xpdf(1)

NAME
xpdf - Portable Document Format (PDF) file viewer (version 4.06)

SYNOPSIS
xpdf [options] [PDF-file [:page | +dest]] ...

xpdf [options] -remote remote-name [command ...]

xpdf [options] -open [PDF-file]

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 uses the Qt GUI toolkit and runs on Unix, OS X, and Windows.

To run xpdf, type:

    xpdf file.pdf

where file.pdf is your PDF file. The file name can be followed by a page number to be displayed, prefixed with a colon:

    xpdf file.pdf :18

or by a named destination, prefixed with '+' (this is only useful with PDF files that provide named destination targets):

    xpdf file.pdf +destinationA

If you specify multiple files, they will each be opened in a separate tab:

    xpdf file1.pdf file2.pdf :18 file3.pdf

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 /etc/xpdfrc (but this location can be changed when xpdf is built). See the xpdfrc(5) man page for details.

OPTIONS
The following command line options are available. All command line options must come before any PDF files to be opened.

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

-geometry geometry
    Set the initial window geometry.

-title title
    Set the window title. By default, the title will be "xpdf: foo.pdf".

-open [PDF-file]
    This option sets up a default remote server. If Xpdf is already running (with the "-open" switch), the PDF file (if any) is opened in a new tab. If Xpdf (with the "-open" switch) is not already running, starts Xpdf and opens the PDF file (if any). This is useful for GUI desktop environments, e.g., the typical double-click on a PDF file case.

-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.

-papercolor color
    Set the "paper color", i.e., the background of the page display. The color can be #RRGGBB (hexadecimal) or a named color. This option will not work well with PDF files that do things like filling in white behind the text. [config file: paperColor]

-mattecolor color
    Set the matte color, i.e., the color used for background outside the actual page area. The color can be #RRGGBB (hexadecimal) or a named color. [config file: matteColor]

-fsmattecolor color
    Set the matte color for full-screen mode. The color can be #RRGGBB (hexadecimal) or a named color. [config file: fullScreenMatteColor]

-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]

-rot angle
    Rotate pages by 0 (the default), 90, 180, or 270 degrees.

-aa yes | no
    Enable or disable font anti-aliasing. This defaults to "yes". [config file: antialias]

-aaVector yes | no
    Enable or disable vector anti-aliasing. This defaults to "yes". [config file: vectorAntialias]

-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]

-pw password
    Specify the password for the PDF file. This can be either the owner password (which will bypass all security restrictions) or the user password.

-fullscreen
    Open xpdf in full-screen mode, useful for presentations.

-remote remote-name
    Start Xpdf in remote server mode. See the REMOTE SERVER MODE section.

-display display
    Set the X display (only available with X11).

-cmd
    Print commands as they're executed (useful for debugging). [config file: printCommands]

-tabstate tabstate-file
    Sets the file used by the loadTabState and saveTabState commands. [config file: tabStateFile]

-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.)

CONTROLS

  Toolbar

toggle sidebar button
    Toggles (i.e., shows or hides) the sidebar.

status indicator
    This icon is animated while Xpdf is rendering a page. It turns red when an error or warning has been issued. Clicking on it opens the error dialog.

selection mode
    This icon is an "I-beam" in linear selection mode, and an arrow in block selection mode. Clicking on it toggles between the two selection modes.

page number entry box
    Move to a specific page number. Click in the box to activate it, type the page number, then hit return. This will instead display and accept page labels, if the "view - page labels" menu item is checked.

left/right arrow buttons
    Go backward or forward along the history path.

zoom out/in buttons
    Zoom out or in (i.e., change magnification) incrementally.

zoom popup menu
    Change the zoom factor (see the description of the -z option above).

fit width button
    Change the zoom factor to fit the page width to the window width.

fit page button
    Change the zoom factor to fit the page to the window size.

find entry box
    Find a text string. Click in the box to activate it, type a search string, then hit return.

find next button
    Find the next occurrence of the search string.

find previous button
    Find the previous occurrence of the search string.

find settings button
    Display the current find settings: case insensitive, case sensitive, smart case (case sensitive only if the search string contains uppercase characters), find whole words.

