16 ms·

SumatraPDF Reader

586 points by quyleanh 3y ago

sammy2255 3y ago
Love SumatraPdf, completely no-bs software unlike Adobe. If I ever need to sign a PDF Microsoft Edge works wonderfully
- Mengkudulangsat 3y ago
  I still need Adobe to sign and fill forms. Wish Sumatra can do those too :(
  - autoexec 3y ago
    I'm really glad that they don't. I'd much rather have a safer PDF viewer that only supports a limited subset of what adobe's shitware does to handle 99% of my PDF file needs so that I only need to risk opening Adobe software 1% of the time. That's so much better than turning Sumatra into the same bloated mess of risky features that is Adobe Acrobat.
  - nip 3y ago
    No need for Adobe: https://simplePDF.eu https://simplePDF.eu Disclosure: I’m the developer behind it
  - Steve44 3y ago
    I'm not sure, one thing I like about Sumatra is that it's very light and clean. When we need to sign or view some complex documents then I'll use Acrobat.
- leeman2016 3y ago
  Xournal++ is nice too
pixelpoet 3y ago
What's super handy about SumatraPDF is that it will auto reload normal image files if they're modified, so it's an easy way to get some sort of windowed graphics output by saving image files.
- Semaphor 3y ago
  Not just images. Whole PDFs as well. I do some PDF generation for work, and running the update command and instantly seeing the changes when it’s done, is great.
  - globular-toast 3y ago
    Yep. Pretty standard workflow when using LaTeX or something.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- Culonavirus 3y ago
  Also what's super handy is that it can send PDFs to select printers from the command line (which is a killer feature, at least in Windows).
njharman 3y ago
Stopped using cause the author can't comprehend that scrolling / scrollbars could apply to document as a whole (like every other editor/viewer ever allows). https://forum.sumatrapdfreader.org/t/display-scrollbar-in-single-page-view/1135 https://forum.sumatrapdfreader.org/t/display-scrollbar-in-si...
- adityamwagh 3y ago
  You should try https://www.pdfgear.com/ https://www.pdfgear.com/ . It’s also free.
- move-on-by 3y ago
  You can always submit a PR to implement the feature you want. Maybe showing the author what you want via PR is the best way to explain what you are asking for.
  - gorjusborg 3y ago
    You can even fork it for your own use.
- jchw 3y ago
  Hmm? I don't think "every other editor/viewer ever" does this. Okular doesn't do this for example, I just checked: If I use "Fit Page" and uncheck "Continous", the vertical scrollbar disappears. I'd also find it confusing, because it seems like that means if you zoom in, the scrollbar would be for the current page, but then if you zoom out, it would be for the entire document. Is that how other viewers actually work, or is it more elaborate than that? Obviously this isn't a model interaction with an open source project either way. Although I don't think how they responded was ideal, I don't think I would've enjoyed communicating with you on that thread if I were the maintainer, either. Nobody's perfect, but all in all, I'd hope you agree that this has thusfar not been very productive on either side.
- dooglius 3y ago
  He does, document level scrolling is the default behavior? Link looks like someone put it in a non-default view mode and doesn't like the specifics of how that mode works.
davikr 3y ago
I really love SumatraPDF but I wish it'd fare better on the search story: there's no widget to show all search matches, afaik, and searching can be slow on really big files with thousands of pages. To be fair, most PDF readers struggle with this, and I suspect only Acrobat attempts to cache or index files (as a Pro feature).
- mahdi7d1 3y ago
  I remember reading a blog post from the author of sioyek boasting about search performance. Haven't personally compared the options but for me sumatra zathura and sioyek all feel fast enough to not notice any problems. https://ahrm.github.io/jekyll/update/2022/09/11/pdf-viewer-text-search-benchmark.html https://ahrm.github.io/jekyll/update/2022/09/11/pdf-viewer-t... "Now I must admit, the reason sioyek is so fast is because it creates a search index when you open the document."
  - davikr 3y ago
    Ah, I had heard about Sioyek but I didn't know there was an option I could enable to build a search index. That is really nice.
esalman 3y ago
Sumatra PDF was my go-to tool for viewing PDF changes in real time while writing manuscripts and thesis during PhD. Acrobat (paid) and foxit (free) have more features but locks the file undergoing changes.
- Zuiii 3y ago
  Good example of how the implementation of unnecessary restrictions, without proper consideration of how such restrictions would impede users, can harm your product. I hope all software doing the same on android (safetynet, prevent screenshots, etc) follow Acrobat reader into irrelevance.
  - lxgr 3y ago
    Exclusive locking is simply the default on Windows.
    - pbmonster 3y ago
      Sure, but for a viewer, deviating from that default makes a lot of sense. I started using Sumatra years ago exclusively because of that feature. Exports/compiles failing, just because the PDF is still open somewhere is just unbelievably annoying.
      - lxgr 3y ago
        Definitely! I'm just providing some background on why "lock by default" is so common for Windows applications, and so rare on Unix: It's the defaults.
sinuhe69 3y ago
I have the bad habit of keeping many PDF files in the reader open (yeah, I keep reading long books). The thing is when I open Sumatra for a new file (maybe only for a quick glance) Sumatra will reload all my files and slowed the startup significantly. I wish I can set the option which will load only if I’ve actually switched to the tab, just like Firefox.
- generationP 3y ago
  It seems to have a bug where if you load a file from the app using the quick-load 1,2,...,10 keys in the File menu, then the next time you open another file in SumatraPDF from the explorer, it immediately opens several other files. This may be related.
- hans_castorp 3y ago
  This can be controlled when use the "Advanced Options". It opens a config file where you can set: RememberOpenedFiles = false https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/settings/settings3-4-6 https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/settings/settings3-4-6
  - eviks 3y ago
    the files should still be remembered, they should just be lazy loaded
  - sinuhe69 3y ago
    Thank to your suggestion, I figured out a workaround: - RememberOpenedFiles = true - RememberSettingForEachFile = true - RestoreSession = false So Sumatra will open the new file without the ballast of the past. But if you click on an old file, it will open and go to the last position for you to continue. Right now one can not change the number of recent files list, nor can one replace the frequent access list with recent list, but I can live with that. Hopefully somebody could make these options.
- buchoo 3y ago
  The same frustration due to the same bad habit led me to look into implementing lazy loading in SumatraPDF, but unfortunately the code is structured in such a way as to make it a very non-trivial change.
realPtolemy 3y ago
Using it for windows, good and lightweight, much more convenient than Adobe for basic usage. But I wish that I was able to ”drag and open in new window” tabs of different opened PDF files. But I must say that skim for Mac is the best!
- quyleanh 3y ago
  You mean "ability to drag out a tab to open it in new window"? If so, you can do in latest update [1] [1] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/releases/tag/3.5rel https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/releases/tag/...
  - realPtolemy 3y ago
    Excellent! Will update today then :)
alberth 3y ago
Preview.app Am I the only person who has Preview.app constantly hang and/or freeze my Mac, even on the smallest of PDFs (< 3 slides) I’m on M1 with latest macOS.
- Quiark 3y ago
  Preview also supports reloading the PDF on changes so you can have a similar workflow to Sumatra: open - edit - reload - edit - reload - edit - Preview crashes - reopen - edit - reloads - edit - Preview crashes etc.
- n9 3y ago
  I use preview all day, every day, often with dozens of files open, including full scans of the full OED (each pdf 100s of MB). It occasionally will hang when I "print to PDF" with a large document, but other than that no issues to report for a couple years now on M1 and M2.
Ghostt8117 3y ago
I love SumatraPDF. I've used it for years and it is wonderful. I have been writing Latex in vim and I compile with the document open in sumatra side by side for instant updates. Very smooth workflow with the instant reload of the page.
