xpdf(1)xpdf(1)NAMExpdf - Portable Document Format (PDF) file viewer for X
(version 2.02)
SYNOPSISxpdf [options] [PDF-file [page | +dest]]
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
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:
xpdfCONFIGURATION 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 configura-
tion 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 (-5 .. 5)
specifies a zoom factor, where 0 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: t1libCon-
trol]
-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: psPaper-
Size]
-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: tex-
tEncoding]
-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. Pro-
viding 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 presen-
tations. 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 sys-
tem-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.
Menu
Pressing the right mouse button will post a popup menu
with the following commands:
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.
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 destina-
tion. 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 bot-
tom, 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").
0 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 exe-
cute 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 num-
ber). 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 num-
ber.
The -quit option tells the server to close its window and
exit.
EXIT CODES
The Xpdf tools use the following exit codes:
0 No error.
1 Error opening a PDF file.
2 Error opening an output file.
3 Error related to PDF permissions.
99 Other error.
AUTHOR
The xpdf software and documentation are copyright
1996-2003 Glyph & Cog, LLC.
SEE ALSOpdftops(1), pdftotext(1), pdfinfo(1), pdffonts(1),
pdftopbm(1), pdfimages(1), xpdfrc(5)
http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/
24 March 2003 xpdf(1)