  Menu bar
The menu bar is above the toolbar. The menu items should be self-explanatory.

  Tab list
The tab list is on the left, just below the toolbar. It lists all open tabs.

  Outline/layers/attachments pane
This pane is on the left, below the tab list. The popup allows you to select from outline, layers, or attachments.

The outline is a tree-like structure of bookmarks that allows moving within the PDF file. Not all PDF files have outlines.

Layers (a.k.a. optional content) allow parts of the PDF content to be shown or hidden. Not all PDF files have layers.

Attachments are other files embedded within the PDF file. There is a 'save' button for each attached file. Not all PDF files have attachments.

  Text selection
In block selection mode, dragging the mouse with the left button held down will highlight an arbitrary rectangle. Shift-clicking will extend the selection.

In linear selection mode, dragging with the left button will highlight text in reading order. Double-clicking or triple-clicking will select a word or a line, respectively. Shift-clicking will extend the selection.

Selected text can be copied to the clipboard (with the edit/copy menu item). On X11, selected text will be available in the X selection buffer.

  Links
When the mouse is over a hyperlink, the link target will be shown in a popup near the bottom of the window.

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 are opened in a system-dependent way. (On UNIX, Qt uses the $BROWSER environment variable.)

  Mouse bindings
The left mouse button is used to select text (see above).

Clicking on a link with the middle button opens the link in a new tab.

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

The right mouse button opens a popup menu (see popupMenuCmd in xpdfrc(5)).

  Key bindings
This section lists the default key bindings. Bindings can be changed using the config file (see xpdfrc(5)).

control-o
    Open a new PDF file via a file requester.

control-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-f
    Find a text string. This sets keyboard focus to the 'find' box.

control-G
    Find next occurrence.

control-C
    Copy selected text to the clipboard.

control-P
    Print.

control-0 (control-zero)
    Set the zoom factor to 125%.

control-+ (control-plus)
    Zoom in (increment the zoom factor by 1).

control-- (control-minus)
    Zoom out (decrement the zoom factor by 1).

control-s
    Save PDF via a file requester.

control-t
    Open a new tab.

control-n
    Open a new window.

control-w
    Close the current tab. Closes the window if this was the last open tab. Quits the application if this was the last open window.

control-l
    Toggle between full-screen and window modes.

control-q
    Quit.

control-<tab>
    Next tab.

control-shift-<tab>
    Previous tab.

control-?
    Help.

alt-<left-arrow>
    Go backward along the history path.

alt-<right-arrow>
    Go forward along the history path.

home
    Go to the top left of current page.

control-<home>
    Go to the first page.

end Go to the bottom right of current page.

control-<end>
    Go to the last page.

<space> or <PageDown>
    Scroll down on the current page; if already at bottom, move to next page.

control-<PageDown> or control-<down-arrow>
    Go to the next page. If <ScrollLock> is active, this maintains the relative position on the page.

<PageUp>
    Scroll up on the current page; if already at top, move to previous page.

control-<PageUp> or control-<up-arrow>
    Go to the previous page. If <ScrollLock> is active, this maintains the relative position on the page.

<esc>
    Exit full-screen mode.

arrows
    Scroll the current page.

g   Set keyboard focus to the page number entry box.

z   Set the zoom factor to 'page' (fit page to window).

w   Set the zoom factor to 'width' (fit page width to window).

Full-screen mode
Xpdf can be placed into full-screen mode via the -fullscreen command line option, the 'full screen' menu item, or a binding to the fullScreenMode or toggleFullScreenMode command.

Entering full-screen mode automatically switches to single-page view mode and to the fit-page zoom factor.

Full-screen mode can be exited via the default <esc> key binding, or via a binding to the windowMode or toggleFullScreenModecommand.

COMMANDS
Xpdf's key and mouse bindings are user-configurable, using the bind and unbind commands in the config file (see xpdfrc(5)). The bind command allows you to bind a key or mouse button to a sequence of one or more commands.

In commands that take arguments (inside parentheses), special characters (namely '(', ')', ',', and '\x01') can be escaped by preceding them with a '\x01' character. This is mostly useful in things like scripts that need to be able to open arbitrary PDF files, using the 'openFile' command.