- fiforpg 3y ago
  Yep. An obligatory hat tip to lervag — his vimtex plugin* is a beast. *Which you are most likely using, since it integrates with Sumatra out of the box. And with MuPDF. And Skim, etc. It's cool like that.
- bee_rider 3y ago
  Evince does this as well. It is a completely necessary feature in my opinion. I tried Sumatra a while ago, before switching over to Linux. It seemed pretty decent, nice and snappy.
- HKH2 3y ago
  Atril automatically reloads too.
helf 3y ago
I adore Sumatra. I have used it for decades. Used to run it on my Windows 95 laptop even :) Super fast. Just. Works. Rarely have any issues with it.
- bdhcuidbebe 3y ago
  cool story bro
quyleanh 3y ago
The big update of SumatraPDF was out yesterday [1]. There are a lot of bugs fix and improvement in the backlog [2]. [1] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/releases/tag/3.5rel https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/releases/tag/... [2] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/3672 https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/3672
- lencastre 3y ago
  Dark mode and tab switching with the keyboard are 2 great additions to the best lightweight PDF reader EVER!!!
  - nuxi 3y ago
    Tab switching with the keyboard was already possible previously, IIRC you can use Alt+<N> (or maybe Ctrl+<N>) to switch to the N-th tab.
    - puika 3y ago
      yes, CTRL+TAB and ALT+<N>, I use them all the time.
- puika 3y ago
  this is my "dark mode" via advanced options, e.g. warmer page and dark background: MainWindowBackground = #191919 FixedPageUI [ TextColor = #282828 BackgroundColor = #ebdbb2 SelectionColor = #2d938f ... ] what I have been doing so far is switch between other modes with autohotkey by overwriting `SumatraPDF-settings.txt`. I'd share the little script but it suddenly broke a while back
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- Sakos 3y ago
  Did they ever fix the issues around printing? I always ended up using a different PDF viewer just because of that.
elromulous 3y ago
What's the SumatraPDF for Android? It used to be Repligo, but it got removed from the Play store ages ago. I still had access to it, but since it wasn't being maintained, it became harder to use with each android os update.
- alisonatwork 3y ago
  I use MuPDF, which SumatraPDF is built on top of, I think. It is extremely no-frills, but it does the job.
- DANmode 3y ago
  https://github.com/GrapheneOS/PdfViewer https://github.com/GrapheneOS/PdfViewer
  - app4soft 3y ago
    It does not work on Android 6
    - carlos22 3y ago
      Well Android 6 is like Windows 95 ;-)
    - DANmode 3y ago
      Android 6 has multiple zero-click vulnerabilities. Charitably, your comment is ridiculous. Don't use Android 6, unless completely offline, or on a local-only network.
user3939382 3y ago
Bless the heart of whoever looked at the PDF spec and said to themselves, "Nice, I'd like to writer a parser for this."
- hu3 3y ago
  No joke. Yesterday I found out PDFs can have forms with JavaScript. https://tcpdf.org/examples/example_014/ https://tcpdf.org/examples/example_014/ How does this even work?
  - lost_tourist 3y ago
    because some viewers have built in javascript interpreters. In the pdf it's just text labelled as a script
  - viraptor 3y ago
    I hope I can amuse you further: PDF embedded 3d models https://helpx.adobe.com/mt/acrobat/using/displaying-3d-models-pdfs.html https://helpx.adobe.com/mt/acrobat/using/displaying-3d-model... and interaction https://www.astrobetter.com/blog/2012/03/07/tutorial-for-embedding-3d-interactive-graphics-into-pdf/ https://www.astrobetter.com/blog/2012/03/07/tutorial-for-emb... You can also do animated page transitions like PowerPoint, but I don't have the right link available...
    - hu3 3y ago
      You did amuse me! Thanks! To me this is the kind of scope creep that causes a "simple" PDF renderer department to end up with 50 devs working in it full-time. I wonder... can a PDF have an iframe that opens itself? Causing an infinie loop of it loading itself?
      - elashri 3y ago
        That's a nice idea. Can we call that PDF bomb?
      - izacus 3y ago
commandersaki 3y ago
Great retrospective of SumatraPDF from the author: https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/2f72237a4230410a888acbfce3dc0864/lessons-learned-from-15-years-of-sumatrapdf-an-open-source-windows-app.html https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/2f72237a4230410a888acbfc... .
- jcparkyn 3y ago
  Interesting read. I was very surprised by the mention of adding editing features at the end. That sounds like a proverbial black hole of potential feature requests and "bloat".
- arp242 3y ago
  Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27968900 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27968900 - Jul 2021 (133 comments) Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app (2021) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35065785 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35065785 - Mar 2023 (173 comments)
- zerr 3y ago
  > The problem is that Gtk is ugly, Qt is extremely bloated and WxWidgets barely works. Seems like the author didn't look at cross-platform toolkits since 90s.
  - pjerem 3y ago
    What changed exactly ? Gtk is still ugly on anything that is not Linux, Qt is still bloated and wxWidgets, well here I don’t know.
    - KRAKRISMOTT 3y ago
      Flutter is decent, most of the browser/Skia based UI kits are more consistent and made by people who have an appreciation for design and aesthetics. But I think Sumatra predates most, if not all of them.
jszymborski 3y ago
Probably one of the only bits of software I miss from when I ran Windows.
- bradrn 3y ago
  Agreed. SumatraPDF is still one of my favourite programs, and I wish there was a Linux PDF reader which approached it. (Okular is probably the best, but it can’t remember opened tabs.)
anjel 3y ago
Sumatra is one of the (few) win apps I miss since recently converting to linux. Running it under wine seems like overkill, but I wish for a debian port...
- dysoco 3y ago
  Okular is really good and probably has more features than Sumatra; though I still run Sumatra in Windows.
  - thrillgore 3y ago
    I actually use Okular on Windows and Linux, it is quite good.
- bee_rider 3y ago
  Evince is pretty decent. It auto-reloads PDFs like Sumatra (IMO this is what draws the line between good and bad PDF readers, haha).
- dramtech 3y ago
  > but I wish for a debian port... Sumatra makes heavy use of the win32 API so a port is not possible. This design is why it's so good (light, fast, well integrated) and the author refused to lessen his software by using a cross platform framework.
  - pasc1878 3y ago
    This is an important point - single platform apps for Windows and macOS or iOS or Android behave and look much better than cross platform apps let alone browser based apps. I will put up with less functions for the better feel. However many people want to appeal to more users or program in Linux or web and so have a default cross platform GUI anyway (or make it cross platform easily)
- natrys 3y ago
  I thought I would too. But Zathura had been adequate over the years (similarly mupdf based). And I have been using sioyek[1] for few months and I probably like it the best. [1] https://sioyek.info/ https://sioyek.info/
mattegan 3y ago
Like others have mentioned, Sumatra is one of a few Windows-only utilities that I routinely miss when on Mac or Linux, primarily due to two simple interactions which I miss every day viewing schematics, mechanical/technical drawings or datasheets -- Alt + Scroll == Zoom and Right Click + Drag == Pan. Does anyone know of any viewers on Mac or Linux that provide these two features? Skim on Mac implements Option + Scroll and Left Click + Drag Pan, but it's not reconfigurable to any other keys or mouse buttons.
- keehun 3y ago
  I use three-finger drag on Mac (with a magic trackpad) and find that better than any combination of click & drag. Have you tried it?
  - mattegan 3y ago
    That's fair! I'm just not a big trackpad person since I find doing ECAD or MCAD with a trackpad to be not so enjoyable :)
- ww520 3y ago
  Can it run under Wine on Linux?
  - app4soft 3y ago
    Yes, it runs under Wine or CrossOver on Linux and Mac.
- Izkata 3y ago
  evince (linux) does Zoom with Ctrl + Scroll, maybe yours does too? I don't think it has Pan, but I'm keyboard-heavy and use horizontal scroll with Shift + Scroll.
  - barbs 3y ago
    Evince uses middle-click to pan
mahdi7d1 3y ago
