Viewing PDFs

Viewing PDFs with zathura

Zathura is a PDF viewer for Linux that integrates well with a keyboard-driven workflow. To view a PDF, run:

zathura /path/to/your/file.pdf

Navigating in Zathura

Zathura supports a variety of keyboard shortcuts to navigate through your document, making it easy to use without needing to take your hands off the keyboard:

Page Down: j
Page Up: k or Page Up
Zoom In: +
Zoom Out: -
Full Screen: F11

The configuration file for Zathura is located at ~/.config/zathura/zathurarc and contains additional keybindings and settings:

sudo vim ~/.config/zathura/zathurarc

This is Aegix’s out-of-the-box zathurarc:

set sandbox none
set statusbar-h-padding 0
set statusbar-v-padding 0
set page-padding 1
set selection-clipboard clipboard
map u scroll half-up
map d scroll half-down
map D toggle_page_mode
map r reload
map R rotate
map K zoom in
map J zoom out
map i recolor
map p print
map g goto top

Tim note: There are also some helpful tips you try out right inside zathura by running Ctrl + F1. This command invoked by Ctrl + F1: groff -mom /usr/local/share/dwm/barbs.mom -Tpdf | zathura - takes the barbs ministry of magic file invoked by groff, piped to zathura. Some fun functionality is outlined at the top of this document. My favorites being s to fit text to your window and Ctrl + r to invoke “reader mode” which inverts the colors.