On the subject of viewing pdf files in Linux

I use Ghostview, xpdf, GSview (which all use ghostscript), ghostscript standalone, and Acrobat Reader (under WINE)

They all have their advantages and shortcomings.

Hi Jan,

For me it was about 2 times as fast, but the quality was lower (no anti-aliasing). This was on Debian sid. Still useful to know for those huge scanned index-less Tek manuals.

And there are some pdf files that xpdf fails to render.

Cheers

Ian

Does xpdf have a browser plugin like Adobe, or is it strictly stand-alone?

I use Evince, 'cause that comes with Ubuntu by default and I'm lazy, but it'd be nice ('cause I'm lazy) to have a plugin, and the Adobe plugin never seems to work with Firefox under Ubuntu.

On a sunny day (Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:48:55 -0600) it happened Tim Wescott wrote in :

I do not think so, but it is easy to get files like this: wget --user-agent mozilla

Never heard of it.

en

g,

e?

.4082v1.pdf

comment here:

..

Evince comes with Suse. It is listed as a gnome program, though I guess it is the default for KDE as well.

xpdf is stand alone, although of course your browser can be configured to launch it automatically on demand as a separate program (I prefer this anyway). It's a bit primitive with respect to its UI, but I actually prefer it to the more modern looking versions like Evince, Okular etc. (I think many of them share the same backend).

The cut and paste tool works surprisingly well for extracting text.

Another find is Inkscape for PDF graphical editing / file conversion.

I had to install Acrobat Reader on a windows machine the other day. I see you are now forced to use the "adobe downloader manager" which infests your browser and system tray, so it can install whatever crapware it feels like. Going back to my Debian machine was such a breath of fresh air.

Tim Wescott Inscribed thus:

I never open PDF's in a browser. I always download them to a directory and open them there. Apart from the time saving you can't get bitten by the embedded stuff that way.

Okular is what I use in KDE. In Gnome too, since Evince doesn't seem to have bookmarks. Or keyboard shortcuts for switching zoom between full page/fit width.

But renders some docs like s*it.

Also not even find...

On a sunny day (Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:37:33 +0200) it happened Anssi Saari wrote in :

So far xpdf worked 100% for me, while adobe complained about missing fonts.

But pans very nice and fast in x and y direction with left mouse down on big diagrams.

xpdf,

panning,

How do you get Acrobat running in wine? Versions?

JosephKK Inscribed thus:

Acrobat Reader has a Linux native version.

AFAIK, only Version 4, and it wasn't very good.

I used it for a number of years, then one day, it started crashing on files with more than one page, probably due to a library update here. so I dumped it and tried Version 4 for Windows under wine, That worked so I tried Version 5.0. That worked better than the original linux version.

I won't use anything later because of all the call-home crap it seems to want to do.

I think I already wrote about this, in ABSE, in October.

Acrobat reader is version 5.0

Wine version is 0.9.10, compiled from source on this machine.

Acrobat installation file put in ~/.wine/drive_c/Installation_Files

I just happened to have that directory. You can use anywhere you like.

In an xterm:

wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Installation_Files/Adobe\ Acrobat.exe

Note the backslash escape on the space in the filename.

Acrobat does its normal installation procedure. Depending on which window manager you use, it may even put an entry in your startup menu, but that will need manually editing to escape filename spaces and Windows backslashes, like:

Exec=wine "C:\\\Program\ Files\\\Adobe\\\Acrobat\5.0\\\Reader\\\AcroRd32.exe"

That works in an (old) gnome window manager.

The only problem that I have encountered is that, if you have multiple .pdfs open, you have to close them individually, or Acrobat won't shut down.

You can get Version 5 (I think) from

Hi Fred, Fred Abse Inscribed thus:

Mine is 8.1.7

??? ! This ain't windows.

I know i have that. I asked the question i asked.

So where do i get these versions currently?

window

Files\\\Adobe\\\Acrobat\5.0\\\Reader\\\AcroRd32.exe"=20

Thanks for the site. I am trying 7.09 in wine.