The following commands are supported:

about
    Open the 'about' dialog.

blockSelectMode
    Set block selection mode. In this mode, the selection is a simple rectangle. Any part of the page can be selected, regardless of the content on the page.

checkOpenFile(file)
    Check that file is open in the current tab, and open it if not.

checkOpenFileAtDest(file,dest)
    Check that file is open in the current tab, and open it if not. In either case go to the specified named destination.

checkOpenFileAtPage(file,page)
    Check that file is open in the current tab, and open it if not. In either case go to the specified page.

closeSidebar
    Close the sidebar.

closeSidebarMoveResizeWin
    Close the sidebar, resizing the window so that the document size doesn't change, and moving the window so that the document stays in the same place on the screen.

closeSidebarResizeWin
    Close the sidebar, resizing the window so that the document size doesn't change.

closeTabOrQuit
    Close the tab. If this was the last open tab, close the window. If this was the last window open, quit.

closeWindowOrQuit
    Close the window. If this was the last open window, quit.

continuousMode
    Switch to continuous view mode.

copy
    Copy selected text to the clipboard.

copyLinkTarget
    Copy the target of the link under the mouse cursor to the clipboard.

endPan
    End a pan operation.

endSelection
    End a selection.

expandSidebar(n)
    Expand the sidebar by n pixels. Opens the sidebar if it is currently closed.

find
    Set keyboard focus to the 'find' box.

findFirst
    Find the first occurrence of the search string.

findNext
    Find the next occurrence of the search string.

findPrevious
    Find the previous occurrence of the search string.

focusToDocWin
    Set keyboard focus to the main document window.

focusToPageNum
    Set keyboard focus to the page number text box.

followLink
    Follow a hyperlink (does nothing if the mouse is not over a link).

followLinkInNewTab
    Follow a hyperlink, opening PDF files in a new tab (does nothing if the mouse is not over a link). For links to non-PDF files, this command is identical to followLink.

followLinkInNewTabNoSel
    Same as followLinkInNewTab, but does nothing if there is a non-empty selection. (This is useful as a mouse button binding.)

followLinkInNewWin
    Follow a hyperlink, opening PDF files in a new window (does nothing if the mouse is not over a link). For links to non-PDF files, this command is identical to followLink.

followLinkInNewWinNoSel
    Same as followLinkInNewWin, but does nothing if there is a non-empty selection. (This is useful as a mouse button binding.)

followLinkNoSel
    Same as followLink, but does nothing if there is a non-empty selection. (This is useful as a mouse button binding.)

fullScreenMode
    Go to full-screen mode.

goBackward
    Move backward along the history path.

goForward
    Move forward along the history path.

gotoDest(dest)
    Go to a named destination.

gotoLastPage
    Go to the last page in the PDF file.

gotoPage(page)
    Go to the specified page.

help
    Open the help URL.

hideMenuBar
    Hide the menu bar.

hideToolbar
    Hide the toolbar.

horizontalContinuousMode
    Switch to horizontal continuous view mode.

linearSelectMode
    Set linear selection mode. In this mode, the selection follows text. Non-text regions cannot be selected.

loadSession
    Load the session from the session save file. The path for the session file is specified with the sessionFile setting (see xpdfrc(5)).

loadTabState
    Load the tab state file (which was written via the saveTabState command), and restore the tabs listed in that file. The path for the tab state file is specified with the tabStateFile setting (see xpdfrc(5)).

newTab
    Open an empty new tab.

newWindow
    Open an empty new window.

nextPage
    Go to the next page.

nextPageNoScroll
    Go to the next page, with the current relative scroll position.

nextTab
    Switch to the next tab.

normalVideoMode
    Switch to normal video mode (the opposite of reverse video mode).

open
    Open a PDF file in the current tab, using the open dialog.

openErrorWindow
    Open the error window.

openFile(file)
    Open the specified file in the current tab.

