pdf-tui

pdf-tui is a terminal PDF reader built with rataui.

pdf-tui_demo.mp4

Runtime dependencies:

• poppler for pdfinfo, pdftotext, and the optional Poppler raster backend
• pdfium for the default PDF raster backend
• mupdf for the optional mutool raster backend
• chafa for terminal symbol rendering fallbacks
• exiftool for editing PDF metadata
• pdftk for reading and editing PDF bookmarks. Homebrew provides this command through the pdftk-java formula.
• optional wl-copy, xclip, or xsel on Linux for copying selected text or PNGs

Manual dependency install examples:

sudo pacman -S poppler chafa perl-image-exiftool pdftk mupdf-tools
yay -S pdfium-binaries-bin
brew install poppler chafa exiftool pdftk-java mupdf

The Homebrew formula bundles a compatible Pdfium dynamic library and launches pdf-tui with PDF_TUI_PDFIUM_LIBRARY_PATH set, so the default Pdfium backend works without editing the config. When running from source on macOS, provide a compatible libpdfium.dylib with PDF_TUI_PDFIUM_LIBRARY_PATH or render.pdfium_library_path.

Installation

Arch Linux AUR:

yay -S pdf-tui-bin

Alternative AUR packages:

yay -S pdf-tui      # build the latest stable release from source
yay -S pdf-tui-git  # build the latest git version from source

Homebrew:

brew install WindustH/tap/pdf-tui

The Homebrew stable formula downloads a prebuilt release binary. To build the latest git version from source:

brew install --HEAD WindustH/tap/pdf-tui

Usage

pdf-tui /path/to/file.pdf
pdf-tui --progress 0.0 /path/to/file.pdf
pdf-tui /path/to/file.pdf scroll 1 3
pdf-tui /path/to/file.pdf scroll 2 3
pdf-tui /path/to/file.pdf grid 2 3

Runtime commands are available with ::

layout scroll <columns> <scroll_divisor>
layout grid <rows> <columns>
refresh
metadata
bookmarks
search
selection
help
clear-cache
quit

Documentation

doc/index.md.