9 ms·

My New Favorite Tool for Reviewing PDFs: Okular

172 points by jrepinc 8y ago

tonydiep 8y ago
I just evaluated Evince, Okular, Foxit, and Acrobat for annotating PDFs. My particular use case is to annotate emails, spreadsheet, etc., and merge them as exhibits into a legal brief. After annotation, the other programs can export the original or it export the annotation layers but it could not give you a PDF with both the original and the annotations merged into one layer. This was a deal breaker. With Okular you can print the PDF with the annotations as a new PDF to make sure your annotations are always visible. With the other programs the annotations are on separate layers which can get hidden on purpose or by mistake. I found no other free program that could flatten the layers. Okular deserves to be better known.
- facto_fermented 8y ago
  Have you found any software for exporting annotations (especially highlighted text)? Ideally, I would want to highlight text, select graphics, and have the software let me export those to PDF or doc/odf. My use case is reviewing academic papers. I looked into Xodo and Foxit, but they don't offer what I need.
  - briancleland 8y ago
    Have you tried Zotero with the Zotfile extension?
- crazygringo 8y ago
  In theory, shouldn't every PDF viewer support printing... and both macOS and Windows 10 support printing to PDF... which flattens the layers? Just tried it with macOS Preview and totally flattens it, the annotations pane lists nothing, I can't select/move annotations... they're permanent. However, also just tried with Acrobat Reader on macOS, and infuriatingly after selecting the system's "Print to PDF" Acrobat pops up an error saying it doesn't support print to PDF. WTF. Why would they intentionally go out of their way to disable that?
  - mwcremer 8y ago
    Because they sell PDF creation tools: https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/acrobat.html?promoid=C12Y324S https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/acrobat.html?promoid=C12Y324...
  - JadeNB 8y ago
    > Why would they intentionally go out of their way to disable that? I hope that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80486SX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80486SX is a not-excessively-snarky reply by appeal to history.
  - js2 8y ago
    Try CUPS-PDF. I don't know if it still works but I've used it in the past to save PDFs from programs that stubbornly refused to allow it. https://www.cups-pdf.de/ https://www.cups-pdf.de/
- ubercow13 8y ago
  I just tried in Evince and you can print an annotated document to flatten it just fine.
  - tonydiep 8y ago
    Can you show me how? I'm using Document Viewer aka Evince 3.28.2 on CentOS Linux release 7.6.1810 (Core) and I don't see an option to print the PDF with annotations.
    - ubercow13 8y ago
      It's just the normal print option. Fill out the form, Save As with the form filled out (not sure if this is necessary), print in the main menu
- jcelerier 8y ago
  > Okular deserves to be better known. s/Okular/most KDE software/
- senorsmile 8y ago
  xournal does this.
GGfpc 8y ago
I really enjoy Okular, it's fast, looks good and has smooth-scrolling (looking at you Foxit). However, I have been forced to use Foxit when dealing with annotations, because a lot of times Okular simply cannot display them if they were created in other programs.
nilsocket 8y ago
I used to use Okular before. Even now when ever I try to use it, it is slow, and e eating up a lot of ram, scrolling doesn't look smooth enough. Whenever loading a new page, load time is clearly visible it used to work fine back in 2017. My main desktop environment is KDE Plasma but I use evince for now while reading.
burtonator 8y ago
Okular is actually the reason I created Polar: https://getpolarized.io/ https://getpolarized.io/ Well, one of the reasons. First, if you like Okular, you're stuck if you want to run on any other platform. It doesn't work on mobile, it doesn't work on the web, doesn't work on Linux, MacOS or Windows [1] Additionally, there were pretty severe bugs when I used it and there were 1-2 long outstanding bugs regarding annotations that weren't fixed for nearly a decade. The main issue with PDF annotations also applies. If you use PDF annotations it means mutating the PDF which has all sorts of problems. I've had issues where you're working on Okular or Preview or Acrobat and then try to use another app and your annotations simply don't work or the PDF is corrupted in some weird way. Having an immutable PDF solves that problem which is the avenue I went with in Polar. Polar supports Web + Linux + Windows + MacOS. It also supports annotation without mutating the PDF and it's VERY hackable since it's just based on Typescript - which is one of the features I wanted. We're very close from having mobile too and just need to clean up some CSS. Anyway.. would LOVE your feedback if you play with Polar and find it doesn't perfectly nail your use case. I'm actively developing it now and I'm pushing 1-2 releases per week. 1. My understanding is that while it DOES work on these platforms - it doesn't work WELL on them. Last time I checked there was no download for Windows or MacOS and you had to install the full KDE for these platforms.
- Decabytes 8y ago
  I thought Okular was the default pdf viewer for Gnu/Linux systems with the K desktop environment?
  - mr337 8y ago
    Yeah I am super confused about that. I have been using okular for years and works on every common distro that I know of if you have KDE desktop or don't mind pulling in KDE deps.
- ognarb 8y ago
  Okular has a WIP mobile version for Android and Plasma mobile (with less features). The android build is broken because there isn't any icon, but running okularkirigami from the command line look great. Also from reading the polar website, it looks like polar is more a document manager than just a document viewer.
Cactus2018 8y ago