openFile2(file,page,dest,passwd,location)
    Open the specified file. If dest is not empty, go to the specified named destination. Else, if page is not empty, go to the specified page number. If password is not empty, it is used as the PDF password. If location is "win", open the file in a new window; if it is "tab", open in a new tab; if it is "check", open in the current tab, but only if the specified PDF file isn't already open; else open in the current tab. Any/all of the arguments, other than file, can be empty strings. For example:
    openFile2(test.pdf,7,,,tab)

openFileAtDest(file,dest)
    Open the specified file in the current tab at the specified named destination.

openFileAtDestIn(file,dest,location)
    Open the specified file at the specified named destination. Location must be "win" for a new window or "tab" for a new tab.

openFileAtPage(file,page)
    Open the specified file in the current tab at the specified page.

openFileAtPageIn(file,page,location)
    Open the specified file at the specified page. Location must be "win" for a new window or "tab" for a new tab.

openFileIn(file,location)
    Open the specified file. Location must be "win" for a new window or "tab" for a new tab.

openIn(location)
    Open a PDF file, using the open dialog. Location must be "win" for a new window or "tab" for a new tab.

openSidebar
    Open the sidebar.

openSidebarMoveResizeWin
    Open the sidebar, resizing the window so that the document size doesn't change, and moving the window so that the document stays in the same place on the screen.

openSidebarResizeWin
    Open the sidebar, resizing the window so that the document size doesn't change.

pageDown
    Scroll down by one screenful.

pageUp
    Scroll up by one screenful.

postPopupMenu
    Display the popup menu.

prevPage
    Go to the previous page.

prevPageNoScroll
    Go to the previous page, with the current relative scroll position.

prevTab
    Switch to the previous tab.

print
    Open the 'print' dialog.

quit
    Quit from xpdf.

raise
    Bring the xpdf window to the front.

reload
    Reload the current PDF file.

reverseVideoMode
    Switch to reverse video mode.

rotateCCW
    Rotate the page 90 degrees counterclockwise.

rotateCW
    Rotate the page 90 degrees clockwise.

run(external-command-string)
    Run an external command. The following escapes are allowed in the command string:
        %f => PDF file name (or an empty string if no
              file is open)
        %b => PDF file base name, i.e., file name minus
              the extension (or an empty string if no
              file is open)
        %u => link URL (or an empty string if not over
              a URL link)
        %p => current page number (or an empty string if
              no file is open)
        %x => selection upper-left x coordinate
              (or 0 if there is no selection)
        %y => selection upper-left y coordinate
              (or 0 if there is no selection)
        %X => selection lower-right x coordinate
              (or 0 if there is no selection)
        %Y => selection lower-right y coordinate
              (or 0 if there is no selection)
        %t => selected text (limited to 500 characters)
        %i => page containing the mouse pointer
        %j => x coordinate of the mouse pointer
        %k => y coordinate of the mouse pointer
        %% => %
    The external command string will often contain spaces, so the whole command must be quoted in the xpdfrc file:
        bind x "run(ls -l)"
    The command string may not be run through a shell. It is recommended to keep the command simple, so that it doesn't depend on specific shell functionality. For complex things, you can have the command string run a shell script.

saveAs
    Save PDF via a file requester.

saveImage
    Open the 'save image' dialog.

saveSession
    Save the current session, consisting of all open windows and tabs, to the session save file. This file can be loaded later with the loadSession command. The path for the session file is specified with the sessionFile setting (see xpdfrc(5)).

saveTabState
    Save a list of all tabs open in this window to the tab state file. For each tab, this writes the PDF file name and page number (on separate lines). This file can be loaded later with the loadTabState command. The path for the tab state file is specified with the tabStateFile setting (see xpdfrc(5)).

scrollDown(n)
    Scroll down by n pixels.

scrollDownNextPage(n)
    Scroll down by n pixels, moving to the next page if appropriate.

scrollLeft(n)
    Scroll left by n pixels.

scrollOutlineDown(n)
    Scroll the outline down by n increments.

scrollOutlineUp(n)
    Scroll the outline up by n increments.

scrollRight(n)
    Scroll right by n pixels.

scrollToBottomEdge
    Scroll to the bottom edge of the last displayed page, with no horizontal movement.

scrollToBottomRight
    Scroll to the bottom-right corner of the last displayed page.

scrollToLeftEdge
    Scroll to the left edge of the current page, with no vertical movement.