This piece of software is one of the few joys I have when using Windows. While reading ebooks you almost forget how bloated and slow Windows is.
lazycouchpotato 3y ago
I haven't really felt the need for a dedicated PDF reader ever since Firefox upped their PDF support. It works pretty well and recently added support for form filling, text box and drawing [1]. SumatraPDF does support other file formats, which is nice. [1] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/features/pdf-editor/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/features/pdf-editor/
- HKH2 3y ago
  Is there a dual page view? Can you change whether the first page is left or right?
  - venice_benice 3y ago
    yes, and yes. they call this “Odd Spreads” and “Even Spreads” it is available in their Tools menu (the >> icon)
  - lazycouchpotato 3y ago
    These are all the settings available: https://i.imgur.com/sMZPTax.png https://i.imgur.com/sMZPTax.png It has dual page view and the option for odd or even page split - addressing your first page left/right concerns.
luismedel 3y ago
Extremely good software. Always on my _bat-belt_. The author was one of the most active members of the old Business Of Software forums, IIRC. I always wondered how he could make money from a free PDF viewer.
- lukeholder 3y ago
  Sounds like he doesn’t make money.
  - luismedel 3y ago
    Yes. It seems so :-)
aragonite 3y ago
Sumatra is great, though occasionally I wish it were possible to have something like Firefox's wrapped scrolling [1] where more than 2 pages can be shown side by side. On a reasonably large monitor, being able to quickly zoom out to see e.g. 30 pages (sometimes all the pages of a journal article) at the same time can be very useful. You can be on p. 20, then go and quickly look up a definition on p.2, then frictionlessly switch back to p. 20. Having to remember a page number to go back to, or a key word to search for, or to worry about where the "back" button might take you (as with most PDF readers) is just too much friction. [1] https://superuser.com/questions/1365482/how-to-view-a-pdf-with-more-than-2-pages-side-by-side https://superuser.com/questions/1365482/how-to-view-a-pdf-wi...
- throwaway2037 3y ago
  Submit a patch?
- urlwolf 3y ago
  Love this view. I can't get pdf display on FF to invert colors. Is there a way? Then it would replace okular for me (which also does this overview mode)
  - SushiHippie 3y ago
    https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1281116 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1281116
- wolverine876 3y ago
  As you probably know, you could use bookmarks. Or you could open two copies of the same PDF. (But yes, I love that feature in viewers.)
vermaden 3y ago
I use SumatraPDF daily but an older version 2.5.2 - before the 'larger' rework. Works very well under WINE on FreeBSD and does not have display issues with taskbars etc.
ivraatiems 3y ago
Wow, I just installed this for the first time and its performance blows both Adobe Reader (not an achievement) and Foxit (something of an achievement) out of the water! Nice work by these devs. And its install footprint is around 10% of those programs. What the hell is Adobe doing, I wonder, that makes their software so unbearably slow and painful to use?
- yoyohello13 3y ago
  Even more impressive is I believe it’s a solo dev. SumatraPDF is one of my go to examples of a great software project. Something to aspire to.
- tayo42 3y ago
  > What the hell is Adobe doing Maybe they're handling every posts feature wish list? Like every comment so far here is Sumatra is nice but...< Some random feature > is missing
  - seb1204 3y ago
    PDF-exchange - I have been using this for many years in a paid version. Fast and good editing features e.g. mark-ups. https://pdf-xchange.eu/pdf-xchange-editor/index.htm https://pdf-xchange.eu/pdf-xchange-editor/index.htm
- dagw 3y ago
  What the hell is Adobe doing Probably supporting 100% of the PDF spec. plus addressing all those obscure feature requests that 6 companies in this one very niche industry really really need. Sumatra is fantastic and basically the only PDF reader I use on Windows, but it does have maybe 10% of the features Adobe acrobat has. It is however the 10% that that basically everybody needs.
  - Xerox9213 3y ago
    Acrobat Pro is pretty incredible. One of my favourite features is the following: on a scanned PDF after performing OCR you can edit the text and it will match the font. As in, it will create a new font based on the characters it found in OCR. I’m a high school math teacher and scan dozens of textbooks every year. Adjusting a few words before printing to match what we did in class is a huge time saver for me. Somehow my school division was able to buy me a one time fee perpetual license. I’m very happy with it.
puzzlingcaptcha 3y ago
I have been using Sumatra for years and my only issue is that it sometimes takes a _very_ long time to get it to start printing a complex document (at least on Windows). I still keep Adobe Reader around just for printing.
- kjksf 3y ago
  (I wrote SumatraPDF). Yes, printing is not great. Actively considering making it better, maybe in next version.
throwaway2037 3y ago
A more accurate title would be: SumatraPDF: multi-format reader for Windows
- afterburner 3y ago
  Yes, I love it for comics (CBZ files).
timvdalen 3y ago
I've been using Sumatra for what feels like a decade, and it's definitely the best PDF reader out there. I mostly started using it for the auto-refresh when I'm working on a LaTeX document.
bronlund 3y ago
I got a love/hate relationship with PDF readers, and I find myself constantly switching from one to the other in hope of a better experience. All I want is to set my own exact colors and to use a hand-tool if I so wish. You wouldn't think that such simple wants should be an issue or, if what you did was making PDF-readers, that it may cross your mind to implement one or two of those.
dimmuborgir 3y ago
Dark mode finally!!! This was the only bummer for me all these years. Not anymore!
urlwolf 3y ago
Is there any way to click on an image to magnify? in many books figures are too small. Ctrl + scroll does magnify the entire doc, but the img is pixelated.
teleforce 3y ago
Is there any open source seamless PDF editor available given how pervasive is the PDF document nowadays? I really think that we need one and it has been long overdue. What I meant by seamless is that all of the open source software that currently able to edit PDF document is dong it in a clunky way at best for example Krita and LibreOffice Draw. The resulting edited output document also is also looks distinct, in a bad way, from the original document unlike the output from Adobe PDF editor.
- fithisux 3y ago
  The spec is very complex. there are some, here and there but nothing coherent. Even worse PDF is not "open source", it should have been accompanied by LaTeX source.
  - teleforce 3y ago
    The PDF is now standardized as ISO 32000, it's open for everyone to create compatible tools. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF
    - looperhacks 3y ago
      "Open" for the cheap price of ~$230
      - SV_BubbleTime 3y ago
        I deal with ISO all the time, they’re cutting you a “deal” there.
- mesebrec 3y ago
  Have you tried the latest version of OnlyOffice?
- pelalmqvist 3y ago
  Maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but take a look at Stirling-PDF. https://github.com/Frooodle/Stirling-PDF https://github.com/Frooodle/Stirling-PDF
urlwolf 3y ago
If you are on linux and miss the snappiness of sumatra, try llpp. They use the same renderer. In fact, llpp has more features, like a better overview mode where you can get 3 pages on screen. Search does suck. llpp is written in Ocaml and a fantastic piece of software.
- mmh0000 3y ago
  I’ve been using Sumatra through WINE (a tool that emulates the Windows api) for years. Works great on Linux that way.
erremerre 3y ago
On the other side of the spectrum you have Calibre, a program that uses a multiplatform abstraction, with a myriad of options, a myriad of icons, plenty of features... In my opinion, I prefer the Sumatra way of doing things. But if you need to transform data... there is no other option that fighting against the multiple features of Calibre.
psnehanshu 3y ago
Great app, but never tried it. I am wondering why people just don't use Chrome or Firefox or Edge as their PDF reader?
- guilamu 3y ago
  Maybe it's just me, but they all happen to have issues when printing. No idea why or if it has been fixed recently, but I never had this kind of issue with Sumatra or Acrobat obviously.
- afterburner 3y ago