My favorite tool for extracting data from PDFs: Tabula https://github.com/tabulapdf/tabula https://github.com/tabulapdf/tabula
prolepunk 8y ago
When I'm on windows I'm always puzzled about how Adobe Reader is slow and has tons of features I will never going to use. Just let me get to duplex printing dialog, adobe!!! I mostly use Okular for navigation and printing, but it also has a great feature of letting you select area of the document and either copy selected text or image into a buffer. This doesn't sound like a lot, but it makes working with pdf documents really comfortable.
drenvuk 8y ago
Okular is also wonderful for epubs if you documents ever move to that format.
- MegaDeKay 8y ago
  Okular is great for epubs in that it can show them as a single document whereas most programs break them in to chapters that can't be searched across. However, it can also be terribly slow on some epub files even on a fast PC [0]. It also has problems rendering some files that other readers like epubreader have no problem with. [0] https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=359932 https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=359932
redman25 8y ago
I work in publishing and we use PDFs extensively for proofing manuscripts. If you ever need to compare across PDFs, I created a small tool for it: https://www.parepdf.com/ https://www.parepdf.com/
- dfc 8y ago
  I really like diffpdf: http://www.qtrac.eu/diffpdf.html http://www.qtrac.eu/diffpdf.html
pmoriarty 8y ago
How does okular compare to zathura (which can use mupdf or poppler as its pdf backend)?
- MegaDeKay 8y ago
  Okular is to Zathura as Acrobat Reader is to Vim. :-)
johnchristopher 8y ago
Okular is the only PDF reader that could handle PDF on my previous slow computer. Windows was a breeze but I always had problems with PDF on linux before I could settle for okular. It bugs me that it's easier to select text with the underlining tool than with the select tool.
- blattimwind 8y ago
  PDFs are kinda weird because there are somehow always PDFs that slow one viewer down but usually another viewer is fine. E.g. I have PDFs where Okular takes a couple seconds to render the first page, while LLPP renders it much faster. And vice versa -- which is the confusing part.
northernjames 8y ago
For PDF annotating/collaboration, Xodo for the web deserves to be better known: https://www.xodo.com/app/#/ https://www.xodo.com/app/#/ It displays/creates standard PDF annotations. You can collaborate with people online if you want, or annotate files on your computer without uploading them to a server (it uses emscripten/wasm/pnacl client side).
sevensor 8y ago
I discovered Okular late in my dissertation-writing. I was pretty thrilled to discover that it could display annotations made with Acrobat. This was my advisor's preferred way of interacting, since I was somehow not able to interest him in learning git or LaTeX. At the time it was far better than evince. I've also found that it does a better job with big complicated pdfs produced by graphviz.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
> You have so many rounds of back and forth on collateral that it’s clear you don’t have strategic alignment and it’s spilling over into stifling execution. What does this sentence even mean? Could someone ELI5 it to me?
- conroydave 8y ago
  you're changing the content so much that its clear the group doesn't have agreement on what should be created, so much that it's now spilling over to getting stuff out the door
- maggotbrain 8y ago
  I had the same reaction. I started pulling my hair out at: "There are also tons inefficient ways"...
maggotbrain 8y ago
This is a terribly written article. Needs some serious editing. "You have so many rounds of back and forth on collateral that it’s clear you don’t have strategic alignment and it’s spilling over into stifling execution. Hate to say it, but the tools aren’t the problem here." What does this even mean???
ausjke 8y ago
I use okular on gnome when I absolutely need to annotate the PDF, I could not find other alternatives. okular is heavy and slow but it gets the job done when it's needed. I hope calibre can support annotations one day for the file formats it supports. 99% of the time I use evince to read PDFs though.
emgee_1 8y ago
On Emacs use pdftools. Qed.
- michaelmrose 8y ago
  I love emacs but pdftools is kind of meh. You need it for pdf tools and a different addon to read epubs that works differently. Then it uses a lot of memory, scrolls a little slow, and doesn't remember your place in a document. Zathura remembers your place and reads epubs and pdfs while using less ram. Conversion between epubs and pdf seems to preserve the text but often results in ugly docs that are less pleasant to read so a good solution needs to support both. I would love someone to improve document reading to the point where I COULD use emacs for document reading.
bctnry 8y ago
Okular is awesome for reading .djvu file as well. Love it.
friednslip 8y ago
One tool that doesn't seem to get the attention it deserves is Marginnote. I spent a bit more money than I should have on it, but in terms of reading, annotating, and making notes from PDF's I don't think there's anything else even close. I particularly love the ability to create a mindmap, flashcards for spaced repetition, and native export to evernote. https://www.marginnote.com/ https://www.marginnote.com/
EvgeniyZh 8y ago
If only there was tool which would render my annotations in TeX, it'd make reading papers so simpler. Meanwhile, Okular
seltzered_ 8y ago
For those wanting to try okular on macos, it seems easier to setup via homebrew ( https://brew.sh https://brew.sh ). The steps are: $ brew tap kde-mac/kde $ brew install cpanminus (needed for KDE-mac/kde/kf5-kdoctools) $ cpanm URI $ brew install okular Then go make coffee while things compile. source: https://github.com/KDE-mac/homebrew-kde https://github.com/KDE-mac/homebrew-kde
fithisux 8y ago
Yes yes yes and I am very thankful to the KDE on Windows builds programs.

