Chrome, or some other web browser, these are all perfectly capable of viewing PDF documents. Keep in mind that web browsers may not have some of the convenient features of dedicated PDF viewers, but they can usually suffice, and will save you from needing to install additional software.

Evince PDF Viewer

Evince (also known as Document Viewer) is the default PDF viewer for the GNOME desktop environment. If you are using GNOME, then this application should already be installed on your system – it often comes pre-installed on other desktops, too. We like it because it is a super lightweight program, makes the text easy to read, and it is often installed by default. Installation instructions:

Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian: $ sudo apt install evince Fedora: $ sudo dnf install evince Arch Linux and Manjaro: $ sudo pacman -S evince

Atril PDF Viewer

Atril is the default PDF viewer for the MATE desktop environment. Even if you are not using MATE, this is a good choice for a PDF viewer. We like it for its simplicity and convenient features, such as the ability to bookmark documents. Installation instructions:

Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian: $ sudo apt install atril Fedora: $ sudo dnf install atril Arch Linux and Manjaro: $ sudo pacman -S atril

Okular PDF Viewer

Okular is the default PDF viewer on for the KDE Plasma desktop environment. KDE users will already have it available, and you can still install the application regardless of which desktop environment you currently use. We like it for some of its advanced features, such as the ability to highlight the important parts of documents with the text highlighter. Installation instructions:

Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian: $ sudo apt install okular Fedora: $ sudo dnf install okular Arch Linux and Manjaro: $ sudo pacman -S okular

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe Acrobat Reader might be the first choice people think of when it comes to opening PDF documents. Although there is a Linux version of Adobe Reader available, it no longer receives updates on the Linux platform hence is obsolete and not recommended for the installation. The only good thing we can say about it is that the creators of the PDF format are the same who developed this program. Adobe Reader is a proprietary PDF viewer available via external 3rd party package. To download it:

Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian: $ wget ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/unix/9.x/9.5.5/enu/AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i386linux_enu.deb Fedora: $ wget ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/unix/9.x/9.5.5/enu/AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i386linux_enu.rpm

MuPDF PDF Viewer

MuPDF is an extremely lightweight PDF viewer for Linux that supports a PDF, XPS, and EPUB formats. Use this software if want a very small install and a PDF viewer with no extra features. We like it because it’s probably the most basic and lightweight PDF viewer available. Installation instructions:

Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian: $ sudo apt install mupdf Fedora: $ sudo dnf install mupdf Arch Linux and Manjaro: $ sudo pacman -S mupdf

Zathura PDF Viewer

Zathura is a free, plugin-based document viewer application. Available plugins include PDF, PostScript and DjVu. Use this software if you would like to extend the functionalities of your PDF viewer. Installation instructions:

Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian: $ sudo apt install zathura Fedora: $ sudo dnf install zathura Arch Linux and Manjaro: $ sudo pacman -S zathura

GNU gv PDF Viewer

GNU gv is a powerful PostScript and PDF document viewer developed by the GNU Project. This one is always a safe choice to make, considering a huge amount of other software on Linux is also developed by GNU. We like it for its retro interface and simple features. Installation instructions:

Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian: $ sudo apt install gv Fedora: $ sudo dnf install gv Arch Linux and Manjaro: $ sudo pacman -S gv

Closing Thoughts

In this tutorial, we saw a list of the best PDF viewers on a Linux system. We also learned how to install any of the applications mentioned here on all major Linux distros. Each of them have their pros and cons, and the best one for you will depend on your situation, whether you want a beefy program, lightweight viewer, or want to stick with one of the default viewers.

Related Linux Tutorials:

Comments and Discussions

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