  Well, here's a really weird reason: it's a great comic CBZ reader!
Helmut10001 3y ago
SumatraPDF is among the OSS PDF tools I use. Since Adobe is pushing a more aggressive stance for monetization of Acrobat, I am trying to replace selected PDF workflows with OSS. Here are some of the tools I use. qpdf removing passwords, unlocking PDFs, conversion install in WSL with apt-get install qpdf remove password with qpdf --decrypt --password="" input.pdf output.pdf PDF4QT - Open Source PDF Editing Deleting, Sorting, Extracting Pages Currently, no choco release available, must be installed manually from PDF4QT/releases Inkscape, LibreOffice Draw editing PDFs, adding text Mupdf Command line tool and Python package for parsing, filling forms, adding text SumatraPDF Viewing of PDFs pdfplumber Awesome python package to extract tables from PDFs into data pipelines. Use with Jupyter Lab
- dustingetz 3y ago
  how can i sign and date a PDF with a bitmap signature without 9999 janky clicks
- quyleanh 3y ago
  Actually SumatraPDF is using MuPDF now. But there is some limitation on rendering PDF and eBook files. For example, formatting PDF file or displaying Unicode characters in epub file.
  - sebras 3y ago
    Do you mind reporting those issues either to SumatraPDF at https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues or directly to MuPDF at https://bugs.ghostscript.com/ https://bugs.ghostscript.com/ if it also has the same issue? Thank you! There are many wonderfully weird PDFs and epubs out there, but we do our best to fix issues. :)
    - quyleanh 3y ago
      Thank you for reaching out. Please refer to the following issue list from SumatraPDF repo [1] [2]. Epub rendering issue like [3] [4]. [1] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aupdated-desc+label%3Amupdf https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues?q=is%3... [2] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aupdated-desc+label%3Aebook https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues?q=is%3... [3] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/2752 https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/2752 [4] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/3761 https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/3761
red_admiral 3y ago
Even in the software world we can, sometimes, have nice things. SumatraPDF is one of them. Kol HaKavod to Krzysztof Kowalczyk!
rtpg 3y ago
It's kinda frustrating how by default, most major OS setups now are "open PDFs inside the browser". It's kinda nice that browsers can handle PDFs smooth-ish now, but Preview on Mac is nice, and SumatraPDF is as well.
piokoch 3y ago
This is amazing piece of software. You click the icon and it starts. Immediately. It does what you expect it to do, it just displays PDF file on the screen.
ykonstant 3y ago
I implore all developers of PDF readers to implement sioyek's overview feature[0]. When you hover on a cross-referenced entry, it opens a little preview window with the contents of the reference. It is an absolute game-changer for reading textbooks and technical papers; I cannot overstate its utility. [0] https://github.com/ahrm/sioyek#overview https://github.com/ahrm/sioyek#overview
- kjksf 3y ago
  (I wrote SumatraPDF). I know about sioyek and been meaning to steal some of their ideas. Maybe in the next version.
- V1ndaar 3y ago
  Evince does the same. It's a great feature, I agree.
- cs3f16 3y ago
  Thank you so much for sharing this extremely amazing software! I hope it gains more popularity and traction.
- javale 3y ago
  Thanks for sharing!!
- majora2007 3y ago
  This is really cool, I'm going to steal some of these ideas for my app Kavita.
- spit2wind 3y ago
  Is this not Ted Nelson's transclusion? Namely, "...the same content knowably in more than one place". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transclusion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transclusion
- wolverine876 3y ago
  > When you hover on a cross-referenced entry, it opens a little preview window with the contents of the reference. Wikipedia does the same thing, but I assume you would know that. What am I misunderstanding? Also, if it makes your PDF reader execute arbitrary remote code, isn't that a serious risk?
ajariix 3y ago
Sioyek beats SumatraPDF for academic text work. Sioyek has Overview[0], Smart Jump and more features that helps academic text studies. Digital versions of page earmarks, pen highlighting and margin notes that are common in academic text usage. It feels like the main developer and contributors have personal experience of that kind of use and gear the application for it. In contrast the SumatraPDF dev seems focused mostly on light, casual PDF viewing. Read short pdf files from start to end, add a few highlights, occasionally search. One good feature SumatraPDF used to have, but removed, was an option to store annotations (such as colored text highlighting) in external .smx sidecar files. Similar to how VLC and other video players support sidecar .srt subtitle files. Since a few years SumatraPDF now only writes annotations into the PDF file. That has some advantages (greater cross reader annotation compatibility, all in one file) but also disadvantages: - Third party tools can't search or operate on the plaintext annotations. With the sidecar approach if highlighted text were to be stored as plaintext with location data in the sidecar file third party tools could use ripgrep or similar to do fast, powerful searching and filtering on highlights across a whole pdf collection. - Annotation versioning. - No convenient way to load different sets of annotations for a single file. Useful for academic text work where one source document may be highlighted differently for different research topics. With an API and support for third party tools toggling such sets could be instant and very user friendly. Without sidecar files the user has to keep separate copies of the pdf file and write different annotations to each. - Modifying the source pdf can be an issue where text integrity is crucial. Many pdf documents are used as a shared source of truth and simple hashing can verify that all parties use the same unmodified document. That gets more complicated when annotations are written into the file, since different pdf applications do such writing differently. Even though Sioyek is better for academic work I think there is a lot more to do. In some ways academic text work on a physical book still has a better UX. For example a glance at the edge of a physical book gives an overview of the earmark locations. A digital version of that would be a code editor minimap style sidebar that overview highlight and bookmark locations in the whole pdf document. The minimap could have a heatmap feature that colors (and gradually fades) locations the user recently has viewed in the pdf. As a way to mitigate getting lost when jumping between locations in a digital document. [0] https://github.com/ahrm/sioyek#overview https://github.com/ahrm/sioyek#overview
sireat 3y ago
Thank you kjksf for such an amazing tool! I've been using Sumatra for past 10+ years. It is usually the first thing on my ninite.com checklist that I use when installing fresh Windows on friends and relative's computers. PS As a bonus Sumatra works quite well on epubs.
the__alchemist 3y ago
Sumatra is a the timeless gems of free/open-source software. Alternatively, a reminder of a time when PC programs were unobtrusive and performant.
skah 3y ago
I use daily. Extremely useful, lightweight, and minimalistic. It is similar to MKVToolNix, VLC, or GIMP.
synergy20 3y ago
Okular has been my favorite, esp that I can highlight and save them for any PDFs and I can easily open multiple PDFs tabbed.
jjgreen 3y ago
You'd be better off sticking with PostScript ... [ducks for cover]
botanical 3y ago
When I'd used Windows Sumatra was the best; on Ubuntu, I use Zathura which is similar, fast and minimal. But I think most PDF viewers are more or less the same as they either use mupdf or poppler
8bitme 3y ago
SumatraPDF does not acquire a file lock on the pdf. This is really useful if you're debugging a process that outputs a pdf and you want to see how the pdf refreshes. With other readers the tool that tries to replace the pdf will fail as the pdf viewer has a lock on the file.
Alifatisk 3y ago
There are some really good free pdf editors out there but I found none to match Acrobats features like censoring texts.
vGPU 3y ago
> This comes back to Jeff Bezos’ wisdom: there will never be a time when users want bloated and slow apps so being small and fast is a permanent advantage. A nugget Bezos seems to have forgotten.