172 points by jrepinc 8y ago

I just evaluated Evince, Okular, Foxit, and Acrobat for annotating PDFs. My particular use case is to annotate emails, spreadsheet, etc., and merge them as exhibits into a legal brief. After annotation, the other programs can export the original or it export the annotation layers but it could not give you a PDF with both the original and the annotations merged into one layer. This was a deal breaker. With Okular you can print the PDF with the annotations as a new PDF to make sure your annotations are always visible. With the other programs the annotations are on separate layers which can get hidden on purpose or by mistake. I found no other free program that could flatten the layers. Okular deserves to be better known.

facto_fermented 8y ago
Have you found any software for exporting annotations (especially highlighted text)? Ideally, I would want to highlight text, select graphics, and have the software let me export those to PDF or doc/odf. My use case is reviewing academic papers. I looked into Xodo and Foxit, but they don't offer what I need.
- briancleland 8y ago
  Have you tried Zotero with the Zotfile extension?
crazygringo 8y ago
In theory, shouldn't every PDF viewer support printing... and both macOS and Windows 10 support printing to PDF... which flattens the layers? Just tried it with macOS Preview and totally flattens it, the annotations pane lists nothing, I can't select/move annotations... they're permanent. However, also just tried with Acrobat Reader on macOS, and infuriatingly after selecting the system's "Print to PDF" Acrobat pops up an error saying it doesn't support print to PDF. WTF. Why would they intentionally go out of their way to disable that?
- mwcremer 8y ago
  Because they sell PDF creation tools: https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/acrobat.html?promoid=C12Y324S https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/acrobat.html?promoid=C12Y324...
- JadeNB 8y ago
  > Why would they intentionally go out of their way to disable that? I hope that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80486SX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80486SX is a not-excessively-snarky reply by appeal to history.
- js2 8y ago
  Try CUPS-PDF. I don't know if it still works but I've used it in the past to save PDFs from programs that stubbornly refused to allow it. https://www.cups-pdf.de/ https://www.cups-pdf.de/
ubercow13 8y ago
I just tried in Evince and you can print an annotated document to flatten it just fine.
- tonydiep 8y ago
  Can you show me how? I'm using Document Viewer aka Evince 3.28.2 on CentOS Linux release 7.6.1810 (Core) and I don't see an option to print the PDF with annotations.
  - ubercow13 8y ago
    It's just the normal print option. Fill out the form, Save As with the form filled out (not sure if this is necessary), print in the main menu
jcelerier 8y ago
> Okular deserves to be better known. s/Okular/most KDE software/
senorsmile 8y ago
xournal does this.

