In this article, we examine over 20 PDF editors and viewing applications from Evince to Okular that you can use on Pardus!
PDF is the universal portable file format. Apart from text and images, it also offers annotation and form support.
PDF files also support digital signature and password protection. It was developed by Adobe company and joined the open ISO standards in 2008. The latest version was published in 2020.
In the Linux environment, there are proprietary or free tools that you can use to open and view PDF files or annotate in various ways, or for various other operations. Pardus repositories contain various tools such as Evince, Okular, Master PDF Editor 5, PDFsam Basic, Gscan2pdf, PDF Arranger. There are also various tools that we can access on Flathub.
In this article, I tried all of them one by one and tried to come up with a result. I hope you will be satisfied.
Evince
It is the default document viewer of the GNOME desktop environment. It can open encrypted and unencrypted PDF documents, and let you add highlights and notes. You can change the orientation of the files or view them in presentation mode.
Supports PDF as well as PostScript (.ps), Multi-Page Tiff, DVI, DjVu (.djvu, djv), Comic Book Archive (.cbr and .cbz), Open XML Paper Specification (.oxps, .xps) formats . via Flathub possible to obtain.
Okular
It is the default document viewer of the KDE desktop environment. It allows you to open password-protected documents and add highlights and notes. It is much more advanced than the Evince app when it comes to adding notes. You can change the orientation of the files or view them in presentation mode.
Wide variety of formats such as PostScript, Tiff, CHM, DjVu supports. Among them is the EPUB format. via Flathub possible to obtain.
Master PDF Editor 5
It is a commercial application, some features To use it, you need to purchase the commercial version. You can open encrypted and unencrypted documents, add highlights and notes, and remove added notes and highlights. You can add or delete new PDF pages.
You can add passwords, remove added passwords or add watermarks to PDF documents. If you don't have the commercial version, the unregistered copy also adds the watermark. via Flathub possible to obtain.
Master PDF Editor 4
Be a commercial software It is the old generation of Master PDF Editor application, the latest version was released in 2018. In my own tests, I think that it is insufficient in terms of compatibility with different applications because it ignores the grading added with Evince or Okular.
PDFsam Basic
It is an open source software and written in Java language. Key features Combine, split, and convert selected pages into new PDF documents. Features such as page deletion, cropping the selected area are offered with a premium license.
gscan2pdf
It is an open source application. Allows scanning pages from the scanner and saving them in PDF, DjVu or Multi-Tiff formats. It is also possible to produce a PDF document by combining images. Its interface is not very complex and generally translated.
PDF Arranger
open source code It is an application written using Python language, pikepdf library and GTK interface. You can duplicate, delete, reorient or order pages from PDF documents, and even crop pages.
Unfortunately, PDF Arranger cannot open and edit password protected PDF files. via Flathub possible to obtain.
Body
open source code It is an application written using Python language, PyQT interface and PyPDF2 library. It is used to select and crop spaces outside of PDF documents. It cannot open encrypted PDF documents. via Flathub possible to obtain.
Flatpak Supported PDF Applications Not Available in Pardus Repositories
PDF Mix Tool
open source code It is an application that can merge PDF files, convert selected pages to new document, delete pages and convert them as booklets. via Flathub possible to obtain.
PDF Tricks
open source code is an application that can compress PDF files, split selected pages as new documents, merge them or convert them to JPF, PNG or text formats. via Flathub possible to obtain.
PDF Slicer
open source code is an application that can parse, merge, rotate or reorder PDFs as new documents. via Flathub possible to obtain.
PDF Stitcher
open source code It is an application that can parse PDF files as new documents, save multiple pages as a single page, and change the orientation of the pages. via Flathub possible to obtain.
Pdfjumps
open source code It is an application written using the Java language. It can merge PDFs, delete pages, rearrange the page order or change the orientation of the pages. via Flathub possible to obtain.
CorePDF
open source code and focuses only on file viewing. via Flathub possible to obtain.
Other PDF software
PDF String
PDFtk is an interface for command line software. It is used to use the capabilities offered by PDFtk through the interface. Unfortunately, the development of both PDF Chain and PDFtk software has been at a standstill for a long time. via Flathub It can be established.
Scans to PDF
open source code is an application that, according to the introductory text on the application's site, “Creates small, searchable PDFs from scanned documents. It splits images into duotone foreground images (text) and colored background images, and then compresses them separately. It adds an invisible layer of OCR text that makes the PDF searchable”. Sorry, its usage is confusing. Additionally, I was unable to search the converted text. via Flathub It can be established.
PDFedit
Although open source on Flathub It is an application that you can come across, which is no longer in development. You should stay away.
jPDF Tweak
Although open source on Flathub It is an application that you can come across, which is no longer in development. You should stay away.
Sioyek
open source code It is a hard-to-use viewing application. via Flathub It can be established.
Other PDF Reading Apps
Lectern: It is the official file viewer application of the MATE desktop environment and is a fork of Evince.
xreader: Cinnamon desktop environment It is the official file viewer application.
Qpdfview: It is a lightweight PDF viewing software that uses the Qt interface.
PDF.js: It is PDF viewing software that comes with Mozilla Firefox. Moving the relevant file to a new tab in the browser is enough for it to open.
What I haven't tried
Adobe Acrobat Reader: Although there are various instructions for installing it under Wine, I couldn't find the opportunity to try it.
PDF.io: A service that offers online PDF services. There are other services that work similarly.
EPDFView: It is a discontinued document viewing software that uses the GTK2 interface.
SourcePDF: Its development does not continue.
OpenViewerFX: Its development does not continue.
Shelf (Maui App): It is a document viewer application and is a bit far from useful as it tries to scan and display all the PDFs in your home folder.
Command-line-heavy software
diffpdf, gv, img2pdf, cataract, mupdf, pdfcube, pdfmod, pdfposter, pdftk, qpdf, viewPDF, xpdf, zathura are the PDF software that I have tried and more that work from the command line. These softwares seem a bit more command line oriented.
Conclusion
It is not overlooked that the Okular software has more capabilities for grading than the Evince application. Additionally, the Okular app provides more information on which formats it supports.
A few tweaks are needed to make QT apps appear properly in the GTK environment. We provide the installation of the qt5ct application and the breeze theme, respectively, with the following commands.
sudo apt-get install qt5ct breeze
In the Home directory after installation .profile The following two lines need to be added to the hidden file.
QT_PLATFORM_PLUGIN="qt5ct" export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME="qt5ct"
Afterwards, restarting the session, starting the qt5ct application, setting the Breeze theme from the Appearance tab, setting the fonts to Noto Sans Regular 10 from the Fonts tab, selecting and applying the Breeze from the Icon Theme tab will make the Qt/KDE applications look more beautiful.
The result is definitely more heartwarming.
