xpdf(1) manual page

Name

xpdf - Portable Document Format (PDF) file viewer for X (version 2.03)

Synopsis

xpdf [options] [PDF-file [page | +dest]]

Xpdf is a viewer for Portable Document Format (PDF) files. (These are also sometimes also called 'Acrobat' files, from the name of Adobe's PDF software.) Xpdf runs under the X Window System on UNIX, VMS, and OS/2.

To run xpdf, simply type:

xpdf file.pdf

where file.pdf is your PDF file. The file name can be followed by a number specifying the page which should be displayed first, e.g.:

xpdf file.pdf 18

You can also give a named destination, prefixed with '+' in place of the page number.

You can also start xpdf without opening any files:

xpdf

Configuration File

Xpdf reads a configuration file at startup. It first tries to find the user's private config file, ~/.xpdfrc. If that doesn't exist, it looks for a system-wide config file, typically /usr/local/etc/xpdfrc (but this location can be changed when xpdf is built). See the xpdfrc(5) man page for details.

Options

Many of the following options can be set with configuration file commands or X resources. These are listed in square brackets with the description of the corresponding command line option.

-g geometry: Set the initial window geometry. (-geometry is equivalent.) [X resource: xpdf.geometry]
-title title: Set the window title. By default, the title will be "xpdf: foo.pdf". [X resource: xpdf.title]
-cmap: Install a private colormap. This is ignored on TrueColor visuals. [X resource: xpdf.installCmap]
-rgb number: Set the size of largest RGB cube xpdf will try to allocate. The default is 5 (for a 5x5x5 cube); set to a smaller number to conserve color table entries. This is ignored with private colormaps and on TrueColor visuals. [X resource: xpdf.rgbCubeSize]
-rv: Set reverse video mode. This reverses the colors of everything except images. It may not always produce great results for PDF files which do weird things with color. This also causes the paper color to default to black. [X resource: xpdf.reverseVideo]
-papercolor color: Set the "paper color", i.e., the background of the page display. This will not work too well with PDF files that do things like filling in white behind the text. [X resource: xpdf.paperColor]
-z zoom: Set the initial zoom factor. A number specifies a zoom percentage, where 100 means 72 dpi.You may also specify 'page', to fit the page to the window size, or 'width', to fit the page width to the window width. [config file: initialZoom; or X resource: xpdf.initialZoom]
-t1lib font-type: Set the type of font rendering for t1lib (the Type 1 rasterizer) to use. Options are 'none' (don't use t1lib at all), 'plain' (use non-anti-aliased fonts), 'low' or 'high' (use low-level or high-level anti-aliased fonts). [config file: t1libControl]
-freetype font-type: Set the type of font rendering for FreeType (the TrueType rasterizer) to use. Options are 'none' (don't use FreeType at all), 'plain' (use non-anti-aliased fonts), 'low' or 'high' (use anti-aliased fonts; these two are identical). [config file: freetypeControl]
-ps PS-file: Set the default file name for PostScript output. This can also be of the form '|command' to pipe the PostScript through a command. [config file: psFile]
-paper size: Set the paper size to one of "letter", "legal", "A4", or "A3". This can also be set to "match", which will set the paper size to match the size specified in the PDF file. [config file: psPaperSize]
-paperw size: Set the paper width, in points. [config file: psPaperSize]
-paperh size: Set the paper height, in points. [config file: psPaperSize]
-level1: Generate Level 1 PostScript. The resulting PostScript files will be significantly larger (if they contain images), but will print on Level 1 printers. This also converts all images to black and white. [config file: psLevel]
-enc encoding-name: Sets the encoding to use for text output. The encoding-name must be defined with the unicodeMap command (see xpdfrc(5) ). This defaults to "Latin1" (which is a built-in encoding). [config file: textEncoding]
-eol unix | dos | mac: Sets the end-of-line convention to use for text output. [config file: textEOL]
-opw password: Specify the owner password for the PDF file. Providing this will bypass all security restrictions.
-upw password: Specify the user password for the PDF file.
-fullscreen: Open xpdf in a full-screen mode, useful for presentations. You may also want to specify '-bg black' (or similar) with this. (There is currently no way to switch between window and full-screen modes on the fly.)
-remote name: Start/contact xpdf remote server with specified name (see the REMOTE SERVER MODE section below).
-reload: Reload xpdf remote server window (with -remote only).
-raise: Raise xpdf remote server window (with -remote only).
-quit: Kill xpdf remote server (with -remote only).
-cmd: Print commands as they're executed (useful for debugging). [config file: printCommands]
-q: Don't print any messages or errors. [config file: errQuiet]
-cfg config-file: Read config-file in place of ~/.xpdfrc or the system-wide config file.
-v: Print copyright and version information.
-h: Print usage information. (-help and --help are equivalent.)

Several other standard X options and resources will work as expected:

-display display: [X resource: xpdf.display]
-fg color: (-foreground is equivalent.) [X resource: xpdf*Foreground]
-bg color: (-background is equivalent.) [X resource: xpdf*Background]
-font font: (-fn is equivalent.) [X resource: xpdf*fontList]

The color and font options only affect the user interface elements, not the PDF display (the 'paper').

