xpdf(1)
NAME
xpdf - Portable Document Format (PDF) file viewer for X
(version 0.7a)
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
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 start xpdf without opening any files:
xpdf
OPTIONS
X resources are listed in square brackets with the corre-
sponding option.
-err Send error messages to /dev/tty instead of stderr
(useful if xpdf is started from another applica-
tion, e.g., netscape which otherwise pops up an
annoying little window for every error).
-z number
Set the initial zoom factor (-5 .. 5). [xpdf.ini-
tialZoom]
-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).
-cmap Install a private colormap. This is ignored on
TrueColor visuals. [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.
-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]
-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. [xpdf.psLevel1]
-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').
The following X resources do not have command line option
equivalents:
xpdf.urlCommand
Set the command executed when you click on a URL
link. See the WEB BROWSERS section below for
details.
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.
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.
Save PDF...
Save the current file via a file requester.
Rotate left
Rotate the page 90 degrees counterclockwise.
Rotate right
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.
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.
f Find a text string.
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 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.
<<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.
When you click on a URL link in a PDF file, xpdf will exe-
cute the command specified by the xpdf.urlCommand
resource, replacing an occurrence of '%s' with the URL.
For example, to call netscape with the URL, use this
resource setting:
xpdf.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.
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-nor-
mal--%s-*-*-*-p-*-adobe-fontspecific
fontmap cmbsy10 -bakoma-cmbsy10-medium-r-nor-
mal--%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
The xpdf software and documentation are copyright
1996-1998 Derek B. Noonburg derekn@aimnet.com.
SEE ALSO
pdftops(1) pdftotext(1)
http://www.aimnet.com/~derekn/xpdf/