SumatraPDF Reader

586 points by quyleanh 3y ago

sammy2255 3y ago

Love SumatraPdf, completely no-bs software unlike Adobe. If I ever need to sign a PDF Microsoft Edge works wonderfully

Mengkudulangsat 3y ago
I still need Adobe to sign and fill forms. Wish Sumatra can do those too :(
- autoexec 3y ago
  I'm really glad that they don't. I'd much rather have a safer PDF viewer that only supports a limited subset of what adobe's shitware does to handle 99% of my PDF file needs so that I only need to risk opening Adobe software 1% of the time. That's so much better than turning Sumatra into the same bloated mess of risky features that is Adobe Acrobat.
- nip 3y ago
  No need for Adobe: https://simplePDF.eu https://simplePDF.eu Disclosure: I’m the developer behind it
- Steve44 3y ago
  I'm not sure, one thing I like about Sumatra is that it's very light and clean. When we need to sign or view some complex documents then I'll use Acrobat.
leeman2016 3y ago
Xournal++ is nice too

pixelpoet 3y ago

What's super handy about SumatraPDF is that it will auto reload normal image files if they're modified, so it's an easy way to get some sort of windowed graphics output by saving image files.

Semaphor 3y ago
Not just images. Whole PDFs as well. I do some PDF generation for work, and running the update command and instantly seeing the changes when it’s done, is great.
- globular-toast 3y ago
  Yep. Pretty standard workflow when using LaTeX or something.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
Culonavirus 3y ago
Also what's super handy is that it can send PDFs to select printers from the command line (which is a killer feature, at least in Windows).

njharman 3y ago

Stopped using cause the author can't comprehend that scrolling / scrollbars could apply to document as a whole (like every other editor/viewer ever allows). https://forum.sumatrapdfreader.org/t/display-scrollbar-in-single-page-view/1135 https://forum.sumatrapdfreader.org/t/display-scrollbar-in-si...

adityamwagh 3y ago
You should try https://www.pdfgear.com/ https://www.pdfgear.com/ . It’s also free.
move-on-by 3y ago
You can always submit a PR to implement the feature you want. Maybe showing the author what you want via PR is the best way to explain what you are asking for.
- gorjusborg 3y ago
  You can even fork it for your own use.
jchw 3y ago
Hmm? I don't think "every other editor/viewer ever" does this. Okular doesn't do this for example, I just checked: If I use "Fit Page" and uncheck "Continous", the vertical scrollbar disappears. I'd also find it confusing, because it seems like that means if you zoom in, the scrollbar would be for the current page, but then if you zoom out, it would be for the entire document. Is that how other viewers actually work, or is it more elaborate than that? Obviously this isn't a model interaction with an open source project either way. Although I don't think how they responded was ideal, I don't think I would've enjoyed communicating with you on that thread if I were the maintainer, either. Nobody's perfect, but all in all, I'd hope you agree that this has thusfar not been very productive on either side.
dooglius 3y ago
He does, document level scrolling is the default behavior? Link looks like someone put it in a non-default view mode and doesn't like the specifics of how that mode works.

davikr 3y ago

I really love SumatraPDF but I wish it'd fare better on the search story: there's no widget to show all search matches, afaik, and searching can be slow on really big files with thousands of pages. To be fair, most PDF readers struggle with this, and I suspect only Acrobat attempts to cache or index files (as a Pro feature).

mahdi7d1 3y ago
I remember reading a blog post from the author of sioyek boasting about search performance. Haven't personally compared the options but for me sumatra zathura and sioyek all feel fast enough to not notice any problems. https://ahrm.github.io/jekyll/update/2022/09/11/pdf-viewer-text-search-benchmark.html https://ahrm.github.io/jekyll/update/2022/09/11/pdf-viewer-t... "Now I must admit, the reason sioyek is so fast is because it creates a search index when you open the document."
- davikr 3y ago
  Ah, I had heard about Sioyek but I didn't know there was an option I could enable to build a search index. That is really nice.

esalman 3y ago

Sumatra PDF was my go-to tool for viewing PDF changes in real time while writing manuscripts and thesis during PhD. Acrobat (paid) and foxit (free) have more features but locks the file undergoing changes.

Zuiii 3y ago
Good example of how the implementation of unnecessary restrictions, without proper consideration of how such restrictions would impede users, can harm your product. I hope all software doing the same on android (safetynet, prevent screenshots, etc) follow Acrobat reader into irrelevance.
- lxgr 3y ago
  Exclusive locking is simply the default on Windows.
  - pbmonster 3y ago
    Sure, but for a viewer, deviating from that default makes a lot of sense. I started using Sumatra years ago exclusively because of that feature. Exports/compiles failing, just because the PDF is still open somewhere is just unbelievably annoying.
    - lxgr 3y ago
      Definitely! I'm just providing some background on why "lock by default" is so common for Windows applications, and so rare on Unix: It's the defaults.

sinuhe69 3y ago

I have the bad habit of keeping many PDF files in the reader open (yeah, I keep reading long books). The thing is when I open Sumatra for a new file (maybe only for a quick glance) Sumatra will reload all my files and slowed the startup significantly. I wish I can set the option which will load only if I’ve actually switched to the tab, just like Firefox.

generationP 3y ago
It seems to have a bug where if you load a file from the app using the quick-load 1,2,...,10 keys in the File menu, then the next time you open another file in SumatraPDF from the explorer, it immediately opens several other files. This may be related.
hans_castorp 3y ago
This can be controlled when use the "Advanced Options". It opens a config file where you can set: RememberOpenedFiles = false https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/settings/settings3-4-6 https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/settings/settings3-4-6
- eviks 3y ago
  the files should still be remembered, they should just be lazy loaded
- sinuhe69 3y ago
  Thank to your suggestion, I figured out a workaround: - RememberOpenedFiles = true - RememberSettingForEachFile = true - RestoreSession = false So Sumatra will open the new file without the ballast of the past. But if you click on an old file, it will open and go to the last position for you to continue. Right now one can not change the number of recent files list, nor can one replace the frequent access list with recent list, but I can live with that. Hopefully somebody could make these options.
buchoo 3y ago
The same frustration due to the same bad habit led me to look into implementing lazy loading in SumatraPDF, but unfortunately the code is structured in such a way as to make it a very non-trivial change.

realPtolemy 3y ago

Using it for windows, good and lightweight, much more convenient than Adobe for basic usage. But I wish that I was able to ”drag and open in new window” tabs of different opened PDF files. But I must say that skim for Mac is the best!

quyleanh 3y ago
You mean "ability to drag out a tab to open it in new window"? If so, you can do in latest update [1] [1] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/releases/tag/3.5rel https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/releases/tag/...
- realPtolemy 3y ago
  Excellent! Will update today then :)

alberth 3y ago

Preview.app Am I the only person who has Preview.app constantly hang and/or freeze my Mac, even on the smallest of PDFs (< 3 slides) I’m on M1 with latest macOS.

Quiark 3y ago
Preview also supports reloading the PDF on changes so you can have a similar workflow to Sumatra: open - edit - reload - edit - reload - edit - Preview crashes - reopen - edit - reloads - edit - Preview crashes etc.
n9 3y ago
I use preview all day, every day, often with dozens of files open, including full scans of the full OED (each pdf 100s of MB). It occasionally will hang when I "print to PDF" with a large document, but other than that no issues to report for a couple years now on M1 and M2.

