pdf reader for the 2020

Zucca · Posted: Fri May 29, 2020 10:42 pm Post subject: pdf reader for the 2020

What pdf readers are you guys and gals using?

I've been using pdfjs that comes with Firefox. I've encountered some problems using it. I'd like to test out some pdf reader that conforms as much as possible to the pdf standard. But I'll take all the suggestions.

Thanks.
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Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 23517

I use app-text/qpdfview and have been satisfied with it. I think the PDFs I read do not use many of the features in the standard, so I might not notice missing functionality.

sdauth · l33t Joined: 19 Sep 2018 Posts: 712 Location: Ásgarðr

I also use qpdfview. The only thing I find annoying is the text selector. Not very intuitive. I remember reading this was going to be improved but it's been quite a while now.
See : https://bugs.launchpad.net/qpdfview/+bug/958634

Otherwise Zathura is quite nice.

mike155 · Posted: Sat May 30, 2020 12:08 am Post subject:

I like and use qpdfview, too.

If someone is looking for a PDF editor, I can recommend PDF Studio. It runs under Linux, macOS and Windows. It is very powerful, but it costs money.

Fitzcarraldo · Posted: Sat May 30, 2020 12:30 am Post subject:

For the more-complex PDF files I use the free version of PDF-XChange Editor in WINE. Works very well (including completing PDF forms and adding your written signature without having to print the form).

To install this Windows application under WINE:

$ export WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine-pdfxve8
$ winecfg # Select Windows 10.
$ cd .wine-pdfxve8/drive_c/
$ cp ~/Downloads/PDFXVE8.zip .
$ unzip PDFXVE8.zip
$ wine PDFXVE8.exe
- Click ‘Install’.
- Click ‘Next’.
- Select ‘I accept the terms in the License Agreement’ and click ‘Next’.
- Click ‘Custom’.
- Click ‘Browsers Plugins’ and select ‘Don’t install’. Click ‘Next’.
- Leave ‘Create a Start Menu folder’ ticked. Untick ‘Create Desktop Icons.’ Untick ‘Set PDF-XChange Editor as default application for PDF files’. Untick ‘Set Printer “PDF-XChange Lite V6” As Default’. Click ‘Next’.
- Select ‘Free Version’ and click ‘Next’.
- Click ‘Install’.
- Untick ‘Launch PDF-XChange Editor’ and click ‘Finish’.
- Click ‘Close’.

Finally, use winetricks to install at least corefonts in the WINEPREFIX.
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fedeliallalinea · Posted: Sat May 30, 2020 5:25 am Post subject:

I use kde-apps/okular
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Ant P. · Watchman Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 6920

The Firefox one's good enough for me. Might as well get some mileage out of one of the heaviest programs on my system.

Juippisi · Developer Joined: 30 Sep 2005 Posts: 766 Location: /home

I'm a simple guy and using GTK so Evince is the best for me. It doesn't pull in many gnome packages when '-gnome' USE flag is set.

One downside compared to okular is that it doesn't work with .epub files.

charles17 · Advocate Joined: 02 Mar 2008 Posts: 3686

app-text/mupdf. It's fast and minimalistic. Also has an Android app that even reads .epub files.

Banana · Posted: Sat May 30, 2020 6:58 am Post subject:

mupdf and since my daily work is based around webbrowsers I use the provided builds in very often
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389292 · Guru Joined: 26 Mar 2019 Posts: 504

I use mupdf, just because I know its shortcuts and it doesn't have a lot of dependencies, I had no reason to test or use anything else.

pa4wdh · l33t Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 919

pdfjs and mupdf are my standard readers, i haven't encountered much pdfs they can't handle.

Sometimes i need to use a pdf with javascript in them, i haven't found a decent FOSS pdf reader that can handle them, does someone here know one?
Ironically, pdfjs being written in javascript, still lacks support for javascript in pdfs

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Anon-E-moose · Posted: Sat May 30, 2020 9:56 am Post subject:

I have both mupdf and qpdf installed but the one I use the most is xpdf v3, in my own bin directory.
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C5ace · Posted: Sat May 30, 2020 9:57 am Post subject:

I use Atril. Simple, just works.
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fturco · Veteran Joined: 08 Dec 2010 Posts: 1181

I'm happy with MuPDF. It opens both PDF and EPUB books.

Zucca · Posted: Sat May 30, 2020 3:20 pm Post subject:

Thanks. I already had Mupdf installed and it showed that the pdfs generated by img2pdf are, indeed, corrupted.
It only happens when I give it pngs that are 2 or 1-bit. (scans of paper). Raising the bit depth to 4 "solves" the problem, but makes the files quite a bit bigger.
Btw, I had ran all the pngs trough pngfix.

Anyway. I'll install qpdfview too. Then see which one (pdfjs, mupd or qpdfview) works the best for my use case.

Thanks for all the suggestions!
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erm67 · l33t Joined: 01 Nov 2005 Posts: 653 Location: EU

I think png support in pdf readers is optional.
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Hund · Apprentice Joined: 18 Jul 2016 Posts: 220 Location: Sweden

I use the Vi-like PDF-reader called Zathura (with the MuPDF backend).

https://pwmt.org/projects/zathura/
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Goverp · Advocate Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 2257

For complex stuff I use Acrobat Reader DC under wine. For a long time I persisted with okular, but I've recently been using tesseract to convert scanned pages to PDF books; okular messes up the location of two-column text. Also, I've an old car manual that's got some weird hierarchical set of PDF chapters, and an index. Okular can only handle the individual chapters, which makes searching hell. The Adobe product works pretty well under wine - see the winehq application entry for the gory details to get it working.
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Zucca · Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2020 8:47 am Post subject:

Naib · Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2020 9:01 am Post subject:

if it is just to quickly view papers or datasheets then firefox/chrome built-in viewer.

For some more involved activities (either forms or quirky datasheets...) Master PDF Editor works quite well and its in portage
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erm67 · l33t Joined: 01 Nov 2005 Posts: 653 Location: EU

Zucca · Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2020 11:10 am Post subject:

@erm67: Ok, I need to use jpeg then. :(

Png would just be optimal for 2-bit or 1-bit scanned papers.
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erm67 · l33t Joined: 01 Nov 2005 Posts: 653 Location: EU

alamahant · Advocate Joined: 23 Mar 2019 Posts: 3961

I have used both LibreofficeDraw and app-text/master-pdf-editor
The second has a lot of functionality and it is easy to install.