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What's a good lightweight non Adobe PDF reader for Linux? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/linux@lemmy.world
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I'm running Termux with XFCE desktop on Android. I only just realized that the only program I currently have installed that can properly open PDFs is GIMP, and that's extreme overkill as I just want a lightweight reader, no need to manipulate them as images ya know.

Also, related side question, are there any lightweight Linux terminal programs that can export PDF as plain text? I'm kinda hoping to pipe the text output of George Orwell 1984 through espeak reader and have Linux read it out to me...

Edit: Plain text and speech engine questions solved, and rather simple no less. This is the refined version BTW, --stdin is necessary to make espeak read the entire document.

pdftotext go-1984.pdf -|espeak --stdin

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[–] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

I view PDFs on Linux with evince or xpdf. Xpdf is lighter but has fewer features.

are there any lightweight Linux terminal programs that can export PDF as plain text

pdftotext

EDIT: Xpdf probably also isn't Wayland-native, if that matters for you.

EDIT2:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evince

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xpdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppler_(software)

(pdftotext is in the poppler-utils package in Debian)

EDIT3: Oh, looks like Xpdf got ported to Qt, so it probably can do Wayland these days.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

    Fuck...

    E: Failed to fetch https://mirrors.hust.edu.cn/termux/apt/termux-x11/pool/main/x/xpdf/xpdf_4.06_aarch64.deb Could not connect to mirrors.hust.edu.cn:443 (222.20.97.213), connection timed out

    Also, apparently pdftotext must not have been recompiled for Termux. Apparently I was mistaken, part of the poppler tools, pdftotext already installed.

    Termux is kinda special like that, as its entire filesystem doesn't reside in / like normal Linux, it resides in /data/data/com.termux/files/, so every single program that even exists for it had to be specially recompiled just for it.

    Anyways, guess I'm about to try to install evince...

    Sucks though that xpdf exists for Termux but the server isn't responding right now :(

    Edit: Fuck²...

    E: Failed to fetch https://mirrors.sdu.edu.cn/termux/apt/termux-main/pool/main/libs/libsynctex/libsynctex_1:2026.0-2_aarch64.deb 404 Not Found [IP: 101.76.224.129 443]

    Edit 2: I'm a fucking idiot, the poppler tools are already installed, and I already have pdftotext installed. Stupid sexy apt install pdftotext didn't tell me that LMFAO!

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

    Honestly, I didn't even know that one could do a graphical environment on Termux (as XFCE and GIMP would entail) with it. The Termux I know on Android is an app in F-Droid that provides a terminal-only environment. So I don't really know what-all is packaged for the environment you're using. Just saying that traditional Linux distros will have those.

    EDIT: You might run a pkg update in Termux to update the index of currently-available packages, then try installing it.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Yeah, same Termux app from F-Droid running the show, via VNC...

    Termux + vncserver + XFCE displayed through MultiVNC here, it was a fun journey getting it all set up, but yeah I've been running this as my main daily runner since July, and rather almost like it LOL!

    Not sure if you caught my edits, but aapparently the poppler tools were already installed, so I already have pdftotext 👍

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Ah, gotcha! Thanks for the explanation!

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 day ago

    I just caught your edit regarding pkg update, yeah that's like one of the first things I do before upgrading or installing any packages. Actually pkg is just an alias for apt anyways, same difference on Termux.

    Once the GUI is all set up, synaptic package manager is also a nice healthy option to install 👍

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