Ghostt8117 3y ago

I love SumatraPDF. I've used it for years and it is wonderful. I have been writing Latex in vim and I compile with the document open in sumatra side by side for instant updates. Very smooth workflow with the instant reload of the page.

fiforpg 3y ago
Yep. An obligatory hat tip to lervag — his vimtex plugin* is a beast. *Which you are most likely using, since it integrates with Sumatra out of the box. And with MuPDF. And Skim, etc. It's cool like that.
bee_rider 3y ago
Evince does this as well. It is a completely necessary feature in my opinion. I tried Sumatra a while ago, before switching over to Linux. It seemed pretty decent, nice and snappy.
HKH2 3y ago
Atril automatically reloads too.

helf 3y ago

I adore Sumatra. I have used it for decades. Used to run it on my Windows 95 laptop even :) Super fast. Just. Works. Rarely have any issues with it.

bdhcuidbebe 3y ago
cool story bro

quyleanh 3y ago

The big update of SumatraPDF was out yesterday [1]. There are a lot of bugs fix and improvement in the backlog [2]. [1] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/releases/tag/3.5rel https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/releases/tag/... [2] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/3672 https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/3672

lencastre 3y ago
Dark mode and tab switching with the keyboard are 2 great additions to the best lightweight PDF reader EVER!!!
- nuxi 3y ago
  Tab switching with the keyboard was already possible previously, IIRC you can use Alt+<N> (or maybe Ctrl+<N>) to switch to the N-th tab.
  - puika 3y ago
    yes, CTRL+TAB and ALT+<N>, I use them all the time.
puika 3y ago
this is my "dark mode" via advanced options, e.g. warmer page and dark background: MainWindowBackground = #191919 FixedPageUI [ TextColor = #282828 BackgroundColor = #ebdbb2 SelectionColor = #2d938f ... ] what I have been doing so far is switch between other modes with autohotkey by overwriting `SumatraPDF-settings.txt`. I'd share the little script but it suddenly broke a while back
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
Sakos 3y ago
Did they ever fix the issues around printing? I always ended up using a different PDF viewer just because of that.

elromulous 3y ago

What's the SumatraPDF for Android? It used to be Repligo, but it got removed from the Play store ages ago. I still had access to it, but since it wasn't being maintained, it became harder to use with each android os update.

alisonatwork 3y ago
I use MuPDF, which SumatraPDF is built on top of, I think. It is extremely no-frills, but it does the job.
DANmode 3y ago
https://github.com/GrapheneOS/PdfViewer https://github.com/GrapheneOS/PdfViewer
- app4soft 3y ago
  It does not work on Android 6
  - carlos22 3y ago
    Well Android 6 is like Windows 95 ;-)
  - DANmode 3y ago
    Android 6 has multiple zero-click vulnerabilities. Charitably, your comment is ridiculous. Don't use Android 6, unless completely offline, or on a local-only network.

user3939382 3y ago

Bless the heart of whoever looked at the PDF spec and said to themselves, "Nice, I'd like to writer a parser for this."

hu3 3y ago
No joke. Yesterday I found out PDFs can have forms with JavaScript. https://tcpdf.org/examples/example_014/ https://tcpdf.org/examples/example_014/ How does this even work?
- lost_tourist 3y ago
  because some viewers have built in javascript interpreters. In the pdf it's just text labelled as a script
- viraptor 3y ago
  I hope I can amuse you further: PDF embedded 3d models https://helpx.adobe.com/mt/acrobat/using/displaying-3d-models-pdfs.html https://helpx.adobe.com/mt/acrobat/using/displaying-3d-model... and interaction https://www.astrobetter.com/blog/2012/03/07/tutorial-for-embedding-3d-interactive-graphics-into-pdf/ https://www.astrobetter.com/blog/2012/03/07/tutorial-for-emb... You can also do animated page transitions like PowerPoint, but I don't have the right link available...
  - hu3 3y ago
    You did amuse me! Thanks! To me this is the kind of scope creep that causes a "simple" PDF renderer department to end up with 50 devs working in it full-time. I wonder... can a PDF have an iframe that opens itself? Causing an infinie loop of it loading itself?
    - elashri 3y ago
      That's a nice idea. Can we call that PDF bomb?
    - izacus 3y ago

commandersaki 3y ago

Great retrospective of SumatraPDF from the author: https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/2f72237a4230410a888acbfce3dc0864/lessons-learned-from-15-years-of-sumatrapdf-an-open-source-windows-app.html https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/2f72237a4230410a888acbfc... .

jcparkyn 3y ago
Interesting read. I was very surprised by the mention of adding editing features at the end. That sounds like a proverbial black hole of potential feature requests and "bloat".
arp242 3y ago
Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27968900 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27968900 - Jul 2021 (133 comments) Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app (2021) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35065785 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35065785 - Mar 2023 (173 comments)
zerr 3y ago
> The problem is that Gtk is ugly, Qt is extremely bloated and WxWidgets barely works. Seems like the author didn't look at cross-platform toolkits since 90s.
- pjerem 3y ago
  What changed exactly ? Gtk is still ugly on anything that is not Linux, Qt is still bloated and wxWidgets, well here I don’t know.
  - KRAKRISMOTT 3y ago
    Flutter is decent, most of the browser/Skia based UI kits are more consistent and made by people who have an appreciation for design and aesthetics. But I think Sumatra predates most, if not all of them.

jszymborski 3y ago

Probably one of the only bits of software I miss from when I ran Windows.

bradrn 3y ago
Agreed. SumatraPDF is still one of my favourite programs, and I wish there was a Linux PDF reader which approached it. (Okular is probably the best, but it can’t remember opened tabs.)

anjel 3y ago

Sumatra is one of the (few) win apps I miss since recently converting to linux. Running it under wine seems like overkill, but I wish for a debian port...

dysoco 3y ago
Okular is really good and probably has more features than Sumatra; though I still run Sumatra in Windows.
- thrillgore 3y ago
  I actually use Okular on Windows and Linux, it is quite good.
bee_rider 3y ago
Evince is pretty decent. It auto-reloads PDFs like Sumatra (IMO this is what draws the line between good and bad PDF readers, haha).
dramtech 3y ago
> but I wish for a debian port... Sumatra makes heavy use of the win32 API so a port is not possible. This design is why it's so good (light, fast, well integrated) and the author refused to lessen his software by using a cross platform framework.
- pasc1878 3y ago
  This is an important point - single platform apps for Windows and macOS or iOS or Android behave and look much better than cross platform apps let alone browser based apps. I will put up with less functions for the better feel. However many people want to appeal to more users or program in Linux or web and so have a default cross platform GUI anyway (or make it cross platform easily)
natrys 3y ago
I thought I would too. But Zathura had been adequate over the years (similarly mupdf based). And I have been using sioyek[1] for few months and I probably like it the best. [1] https://sioyek.info/ https://sioyek.info/

mattegan 3y ago

Like others have mentioned, Sumatra is one of a few Windows-only utilities that I routinely miss when on Mac or Linux, primarily due to two simple interactions which I miss every day viewing schematics, mechanical/technical drawings or datasheets -- Alt + Scroll == Zoom and Right Click + Drag == Pan. Does anyone know of any viewers on Mac or Linux that provide these two features? Skim on Mac implements Option + Scroll and Left Click + Drag Pan, but it's not reconfigurable to any other keys or mouse buttons.

