xpdf

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 12 Nov 1996
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NAME

xpdf - Portable Document Format (PDF) file viewer for X (version 0.6)

SYNOPSIS

xpdf [options] [PDF-file [page]]

DESCRIPTION

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 UNIX or VMS and the X Window System.

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

OPTIONS

X resources are listed in square brackets with the corresponding option.

-err: Send error messages to /dev/tty instead of stderr (useful if xpdf is started from another application, e.g., netscape which otherwise pops up an annoying little window for every error).
-z number: Set the initial zoom factor (-5 .. 5). [xpdf.initialZoom]
-g geometry: Set the initial window geometry. (-geometry is equivalent.) [xpdf.geometry]
-remote name: Start/contact xpdf remote server with specified name (see the REMOTE SERVER MODE section below).
-raise: Raise xpdf remote server window (with -remote only).
-quit: Kill xpdf remote server (with -remote only).
-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.
-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. [xpdf.psFile]
-cmd: Print commands as they're executed (useful for debugging).
-h: Print usage information. (-help is equivalent.)

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

-display display: [xpdf.display]
-fg color: (-foreground is equivalent.) [xpdf.foreground]
-bg color: (-background is equivalent.) [xpdf.background]
-font font: (-fn is equivalent.) [xpdf.font]

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

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.
'Page' entry box: Move to a specific page number. Click in the box to activate it, type the page number, then hit return.
magnifying glass buttons: Increase and decrease the resolution, i.e., zoom in and zoom out.
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'.
curved arrow buttons: Rotate the page clockwise and counterclockwise. These 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.
'?' button: Bring up the 'about xpdf' window.
'Quit' button: Quit xpdf.

Links

Clicking on a hyperlink will jump to the link's destination. Currently, only links within PDF documents or to another PDF file are supported. Clicking on a URL link just prints the URL. Clicking on any other type of link (e.g., links to executable programs) prints an error message.

Key bindings

n: Move to the next page.
p: Move to the previous page.
<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.
<Home>: Scroll to top of current page.
<End>: Scroll to bottom of current page.
arrows: Scroll the current page.
control-L: Redraw the current page.
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 -err %s

Make sure that xpdf is on your executable search path.

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.

CONFIGURATION FILE

Xpdf will read a file called .xpdfrc from your home directory (if it exists). This file can contain two types of entries.

fontpath directory: Look for Type 1 fonts in directory. Xpdf uses this only to get the font encoding. For display, the font must also be mapped with a fontmap entry.
fontmap PDF-font X-font: Map PDF-font (as referenced in a PDF file) to X-font, which should be a standard X font descriptor with '%s' in the pixel size position.

For example, use:

: fontmap TimesCE-Roman -*-times-medium-r-*-*-%s-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-2

to map the Central European (Latin-2) version of the Times-Roman font. This assumes that you've installed the appropriate X fonts (see mkfontdir(1)). Xpdf knows about the ISO8859-2 encoding, so you don't need a fontpath entry for these fonts. To use the Bakoma Type 1 fonts, do this:

: fontpath /home/derekn/fonts/bakoma
fontmap cmb10 -bakoma-cmb10-medium-r-normal--%s-*-*-*-p-*-adobe-fontspecific
fontmap cmbsy10 -bakoma-cmbsy10-medium-r-normal--%s-*-*-*-p-*-adobe-fontspecific
etc...

This assumes that the Type 1 font files are available in the directory /home/derekn/fonts/bakoma.

BUGS

This is a beta release of xpdf, and there are still a bunch of PDF features which I have yet to implement.

At this point, the biggest problem is that embedded fonts are not handled properly.

AUTHOR

Index

On-screen controls, at the bottom of the xpdf window
Links
Key bindings

WEB BROWSERS

REMOTE SERVER MODE

CONFIGURATION FILE

BUGS

AUTHOR

SEE ALSO

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 23:39:51 GMT, February 15, 2023