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Xpdfreader Is An Open Source PDF Reader For Windows and Linux

If you ask me what the best free PDF reader is, my answer will always be SumatraPDF. Though I used Microsoft Edge (the original one) for PDFs occasionally, I never did shift to it completely.

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148 views

Xpdfreader Is An Open Source PDF Reader For Windows and Linux

If you ask me what the best free PDF reader is, my answer will always be SumatraPDF. Though I used Microsoft Edge (the original one) for PDFs occasionally, I never did shift to it completely.

Uploaded by

xibula
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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18/04/2020 XpdfReader is an open source PDF reader for Windows and Linux - gHacks Tech News

XpdfReader is an open source PDF


reader for Windows and Linux
by Ashwin on April 17, 2020 in Software - 9 comments

If you ask me what the best free PDF reader is, my answer will always be SumatraPDF. Though I
used Microsoft Edge (the original one) for PDFs occasionally, I never did shift to it completely.

But it's always nice to have an alternative. Most PDF readers come with a "freemium" tag, which
can be annoying. Xpdfreader is an exception to this. It is an open source PDF reader that's
available for Windows and Linux.

Use the File menu to open a new PDF, reload the current one or to print the document. The top
left panel in XpdReader's interface is the tabs panel, click on the "+ tab" button to open a new file.
Switch between any open documents with a single click. Or, you may open multiple instances of
the program by using the "Open in New Window" option. The Window menu can be used to
manage open windows and tabs, for e.g. if you want to close one. The other panel on the left is for
viewing layered content, bookmarks, in your PDFs.

If you find the sidebar distracting, you can toggle it by clicking on the first icon on the toolbar. This
is also possible from the View menu. The menu also contains options to enable/disable the toolbar
and page labels. You can rotate the page clockwise or counterclockwise or switch to the full
screen mode from the view menu.

The Display sub-menu in XpdfReader can be used to switch to Single Page, Continuous, Side-by-
side Single, Side-by-side Continuous and Horizontal Continuous view modes. These are useful if
you want to read a PDF like a book, or a single page document.

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Note: The view mode won't be of much use if you zoom in too much.

Click on the round button in the toolbar to view the error window, it logs messages like incorrect
password. The cursor icon is used to switch to the selection mode. When in this mode, draw a box
to select an area. Now, click on View > "Zoom to selection" to see the content in a magnified view.
Clicking the icon again reverts to the cursor mode, which is useful for selecting text (for copying to
other programs).

You can navigate pages in XpdfReader using the page number box, input a page number and hit
enter to jump to the page. Or use the arrow buttons next to the box to turn pages manually. The
next set of buttons are the zoom tools, personally I liked the Zoom menu better. The fit page
options let you fit the page to the window, or the page's width. This can be useful, depending on
the content of the book.

Now one of the things that's considered a primary feature in PDF readers is the pan tool. Normally
this is accessible from the toolbar, or left-click or right-click + drag to pan. Xpdfreader does have a
pan tool, but to use this, you'll need to hold the middle mouse button. That's not exactly what I'd
call convenient.

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XpdfReader comes with an optional set of utilities called Xpdftools. These are command line tools
which come in a portable archive. You can use them to convert the PDF file to text, extract
images, etc. Refer to the xpdfrc.txt (inside the tools archive) for more information regarding how to
use the tools.

The program is based on XpdfWidget which was created by the same developer. You can find the
source code on the download page.

XpdfReader is a Qt5 application. The program isn't portable. It's a light-weight and speedy PDF
reader, though as a SumatraPDF user, I'd prefer the latter.

Summary

Author Rating

1 based on 1 votes

Software Name

XpdfReader

Operating System

Windows, Linux

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18/04/2020 XpdfReader is an open source PDF reader for Windows and Linux - gHacks Tech News

Software Category

Multimedia

Price

Free

Landing Page

https://www.xpdfreader.com/download.htm
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ABOUT ASHWIN

Ashwin has been blogging since 2012 and is known among his friends as the go to tech geek. He
is a self-proclaimed Android expert, a PS4 and PC Gamer, a Firefox fanboy, a Nintendo
aficionado, and an iOS tinkerer

View all posts by Ashwin →

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