scrollToRightEdge
    Scroll to the right edge of the current page, with no vertical movement.

scrollToTopEdge
    Scroll to the top edge of the first displayed page, with no horizontal movement.

scrollToTopLeft
    Scroll to the top-left corner of the first displayed page.

scrollUp(n)
    Scroll up by n pixels.

scrollUpPrevPage(n)
    Scroll up by n pixels, moving to the previous page if appropriate.

selectLine
    Set the selection to the line at the current mouse position.

selectWord
    Set the selection to the word at the current mouse position.

setSelection(pg,ulx,uly,lrx,lry)
    Set the selection to the specified coordinates on the specified page.

showAttachmentsPane
    Shows the attachments in the outline/layers/attachments pane.

showDocumentInfo
    Open the document information dialog.

showKeyBindings
    Open the key bindings dialog.

showLayersPane
    Shows the layers in the outline/layers/attachments pane.

showMenuBar
    Show the menu bar.

showOutlinePane
    Shows the outline in the outline/layers/attachments pane.

showToolbar
    Show the toolbar.

shrinkSidebar(n)
    Shrink the sidebar by n pixels. Closes the sidebar if shrinking it would go below the minimum allowed side.

sideBySideContinuousMode
    Switch to side-by-side continuous view mode.

sideBySideSingleMode
    Switch to side-by-side two-page view mode.

singlePageMode
    Switch to single-page view mode.

startExtendedSelection
    Extend the selection to the current mouse position, and continue extending as the mouse moves.

startPan
    Start a pan operation at the current mouse position, which will scroll the document as the mouse moves.

startSelection
    Start a selection at the current mouse position, which will be extended as the mouse moves.

toggleContinuousMode
    Toggle between continuous and single page view modes.

toggleFullScreenMode
    Toggle between full-screen and window modes.

toggleMenuBar
    Toggle the menu bar between shown and hidden.

toggleReverseVideoMode
    Toggle between reverse and normal video modes.

toggleSelectMode
    Toggle between block and linear selection mode.

toggleSidebar
    Toggle the sidebar between open and closed.

toggleSidebarMoveResizeWin
    Toggle the sidebar between open and closed, resizing the window so that the document size doesn't change, and moving the window so that the document stays in the same place on the screen.

toggleSidebarResizeWin
    Toggle the sidebar between open and closed, resizing the window so that the document size doesn't change.

toggleToolbar
    Toggle the toolbar between shown and hidden.

viewPageLabels
    Show page labels (if the PDF file has them), rather than page numbers.

viewPageNumbers
    Show page numbers, rather than page labels.

windowMode
    Go to window (non-full-screen) mode.

zoomFitPage
    Set the zoom factor to fit-page.

zoomFitWidth
    Set the zoom factor to fit-width.

zoomIn
    Zoom in - go to the next higher zoom factor.

zoomOut
    Zoom out - go the next lower zoom factor.

zoomPercent(z)
    Set the zoom factor to z%.

zoomToSelection
    Zoom to the current selection.

REMOTE SERVER MODE
Starting xpdf with the "-remote" switch puts it into remote server mode. All remaining command line options are commands (see the COMMANDS section). Subsequent invocations of "xpdf -remote" with the same remote server name will send commands to the already-running instance of xpdf. The "checkOpenFile" commands are useful here for things like changing pages. For example:

        # Start up xpdf, and open something.pdf.
        xpdf -remote foo 'openFile(something.pdf)'
        # Switch to page 7 in the already-open something.pdf. If the user
        # has closed xpdf in the meantime, this will restart it and reopen
        # the file.
        xpdf -remote foo 'checkOpenFileAtPage(something.pdf, 7)'
        # Pass two commands to the remote instance: (1) open something.pdf
        # and then (2) raise the xpdf window.
        xpdf -remote foo 'openFile(something.pdf)' raise

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 1996-2025 Glyph & Cog, LLC.

SEE ALSO
pdftops(1), pdftotext(1), pdftohtml(1), pdfinfo(1), pdffonts(1), pdfdetach(1), pdftoppm(1), pdftopng(1), pdfimages(1), xpdfrc(5)
http://www.xpdfreader.com/