GGfpc 8y ago

I really enjoy Okular, it's fast, looks good and has smooth-scrolling (looking at you Foxit). However, I have been forced to use Foxit when dealing with annotations, because a lot of times Okular simply cannot display them if they were created in other programs.

nilsocket 8y ago

I used to use Okular before. Even now when ever I try to use it, it is slow, and e eating up a lot of ram, scrolling doesn't look smooth enough. Whenever loading a new page, load time is clearly visible it used to work fine back in 2017. My main desktop environment is KDE Plasma but I use evince for now while reading.

burtonator 8y ago

Okular is actually the reason I created Polar: https://getpolarized.io/ https://getpolarized.io/ Well, one of the reasons. First, if you like Okular, you're stuck if you want to run on any other platform. It doesn't work on mobile, it doesn't work on the web, doesn't work on Linux, MacOS or Windows [1] Additionally, there were pretty severe bugs when I used it and there were 1-2 long outstanding bugs regarding annotations that weren't fixed for nearly a decade. The main issue with PDF annotations also applies. If you use PDF annotations it means mutating the PDF which has all sorts of problems. I've had issues where you're working on Okular or Preview or Acrobat and then try to use another app and your annotations simply don't work or the PDF is corrupted in some weird way. Having an immutable PDF solves that problem which is the avenue I went with in Polar. Polar supports Web + Linux + Windows + MacOS. It also supports annotation without mutating the PDF and it's VERY hackable since it's just based on Typescript - which is one of the features I wanted. We're very close from having mobile too and just need to clean up some CSS. Anyway.. would LOVE your feedback if you play with Polar and find it doesn't perfectly nail your use case. I'm actively developing it now and I'm pushing 1-2 releases per week. 1. My understanding is that while it DOES work on these platforms - it doesn't work WELL on them. Last time I checked there was no download for Windows or MacOS and you had to install the full KDE for these platforms.

Decabytes 8y ago
I thought Okular was the default pdf viewer for Gnu/Linux systems with the K desktop environment?
- mr337 8y ago
  Yeah I am super confused about that. I have been using okular for years and works on every common distro that I know of if you have KDE desktop or don't mind pulling in KDE deps.
ognarb 8y ago
Okular has a WIP mobile version for Android and Plasma mobile (with less features). The android build is broken because there isn't any icon, but running okularkirigami from the command line look great. Also from reading the polar website, it looks like polar is more a document manager than just a document viewer.

Cactus2018 8y ago

My favorite tool for extracting data from PDFs: Tabula https://github.com/tabulapdf/tabula https://github.com/tabulapdf/tabula

prolepunk 8y ago

When I'm on windows I'm always puzzled about how Adobe Reader is slow and has tons of features I will never going to use. Just let me get to duplex printing dialog, adobe!!! I mostly use Okular for navigation and printing, but it also has a great feature of letting you select area of the document and either copy selected text or image into a buffer. This doesn't sound like a lot, but it makes working with pdf documents really comfortable.

drenvuk 8y ago

Okular is also wonderful for epubs if you documents ever move to that format.

MegaDeKay 8y ago
Okular is great for epubs in that it can show them as a single document whereas most programs break them in to chapters that can't be searched across. However, it can also be terribly slow on some epub files even on a fast PC [0]. It also has problems rendering some files that other readers like epubreader have no problem with. [0] https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=359932 https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=359932

redman25 8y ago

I work in publishing and we use PDFs extensively for proofing manuscripts. If you ever need to compare across PDFs, I created a small tool for it: https://www.parepdf.com/ https://www.parepdf.com/

dfc 8y ago
I really like diffpdf: http://www.qtrac.eu/diffpdf.html http://www.qtrac.eu/diffpdf.html

pmoriarty 8y ago

How does okular compare to zathura (which can use mupdf or poppler as its pdf backend)?

