3w ago

Why use a terminal pdf viewer?

I've been using Firefox to view PDFs and it works fine. Recently though I wanted to try something more minimal with vim keybindings. Found two options: Zathura and tdf (terminal pdf viewer).

What I'm curious about is why someone would choose a TUI pdf viewer over a regular one (like Zathura). What are the actual advantages people find in practice. tdf mentions being fast but I wonder if that's something you'd actually notice day to day?

Also I remember seeing screenshots where PDFs looked transparent or matched the terminal colors. Is that actually a feature of some of these viewers ? Maybe someone uses one here?

Tdf seems relatively popular with 1.4k github stars.

22 comments

Watch pdf files on remote server using ssh without gui
- But you need tdf installed on the server for that right?
  I realize I rarely have to do it so I tend to just download and open the pdf, or use X forwarding. Or while using emacs I just open the remote file (which basically downloads and opens I guess).

Unless you have already made a decision and feel strong about Zathura, I'd like to mention Sioyek. It’s definitely an underrated pick for terminal PDF readers. It works just as well as Zathura, and can even go wayyyy beyond it.
- Oh Sioyek looks interesting. Also the blog is great !
  
  Thanks! I think Sioyek is really overlooked.
  
  Sioyek really is amazing, especially for academic-style reading with a lot of jumping back and forth, and very customizable. I also heartily recommend it, but do be aware that there are some rough edges remaining.
  If you ever get stuck, there are a lot of additional tricks and workarounds for some of the quirks hidden in the project’s github issues. And if there’s a feature you feel sorely missing check out the main branch version instead of the latest official point release which is a couple years behind now (e.g. still missing integrated dual-page view which the development version has for close to 2 years now)

TIL about tdf. Thanks! it really does seem fast.
- ... zathura seems interesting, it has support for plugins for different document types, but it seemed to open a PDF in secondary window (albeit on a desktop), whereas tdf allowed me to access the PDF inline in ghostty, which was great.

If you're primary interface to your computer is a shell, then why not do this in a shell too? You likely already have your DE setup to handle shells. It fits within all your styling (no weridness between qt, gtk, etc).
A better question might be, why run it in a GUI? What are you actually gaining from doing that?

The only time I find myself in line with CLI purists is when I need to SSH into a machine without X forwarding. Had no idea that there were terminal PDF viewers, but now I know if I ever need to consult a document remotely.

Also I remember seeing screenshots where PDFs looked transparent or matched the terminal colors. Is that actually a feature of some of these viewers ?
Zathura lets you recolour and theme pdfs, yes. See zathurarc(5). You can set alpha using "rgba(r, g, b, a)" when setting a colour, e.g. set to 0.8 for 0.8 opacity.

i selfhost paperless ngx to access my pdfs and that is more than enough for what little i do with pdfs

What's wrong with "Evince"...? (that's the only one which comes to mind right now..)
- I personally want something more minimal.
- Gnome+isms, which why Atril. But both are slow with big PDF, have font-size issues with pdf forms (but to their defense; everything PDF aside basics is a mess) and are even slower with comicbook and barely usable for epub. In short, they are jack of all, ~~master of~~ good at none.

It's the same reason I like TUI utilities like tiv, the terminal image viewer.
Sometimes I don't want to have my workflow broken just to quickly check the contents or layout of what the file contains, I just need to glance at it and continue with what I'm doing.

Huh, I mostly use apvlv and mupdf. They are command line binaries but they have a gui; I don't really see a point in looking at a PDF with something other than a gui.

not sure if it applies but I use command line to shrink the size of pdfs by putting them to like e-reader standards.

Þe fewer GUI programs I have to use, þe better. Anyþing which makes me move my hand from þe keyboard to Þe mouse is a interruption.
Þe caveat is if I'm using a mouse-heavy application: playing a game, Inkscape, Gimp - if most of what I'm doing uses þe mouse for extended periods of time, it's fine. I just don't want to be constantly moving my hand back and forth.

22 comments