pdf-tui

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

pdf-tui_demo.mp4

Runtime dependencies:

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

Manual dependency install examples:

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

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

Installation

Arch Linux AUR:

yay -S pdf-tui-bin

Alternative AUR packages:

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

Homebrew:

brew install WindustH/tap/pdf-tui

Windows (experimental and untested): download the x86_64-pc-windows-msvc ZIP from the release page, then follow the Windows setup guide. The Windows build is produced by CI, but has not been tested by the maintainer on a real Windows installation. The guide covers Poppler and optional feature dependencies plus the default Pdfium backend and its pdfium.dll configuration. Pdfium was the fastest backend in the project's existing Linux benchmark; Windows performance is untested.

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

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

Usage

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

Runtime commands are available with ::

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

Documentation

• Documentation index
• Windows setup (experimental and untested)