keehun 3y ago
I use three-finger drag on Mac (with a magic trackpad) and find that better than any combination of click & drag. Have you tried it?
- mattegan 3y ago
  That's fair! I'm just not a big trackpad person since I find doing ECAD or MCAD with a trackpad to be not so enjoyable :)
ww520 3y ago
Can it run under Wine on Linux?
- app4soft 3y ago
  Yes, it runs under Wine or CrossOver on Linux and Mac.
Izkata 3y ago
evince (linux) does Zoom with Ctrl + Scroll, maybe yours does too? I don't think it has Pan, but I'm keyboard-heavy and use horizontal scroll with Shift + Scroll.
- barbs 3y ago
  Evince uses middle-click to pan

mahdi7d1 3y ago

This piece of software is one of the few joys I have when using Windows. While reading ebooks you almost forget how bloated and slow Windows is.

lazycouchpotato 3y ago

I haven't really felt the need for a dedicated PDF reader ever since Firefox upped their PDF support. It works pretty well and recently added support for form filling, text box and drawing [1]. SumatraPDF does support other file formats, which is nice. [1] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/features/pdf-editor/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/features/pdf-editor/

HKH2 3y ago
Is there a dual page view? Can you change whether the first page is left or right?
- venice_benice 3y ago
  yes, and yes. they call this “Odd Spreads” and “Even Spreads” it is available in their Tools menu (the >> icon)
- lazycouchpotato 3y ago
  These are all the settings available: https://i.imgur.com/sMZPTax.png https://i.imgur.com/sMZPTax.png It has dual page view and the option for odd or even page split - addressing your first page left/right concerns.

luismedel 3y ago

Extremely good software. Always on my _bat-belt_. The author was one of the most active members of the old Business Of Software forums, IIRC. I always wondered how he could make money from a free PDF viewer.

lukeholder 3y ago
Sounds like he doesn’t make money.
- luismedel 3y ago
  Yes. It seems so :-)

aragonite 3y ago

Sumatra is great, though occasionally I wish it were possible to have something like Firefox's wrapped scrolling [1] where more than 2 pages can be shown side by side. On a reasonably large monitor, being able to quickly zoom out to see e.g. 30 pages (sometimes all the pages of a journal article) at the same time can be very useful. You can be on p. 20, then go and quickly look up a definition on p.2, then frictionlessly switch back to p. 20. Having to remember a page number to go back to, or a key word to search for, or to worry about where the "back" button might take you (as with most PDF readers) is just too much friction. [1] https://superuser.com/questions/1365482/how-to-view-a-pdf-with-more-than-2-pages-side-by-side https://superuser.com/questions/1365482/how-to-view-a-pdf-wi...

throwaway2037 3y ago
Submit a patch?
urlwolf 3y ago
Love this view. I can't get pdf display on FF to invert colors. Is there a way? Then it would replace okular for me (which also does this overview mode)
- SushiHippie 3y ago
  https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1281116 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1281116
wolverine876 3y ago
As you probably know, you could use bookmarks. Or you could open two copies of the same PDF. (But yes, I love that feature in viewers.)

vermaden 3y ago

I use SumatraPDF daily but an older version 2.5.2 - before the 'larger' rework. Works very well under WINE on FreeBSD and does not have display issues with taskbars etc.

ivraatiems 3y ago

Wow, I just installed this for the first time and its performance blows both Adobe Reader (not an achievement) and Foxit (something of an achievement) out of the water! Nice work by these devs. And its install footprint is around 10% of those programs. What the hell is Adobe doing, I wonder, that makes their software so unbearably slow and painful to use?

yoyohello13 3y ago
Even more impressive is I believe it’s a solo dev. SumatraPDF is one of my go to examples of a great software project. Something to aspire to.
tayo42 3y ago
> What the hell is Adobe doing Maybe they're handling every posts feature wish list? Like every comment so far here is Sumatra is nice but...< Some random feature > is missing
- seb1204 3y ago
  PDF-exchange - I have been using this for many years in a paid version. Fast and good editing features e.g. mark-ups. https://pdf-xchange.eu/pdf-xchange-editor/index.htm https://pdf-xchange.eu/pdf-xchange-editor/index.htm
dagw 3y ago
What the hell is Adobe doing Probably supporting 100% of the PDF spec. plus addressing all those obscure feature requests that 6 companies in this one very niche industry really really need. Sumatra is fantastic and basically the only PDF reader I use on Windows, but it does have maybe 10% of the features Adobe acrobat has. It is however the 10% that that basically everybody needs.
- Xerox9213 3y ago
  Acrobat Pro is pretty incredible. One of my favourite features is the following: on a scanned PDF after performing OCR you can edit the text and it will match the font. As in, it will create a new font based on the characters it found in OCR. I’m a high school math teacher and scan dozens of textbooks every year. Adjusting a few words before printing to match what we did in class is a huge time saver for me. Somehow my school division was able to buy me a one time fee perpetual license. I’m very happy with it.

puzzlingcaptcha 3y ago

I have been using Sumatra for years and my only issue is that it sometimes takes a _very_ long time to get it to start printing a complex document (at least on Windows). I still keep Adobe Reader around just for printing.

kjksf 3y ago
(I wrote SumatraPDF). Yes, printing is not great. Actively considering making it better, maybe in next version.

throwaway2037 3y ago

A more accurate title would be: SumatraPDF: multi-format reader for Windows

afterburner 3y ago
Yes, I love it for comics (CBZ files).

timvdalen 3y ago

I've been using Sumatra for what feels like a decade, and it's definitely the best PDF reader out there. I mostly started using it for the auto-refresh when I'm working on a LaTeX document.

bronlund 3y ago

I got a love/hate relationship with PDF readers, and I find myself constantly switching from one to the other in hope of a better experience. All I want is to set my own exact colors and to use a hand-tool if I so wish. You wouldn't think that such simple wants should be an issue or, if what you did was making PDF-readers, that it may cross your mind to implement one or two of those.

dimmuborgir 3y ago

Dark mode finally!!! This was the only bummer for me all these years. Not anymore!

urlwolf 3y ago

Is there any way to click on an image to magnify? in many books figures are too small. Ctrl + scroll does magnify the entire doc, but the img is pixelated.

teleforce 3y ago

Is there any open source seamless PDF editor available given how pervasive is the PDF document nowadays? I really think that we need one and it has been long overdue. What I meant by seamless is that all of the open source software that currently able to edit PDF document is dong it in a clunky way at best for example Krita and LibreOffice Draw. The resulting edited output document also is also looks distinct, in a bad way, from the original document unlike the output from Adobe PDF editor.

fithisux 3y ago
The spec is very complex. there are some, here and there but nothing coherent. Even worse PDF is not "open source", it should have been accompanied by LaTeX source.
- teleforce 3y ago
  The PDF is now standardized as ISO 32000, it's open for everyone to create compatible tools. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF
  - looperhacks 3y ago
    "Open" for the cheap price of ~$230
    - SV_BubbleTime 3y ago
      I deal with ISO all the time, they’re cutting you a “deal” there.
mesebrec 3y ago
Have you tried the latest version of OnlyOffice?
pelalmqvist 3y ago
Maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but take a look at Stirling-PDF. https://github.com/Frooodle/Stirling-PDF https://github.com/Frooodle/Stirling-PDF

urlwolf 3y ago

If you are on linux and miss the snappiness of sumatra, try llpp. They use the same renderer. In fact, llpp has more features, like a better overview mode where you can get 3 pages on screen. Search does suck. llpp is written in Ocaml and a fantastic piece of software.

mmh0000 3y ago
I’ve been using Sumatra through WINE (a tool that emulates the Windows api) for years. Works great on Linux that way.

erremerre 3y ago

On the other side of the spectrum you have Calibre, a program that uses a multiplatform abstraction, with a myriad of options, a myriad of icons, plenty of features... In my opinion, I prefer the Sumatra way of doing things. But if you need to transform data... there is no other option that fighting against the multiple features of Calibre.

psnehanshu 3y ago

Great app, but never tried it. I am wondering why people just don't use Chrome or Firefox or Edge as their PDF reader?

guilamu 3y ago
Maybe it's just me, but they all happen to have issues when printing. No idea why or if it has been fixed recently, but I never had this kind of issue with Sumatra or Acrobat obviously.
afterburner 3y ago
Well, here's a really weird reason: it's a great comic CBZ reader!

