3 page view

[noreste]

2 page view in Sumatra is nice, but time has gone and monitors are wider. How do You think, is it possible to add 3 page view where one can see 3 pages in row? In Libreoffice during text editing it is possible (there is not actually 3 page view but on 2 page view if 3 (or more) pages will fit on current zoom to main window it will show pages so -- very good overview on text!

[tririver]

I strongly hope this can be done! The only pdf viewer that can do it is Okular (but usually used on Linux), as far as I know.

[mortenfyhn]

I too would like this! I used Okular for a while, and really got used to having the option. In addition to a three page view mode in the view menu (with a shortcut), what about an arbitrary page matrix mode, so you can have any number of pages side by side and on top of each other? I'm thinking something similar to how you create a table in common word processors, where you just drag out your desired size:

[GitHubRulesOK]

Additional to above requests for multiple pages 3,4,6,8,9 etc etc there will be a need to link to mouse scroll or other navigation (touch ?) see request at #1171

[guzey]

Any updates on this feature? Monitors keep getting bigger but we still only have 2 pages side by side...

[abg88]

I would like to have the same feature. For now, I've been using Foxit's View Page Thumbnails so I can read up to 6 pages on my monitor, but it's not perfect since it's not full screen. This is a must have feature for Sumatra.

[abg88]

Wrapped Scrolling option in Mozilla Firefox's built-in PDF viewer does exactly what we need Sumatra to do.

[GitHubRulesOK]

It only takes a few seconds to 9-Up with an addin so the pdf renews as 3 pages wide, (or 4,6 & 8) however I am failing to see any benefit since I still need to zoom in one page line at a time to read them without distraction.

[abg88]

It only takes a few seconds to 9-Up with an addin so the pdf renews as 3 pages wide, (or 4,6 & 8) however I am failing to see any benefit since I still need to zoom in one page line at a time to read them without distraction.

Interesting, but how is it installed or used?

[GitHubRulesOK]

Addins are not yet bundled together with SumatraPDF-Plus they are personal scripts I use with the daily portable build. They need to have a setting to their root folder %addins%=SumatraPDF\addins\ as explained in some scripts such as RotatePDF. They often depend on small SumatraPDF\Utils\name...exe files to do the editorial donkey work which is above and beyond a readers functions, so N-Up uses nup_pdf.exe & 1 support file, the download link should be within the text.

[GitHubRulesOK]

@abg88 for your testing
I uploaded a special 2 page version which should allow 4 pages wide in facing / book mode

You will need a copy of cpdf.exe (there is a link in the above source N-Up-PDF folder) and in
Advanced settings use

ExternalViewers [
	[
		CommandLine = c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /d /c ""%addins%\N-Up-PDF\2-Up-PDF.cmd" "%1" "
		Name = Convert pdf to 2-Up &# pages rotate and view
		Filter = *.pdf
	]
]

the %addins%\ setting can be edited to suit your choice of folders but you will also need to edit the relevant paths in 2--Up-PDF.cmd aswell to where it will find the other files including the cpdf.exe and sumatrapdf.exe.

[tririver]

I am failing to see any benefit

It really benefit some users like me. Now I am using Firefox as my default PDF reader, and the only reason is that I can view 3 pages (and sometimes 4 for PDF with large font) on one screen. On a 30+ inch screen, 3 or 4 pages can be displayed clearly without the need of zooming in.

I am a researcher in physics. Everyday I read papers with lots of equations. These equations are usually in different pages, and not as easy to remember as plain text. It's very important if I can read back-and-forth quickly between these equations. Also, it allows me to better get the global structure of the paper if I can view many pages together.

Also, another use case is that there are some PDF seminar (or lecture) slides with large fonts, or PDF files made to view on phone screens. One can display 4 or 5 pages in a row and still read them easily.

Interface-wise, the Firefox PDF reader (and also MS Word when reading word documents) is also setting a good example, that we don't have to select 3, 4, or 5 pages together on one screen. Rather, depending on the zoom level, the reader automatically put the maximal number of pages in a row. It would be really wonderful to have this in SumatraPDF.

[abg88]

@abg88 for your testing
I uploaded a special 2 page version which should allow 4 pages wide in facing / book mode

I wasn't able to make it work.
I put the 2-Up file on Sumatra/addins, cpdf.exe on Sumatra/utils and edited SumatraPDF-settings.
When I click on File > "Open In Convert...", nothing happens. Maybe there's something missing.

[GitHubRulesOK]

@abg88
When you run a CMD.EXE you should see the annoying black screen flash up, that proves SumatraPDF is running the first half, then the CMD.EXE calls the 2-up-pdf.cmd if that is working the black should turn to a yellow, and if that then is correct it calls cpdf.exe so there will be a while for it to process with messages. No message from cpdf about not for commercial use means the 2-Up-PDF is not well placed otherwise it should show error messages of its own.

The %addins% method is a personal workaround to ensure portability and needs that defined before SumatraPDF is started. so it is possible that is not defined well, thus you see black but no yellow. The easier way is to hard code the addins directory in the settings file

CommandLine = c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /d /c ""c:\wherever you like it\addins\N-Up-PDF\2-Up-PDF.cmd" "%1" "

[GitHubRulesOK]

@abg88
I just noticed the simple way to test 2-up-pdf without SumatraPDF active is drop a pdf on it.
That should first check most of its own expectations are met and at the end it will use SumatraPDF to open the result.
Here is where again %addins% can if not set result in SumatraPDF not seeing the result

echo: & start "" "%addins%\..\SumatraPDF.exe" -reuse-instance -view facing "%~dpn1-2-Up.pdf"

would need to be changed to the full directory

echo: & start "" "c:\your path to\SumatraPDF\SumatraPDF.exe" -reuse-instance -view facing "%~dpn1-2-Up.pdf"

[abg88]

@abg88
I just noticed the simple way to test 2-up-pdf without SumatraPDF active is drop a pdf on it.

I'll give it a try later. I'm having serious difficulties to make it work. Do you have any tutorial - step by step?
For example, I have no idea if I dragged cpdf.exe to the proper folder (or even if I downloaded the right one), or if I need to change something in cmd file.
And do you have your addin to face 3 pages at a time?

You're being so helpful, but I'm just not getting it...

[GitHubRulesOK]

I am on forum making changes for international use as nup_pdf only accepts ansi filename/paths
I will also try to make it more robust both for your needs and improve the How to test documentation.

[GitHubRulesOK]

@abg88
I have updated the scripts a little and written a draft User Guide at https://github.com/GitHubRulesOK/MyNotes/blob/master/AppNotes/SumatraPDF/Addins/N-Up-PDF/N-Up-PDF.pdf please be highly critical where it is unclear as I need to understand how users may encounter problems.

[LeDieuJojo]

Thx a lot for this little addon, I tried and it works really nice. But I search a bit to add some possibilities, I want to have 3,6 or 12 pages in one... is it possible to add this in the code or something ?

[GitHubRulesOK]

@LeDieuJojo
there were different versions for different tasks, 3x3 9 up via qpdf is mentioned in the guide (thus perhaps 3x1/2/3/4 but not looked at that in a long time (now v11?), there are better modern means to reorder pages etc. and I still see little personal need for rushing around big spread when using small focus, search text usually or open second window serves my needs by showing 2 or 3 windowed pages.

[GitHubRulesOK]

@LeDieuJojo
see https://pdfcpu.io/generate/grid#examples:~:text=pdfcpu%20grid%20%2D%2D%20%22o%3Ard%22%20out.pdf%203%202%20in.pdf

[abg88]

So... any chance of this request becoming a feature? It's been almost 9 years now...