MegaDeKay 8y ago
Okular is to Zathura as Acrobat Reader is to Vim. :-)

johnchristopher 8y ago

Okular is the only PDF reader that could handle PDF on my previous slow computer. Windows was a breeze but I always had problems with PDF on linux before I could settle for okular. It bugs me that it's easier to select text with the underlining tool than with the select tool.

blattimwind 8y ago
PDFs are kinda weird because there are somehow always PDFs that slow one viewer down but usually another viewer is fine. E.g. I have PDFs where Okular takes a couple seconds to render the first page, while LLPP renders it much faster. And vice versa -- which is the confusing part.

northernjames 8y ago

For PDF annotating/collaboration, Xodo for the web deserves to be better known: https://www.xodo.com/app/#/ https://www.xodo.com/app/#/ It displays/creates standard PDF annotations. You can collaborate with people online if you want, or annotate files on your computer without uploading them to a server (it uses emscripten/wasm/pnacl client side).

sevensor 8y ago

I discovered Okular late in my dissertation-writing. I was pretty thrilled to discover that it could display annotations made with Acrobat. This was my advisor's preferred way of interacting, since I was somehow not able to interest him in learning git or LaTeX. At the time it was far better than evince. I've also found that it does a better job with big complicated pdfs produced by graphviz.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

> You have so many rounds of back and forth on collateral that it’s clear you don’t have strategic alignment and it’s spilling over into stifling execution. What does this sentence even mean? Could someone ELI5 it to me?

conroydave 8y ago
you're changing the content so much that its clear the group doesn't have agreement on what should be created, so much that it's now spilling over to getting stuff out the door
maggotbrain 8y ago
I had the same reaction. I started pulling my hair out at: "There are also tons inefficient ways"...

maggotbrain 8y ago

This is a terribly written article. Needs some serious editing. "You have so many rounds of back and forth on collateral that it’s clear you don’t have strategic alignment and it’s spilling over into stifling execution. Hate to say it, but the tools aren’t the problem here." What does this even mean???

ausjke 8y ago

I use okular on gnome when I absolutely need to annotate the PDF, I could not find other alternatives. okular is heavy and slow but it gets the job done when it's needed. I hope calibre can support annotations one day for the file formats it supports. 99% of the time I use evince to read PDFs though.

emgee_1 8y ago

On Emacs use pdftools. Qed.

michaelmrose 8y ago
I love emacs but pdftools is kind of meh. You need it for pdf tools and a different addon to read epubs that works differently. Then it uses a lot of memory, scrolls a little slow, and doesn't remember your place in a document. Zathura remembers your place and reads epubs and pdfs while using less ram. Conversion between epubs and pdf seems to preserve the text but often results in ugly docs that are less pleasant to read so a good solution needs to support both. I would love someone to improve document reading to the point where I COULD use emacs for document reading.

bctnry 8y ago

Okular is awesome for reading .djvu file as well. Love it.

friednslip 8y ago

One tool that doesn't seem to get the attention it deserves is Marginnote. I spent a bit more money than I should have on it, but in terms of reading, annotating, and making notes from PDF's I don't think there's anything else even close. I particularly love the ability to create a mindmap, flashcards for spaced repetition, and native export to evernote. https://www.marginnote.com/ https://www.marginnote.com/

EvgeniyZh 8y ago

If only there was tool which would render my annotations in TeX, it'd make reading papers so simpler. Meanwhile, Okular

seltzered_ 8y ago

For those wanting to try okular on macos, it seems easier to setup via homebrew ( https://brew.sh https://brew.sh ). The steps are: $ brew tap kde-mac/kde $ brew install cpanminus (needed for KDE-mac/kde/kf5-kdoctools) $ cpanm URI $ brew install okular Then go make coffee while things compile. source: https://github.com/KDE-mac/homebrew-kde https://github.com/KDE-mac/homebrew-kde

fithisux 8y ago

Yes yes yes and I am very thankful to the KDE on Windows builds programs.