There’s a lot of PDF readers for Linux, and in this article I will show you some of them.

Table of Contents

Okular

A great PDF reader with all the needed features: you can fill forms, view signatures in digitally signed documents, select text, add annotations, etc.

Okular window

qpdfview

With qpdfview you can do all the basic stuff. Simple but with all essential options. I’ve had some problems when printing documents.

qpdfview window

ePDFViewer

Simple but very fast PDF reader (available in Arch repositories under the name epdfview). Some printing options are missing.

ePDFViewer window

Evince

It’s the default PDF reader in GNOME and like other default software, it’s very simple. You can fill forms but it doesn’t show you info about digital signatures. It’s fast and it can be a good choice for most users.

Evince window

Atril

It’s Evince for MATE desktop. It has a different layout though.

Atril window

Foxit PDF Reader

I have several issues using this software in my Ubuntu 21.04 computer (it crashes all the time) but it’s a popular software and it may work on your device.

FoxitReader window

Install

  1. Download tar.gz file from Foxit website.
  2. Unpack and run the executable: 
    tar -xzf <FoxitReader-tar-file>
./<FoxitReader-run-file>
  3. Follow the instructions.

Uninstall

  • Run maintenancetool.sh (it’s where you installed FoxitReader, default location is /home/<user>/opt/foxitsoftware/foxitreader/).

If you have any suggestion, feel free to contact me via social media or email.