I've been using Firefox to view PDFs and it works fine. Recently though I wanted to try something more minimal with vim keybindings. Found two options: Zathura and tdf (terminal pdf viewer).

What I'm curious about is why someone would choose a TUI pdf viewer over a regular one (like Zathura). What are the actual advantages people find in practice. tdf mentions being fast but I wonder if that's something you'd actually notice day to day?

Also I remember seeing screenshots where PDFs looked transparent or matched the terminal colors. Is that actually a feature of some of these viewers ? Maybe someone uses one here?

Tdf seems relatively popular with 1.4k github stars.

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[–] 31 points 11 months ago (1 child)

Watch pdf files on remote server using ssh without gui

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    But you need tdf installed on the server for that right?

    I realize I rarely have to do it so I tend to just download and open the pdf, or use X forwarding. Or while using emacs I just open the remote file (which basically downloads and opens I guess).

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