The following X resources do not have command line option equivalents:

xpdf.viKeys: Enables the 'h', 'l', 'k' and 'j' keys for left, right, up, and down scrolling.

Controls

On-screen controls, at the bottom of the xpdf window

left/right arrow buttons: Move to the previous/next page.
double left/right arrow buttons: Move backward or forward by ten pages.
dashed left/right arrow buttons: Move backward or forward along the history path.
'Page' entry box: Move to a specific page number. Click in the box to activate it, type the page number, then hit return.
zoom popup menu: Change the zoom factor (see the description of the -z option above).
binoculars button: Find a text string.
print button: Bring up a dialog for generating a PostScript file. The dialog has options to set the pages to be printed and the PostScript file name. The file name can be '-' for stdout or '|command' to pipe the PostScript through a command, e.g., '|lpr'.
'?' button: Bring up the 'about xpdf' window.
link info: The space between the '?' and 'Quit' buttons is used to show the URL or external file name when the mouse is over a link.
'Quit' button: Quit xpdf.

Open...: Open a new PDF file via a file requester.
Open in new window...: Create a new window and open a new PDF file via a file requester.
Reload: Reload the current PDF file. Note that Xpdf will reload the file automatically (on a page change or redraw) if it has changed since it was last loaded.
Save as...: Save the current file via a file requester.
Rotate counterclockwise: Rotate the page 90 degrees counterclockwise.
Rotate clockwise: Rotate the page 90 degrees clockwise. The two rotate commands are intended primarily for PDF files where the rotation isn't correctly specified in the file, but they're also useful if your X server doesn't support font rotation.
Close: Close the current window. If this is the only open window, the document is closed, but the window is left open (i.e., this menu command won't quit xpdf).
Quit: Quit xpdf.

Outline

If the PDF contains an outline (a.k.a., bookmarks), there will be an outline pane on the left side of the window. The width of the outline pane is adjustable with a vertical split bar via the knob near its bottom end.

Text selection

Dragging the mouse with the left button held down will highlight an arbitrary rectangle. Any text inside this rectangle will be copied to the X selection buffer.

Links

Clicking on a hyperlink will jump to the link's destination. A link to another PDF document will make xpdf load that document. A 'launch' link to an executable program will display a dialog, and if you click 'ok', execute the program. URL links call an external command (see the WEB BROWSERS section below).

Panning

Dragging the mouse with the middle button held down pans the window.

Key bindings

o: Open a new PDF file via a file requester.
r: Reload the current PDF file. Note that Xpdf will reload the file automatically (on a page change or redraw) if it has changed since it was last loaded.
control-L: Redraw the current page.
control-W: Close the current window.
f or control-F: Find a text string.
control-G: Find next occurrence.
control-P: Print.
n: Move to the next page. Scrolls to the top of the page, unless scroll lock is turned on.
p: Move to the previous page. Scrolls to the top of the page, unless scroll lock is turned on.
<Space> or <PageDown> or <Next>: Scroll down on the current page; if already at bottom, move to next page.
<Backspace> or <Delete> or <PageUp> or <Previous>: Scroll up on the current page; if already at top, move to previous page.
v: Move forward along the history path.
b: Move backward along the history path.
<Home>: Scroll to top of current page.
<End>: Scroll to bottom of current page.
control-<Home>: Scroll to first page of document.
control-<End>: Scroll to last page of document.
arrows: Scroll the current page.
g: Activate the page number text field ("goto page").
Set the zoom factor to zero (72 dpi).
+: Zoom in (increment the zoom factor by 1).
-: Zoom out (decrement the zoom factor by 1).
z: Set the zoom factor to 'page' (fit page to window).
w: Set the zoom factor to 'width' (fit page width to window).
q: Quit xpdf.

Web Browsers

If you want to run xpdf automatically from netscape or mosaic (and probably other browsers) when you click on a link to a PDF file, you need to edit (or create) the files .mime.types and .mailcap in your home directory. In .mime.types add the line:

application/pdf pdf

In .mailcap add the lines:

# Use xpdf to view PDF files.

application/pdf; xpdf -q %s

Make sure that xpdf is on your executable search path.

When you click on a URL link in a PDF file, xpdf will execute the command specified by the urlCommand config file option, replacing an occurrence of '%s' with the URL. For example, to call netscape with the URL, add this line to your config file:

urlCommand "netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'"

Remote Server Mode

Xpdf can be started in remote server mode by specifying a server name (in addition to the file name and page number). For example:

xpdf -remote myServer file.pdf

If there is currently no xpdf running in server mode with the name 'myServer', a new xpdf window will be opened. If another command:

xpdf -remote myServer another.pdf 9

is issued, a new copy of xpdf will not be started. Instead, the first xpdf (the server) will load another.pdf and display page nine. If the file name is the same:

xpdf -remote myServer another.pdf 4

the xpdf server will simply display the specified page.

The -raise option tells the server to raise its window; it can be specified with or without a file name and page number.

The -quit option tells the server to close its window and exit.

Exit Codes

The Xpdf tools use the following exit codes:

No error.
Error opening a PDF file.
Error opening an output file.
Error related to PDF permissions.
Other error.