Helmut10001 3y ago

SumatraPDF is among the OSS PDF tools I use. Since Adobe is pushing a more aggressive stance for monetization of Acrobat, I am trying to replace selected PDF workflows with OSS. Here are some of the tools I use. qpdf removing passwords, unlocking PDFs, conversion install in WSL with apt-get install qpdf remove password with qpdf --decrypt --password="" input.pdf output.pdf PDF4QT - Open Source PDF Editing Deleting, Sorting, Extracting Pages Currently, no choco release available, must be installed manually from PDF4QT/releases Inkscape, LibreOffice Draw editing PDFs, adding text Mupdf Command line tool and Python package for parsing, filling forms, adding text SumatraPDF Viewing of PDFs pdfplumber Awesome python package to extract tables from PDFs into data pipelines. Use with Jupyter Lab

dustingetz 3y ago
how can i sign and date a PDF with a bitmap signature without 9999 janky clicks
quyleanh 3y ago
Actually SumatraPDF is using MuPDF now. But there is some limitation on rendering PDF and eBook files. For example, formatting PDF file or displaying Unicode characters in epub file.
- sebras 3y ago
  Do you mind reporting those issues either to SumatraPDF at https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues or directly to MuPDF at https://bugs.ghostscript.com/ https://bugs.ghostscript.com/ if it also has the same issue? Thank you! There are many wonderfully weird PDFs and epubs out there, but we do our best to fix issues. :)
  - quyleanh 3y ago
    Thank you for reaching out. Please refer to the following issue list from SumatraPDF repo [1] [2]. Epub rendering issue like [3] [4]. [1] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aupdated-desc+label%3Amupdf https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues?q=is%3... [2] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aupdated-desc+label%3Aebook https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues?q=is%3... [3] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/2752 https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/2752 [4] https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/3761 https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/3761

red_admiral 3y ago

Even in the software world we can, sometimes, have nice things. SumatraPDF is one of them. Kol HaKavod to Krzysztof Kowalczyk!

rtpg 3y ago

It's kinda frustrating how by default, most major OS setups now are "open PDFs inside the browser". It's kinda nice that browsers can handle PDFs smooth-ish now, but Preview on Mac is nice, and SumatraPDF is as well.

piokoch 3y ago

This is amazing piece of software. You click the icon and it starts. Immediately. It does what you expect it to do, it just displays PDF file on the screen.

ykonstant 3y ago

I implore all developers of PDF readers to implement sioyek's overview feature[0]. When you hover on a cross-referenced entry, it opens a little preview window with the contents of the reference. It is an absolute game-changer for reading textbooks and technical papers; I cannot overstate its utility. [0] https://github.com/ahrm/sioyek#overview https://github.com/ahrm/sioyek#overview

kjksf 3y ago
(I wrote SumatraPDF). I know about sioyek and been meaning to steal some of their ideas. Maybe in the next version.
V1ndaar 3y ago
Evince does the same. It's a great feature, I agree.
cs3f16 3y ago
Thank you so much for sharing this extremely amazing software! I hope it gains more popularity and traction.
javale 3y ago
Thanks for sharing!!
majora2007 3y ago
This is really cool, I'm going to steal some of these ideas for my app Kavita.
spit2wind 3y ago
Is this not Ted Nelson's transclusion? Namely, "...the same content knowably in more than one place". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transclusion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transclusion
wolverine876 3y ago
> When you hover on a cross-referenced entry, it opens a little preview window with the contents of the reference. Wikipedia does the same thing, but I assume you would know that. What am I misunderstanding? Also, if it makes your PDF reader execute arbitrary remote code, isn't that a serious risk?

ajariix 3y ago

Sioyek beats SumatraPDF for academic text work. Sioyek has Overview[0], Smart Jump and more features that helps academic text studies. Digital versions of page earmarks, pen highlighting and margin notes that are common in academic text usage. It feels like the main developer and contributors have personal experience of that kind of use and gear the application for it. In contrast the SumatraPDF dev seems focused mostly on light, casual PDF viewing. Read short pdf files from start to end, add a few highlights, occasionally search. One good feature SumatraPDF used to have, but removed, was an option to store annotations (such as colored text highlighting) in external .smx sidecar files. Similar to how VLC and other video players support sidecar .srt subtitle files. Since a few years SumatraPDF now only writes annotations into the PDF file. That has some advantages (greater cross reader annotation compatibility, all in one file) but also disadvantages: - Third party tools can't search or operate on the plaintext annotations. With the sidecar approach if highlighted text were to be stored as plaintext with location data in the sidecar file third party tools could use ripgrep or similar to do fast, powerful searching and filtering on highlights across a whole pdf collection. - Annotation versioning. - No convenient way to load different sets of annotations for a single file. Useful for academic text work where one source document may be highlighted differently for different research topics. With an API and support for third party tools toggling such sets could be instant and very user friendly. Without sidecar files the user has to keep separate copies of the pdf file and write different annotations to each. - Modifying the source pdf can be an issue where text integrity is crucial. Many pdf documents are used as a shared source of truth and simple hashing can verify that all parties use the same unmodified document. That gets more complicated when annotations are written into the file, since different pdf applications do such writing differently. Even though Sioyek is better for academic work I think there is a lot more to do. In some ways academic text work on a physical book still has a better UX. For example a glance at the edge of a physical book gives an overview of the earmark locations. A digital version of that would be a code editor minimap style sidebar that overview highlight and bookmark locations in the whole pdf document. The minimap could have a heatmap feature that colors (and gradually fades) locations the user recently has viewed in the pdf. As a way to mitigate getting lost when jumping between locations in a digital document. [0] https://github.com/ahrm/sioyek#overview https://github.com/ahrm/sioyek#overview

sireat 3y ago

Thank you kjksf for such an amazing tool! I've been using Sumatra for past 10+ years. It is usually the first thing on my ninite.com checklist that I use when installing fresh Windows on friends and relative's computers. PS As a bonus Sumatra works quite well on epubs.

the__alchemist 3y ago

Sumatra is a the timeless gems of free/open-source software. Alternatively, a reminder of a time when PC programs were unobtrusive and performant.

skah 3y ago

I use daily. Extremely useful, lightweight, and minimalistic. It is similar to MKVToolNix, VLC, or GIMP.

synergy20 3y ago

Okular has been my favorite, esp that I can highlight and save them for any PDFs and I can easily open multiple PDFs tabbed.

jjgreen 3y ago

You'd be better off sticking with PostScript ... [ducks for cover]

botanical 3y ago

When I'd used Windows Sumatra was the best; on Ubuntu, I use Zathura which is similar, fast and minimal. But I think most PDF viewers are more or less the same as they either use mupdf or poppler

8bitme 3y ago

SumatraPDF does not acquire a file lock on the pdf. This is really useful if you're debugging a process that outputs a pdf and you want to see how the pdf refreshes. With other readers the tool that tries to replace the pdf will fail as the pdf viewer has a lock on the file.

Alifatisk 3y ago

There are some really good free pdf editors out there but I found none to match Acrobats features like censoring texts.

vGPU 3y ago

> This comes back to Jeff Bezos’ wisdom: there will never be a time when users want bloated and slow apps so being small and fast is a permanent advantage. A nugget Bezos seems to have forgotten.