What PDF viewers are available for Ubuntu?
Every second e-mail I get suggests to download Adobe Acrobat reader, but adobe.com doesn’t provide a Linux version.
Which PDF Viewer are there available for Ubuntu?
I’m fine with partial solutions, a perfect match however would not only display PDF files, but also be able to:
- stageless zoom (not just predefined steps)
- open files in tabs
- display comments added with other PDF software
- add and save comments
- display forms filled in with other PDF software
- fill in and save PDF forms
- create and save bookmarks
- have a presentation mode
Lightweight
-
evince - the default document viewer on Gnome/Ubuntu, with support for PDF, PostScript, and a few other formats. Can fill forms, highlight text, and annotate. Normal text selection. Remembers window size and document zoom. Dark mode. [install]
-
qpdfview
(see answer) - tabbed interface, can fill forms, remembers window size and document zoom. Block selection by holding Shift. [install] -
MuPDF - extremely fast and minimalistic. Block selection by dragging with the right mouse button, search with /. Can't annotate, fill forms, sign, or anything else. Doesn't remember the zoom factor, or the window size/position. [install]
-
Zathura - extremely fast and minimalistic (uses the MuPDF ending via a plugin system). Keyboard-navigation, bookmarks, auto-reload on changes. Block selection by dragging with the left mouse button. No form filling or other features. Doesn't remember the zoom factor, or the window size/position. [install]
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xpdf - "Xpdf is a small and efficient program which uses standard X fonts". Lightweight, but with outdated interface. [install]
-
gv - an old lightweight pdf viewer with an old interface. Size of the package is only 580k. gv is an X front-end for the Ghostscript PostScript(TM) interpreter. [install]
Full-featured
-
okular - Multi-format document viewer (PDF, CHM, ePub, others). Requires many KDE prerequisites. Can easily copy text and images. May be slow and have issues with printing. [install]
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Browsers like Firefox and Chromium derivatives also have great support for PDF viewing and form filling, but no support for annotations or signatures.
Non-FOSS
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Foxit Reader - View, create, convert, annotate, print, collaborate, share, fill forms and sign.
-
PDF Studio Viewer - free version can annotate, fill&save forms. Paid versions can sign, OCR, split/merge/insert/remove/rotate pages, add watermarks/header/footer/bookmarks, edit, redact, compare, optimize, batch process etc.
-
Master PDF Editor - View, create, modify, fill forms, sign, scan, OCR, annotate, split/insert/remove/rotate pages, add bookmarks. Free version allows editing text and objects, annotating, and filling forms.
Unsupported/outdated
- kpdf - Extremely outdated (2008) PDF viewer based on xpdf, for KDE 3. [install]
- acroread - Adobe Acrobat Reader, no longer supported for Linux by Adobe, seems to be no longer supported by Ubuntu.
In my opinion, qpdfview
is the best PDF viewer for Ubuntu. Some of its attractive features are:
- Fast opening of PDF files.
- Great rendering of graphics.
- Low memory consumption.
- Tab browsing.
- Annotations.
- Support RTL (Right-to-Left) language with dual page view.
qpdfview
can be installed from the official repositories with the command
sudo apt install qpdfview
It is also available via a Launchpad ppa.