- This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated Apr 19-10:42 pm by olsztyn.
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olsztyn
It appears it is not easy to find a PDF Viewer that would be acceptable for antiX in terms of being relatively lean and that would work correctly, including printing… So, if someone knows one such I would appreciate advice…I have tested quite a few candidates and not one appears to be good for antiX, satisfying the above simple criteria, namely to be relatively lean and actually work correctly:
– Okular – typically highly rated but it installs huge amount of dependencies, so I did not take it as candidate for subsequent testing. I am careful to keep antiX to its principle of simplicity and being clean of redundant garbage…
– MuPDF – very lean and appears to render PDF format acceptably but not capable of printing at all, which practically renders it useless.
– qpdfview – included in antiX. At first sight it works and actually prints. However on some my test pdf files it is not able to print correctly in terms of scaling, no matter what options. In other words, printing some PDFs in their correct format appears not possible. Some other PDF files appears to print acceptably, although difference of typeface is noticeable.
– Zathura – appears to be be lean – introduces just one or two dependencies, not a problem for antiX. However it is not able to print correctly on test files, such as cutting off some parts. Much worse than qpdfview, which prints some PDFs acceptably.
– PDF Studio Viewer 2021 – Although it is not open source, it is free. The only one that is high quality on fidelity of PDF rendering and printed test PDFs perfectly. Correct scale, fonts and all. Just like Adobe, which I did not consider to compare as it introduces huge amount of dependencies into antiX simplicity… Aside from being closed, commercial source PDF Studio Viewer loads Java environment during execution, which I did not like… However in order to print correctly this was the only one that was able to do it, in addition to LibreOffice Draw.
– Libre Office Draw – Opened and printed the test PDFs correctly. However it is quite heavy as just PDF viwer. However, if qpdfview fails to print some PDFs correctly the LibreOffice is already in antiX to rescue…As printers for this testing I was using mainstream business ones, although far not the newest models:
– HP ColorLaserJet 4550 – Color Lase
– Xerox Phaser 3635MFP – Monochrome LaserWith the above results I am still in search for a perfect for antiX PDF reader, so will appreciate suggestions…
- This topic was modified 1 year ago by olsztyn.
- This topic was modified 1 year ago by olsztyn.
Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters
anticapitalista
Nice feedback.
I use mupdf to view, qpdfview to print most documents and Libre Office Draw when qpdfview fails.
All included on antiX full.Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.
antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.
PPC
One closed source but nice option to view/annotate PDF is Foxit Reader, but I think I never tested printing from it. Also, modern web browsers are very got at displaying (and sending to the printer) pdf files- most even allow editing pdf forms.
PS: professionally I have to print pdf files all the time and never ever had any problem with qpdfview / firefox- concerning printing (now that I think about it I print most files directly from firefox).
Edit: Have you tried Xournal++ ? You can test it’s appimage (and some other pdf viewers editors) here: https://apprepo.de/group/20
P.
- This reply was modified 1 year ago by PPC.
- This reply was modified 1 year ago by PPC.
ModdIt
The last free, for linux, fully functional master-pdf-editor version 4.3.89 is reasonably
lightweight. Installed 64 bit version about 20,1 MB.
Most important it can be used to create edit formfill merge and pretty much anything else
the user wants to do with PDF format. If we had heavy usage I would, to be fair purchase
a newer full version.Very happy with the printing capability, in Germany 2022 I still have to print out forms
for government offices, sign in ink by hand. And they must conform to regulation.
Up to now no complaints or refusals.Printers Canon multi function, Tally laser (made by Samsung) Brother MFC-J A3 monster.
Thank you all for comments. Particularly to highlight, antiX has everything needed to satisfy PDF viewing and printing, although using separate tools:
I use mupdf to view, qpdfview to print most documents and Libre Office Draw when qpdfview fails.
Also, just to add some tools not mentioned before:
– Evince – Moderate number of dependencies being installed into antiX, however it installs libelogind0, which goes against antiX strategy to be systemd/elogind free. So since review of dependencies shows libelogind0, I did not care too much to test.
– Atril – I have not included in testing due to huge number of dependencies being installed into antiX, probably to provide sufficient Gnome environment. Why would I infest pure and efficient antiX environment with huge Gnome bloat just for such basic need of PDF viewer…
– Foxit Reader – I did have it in antiX 19 but it appeared to have all kinds of restrictions requesting an upgrade to their paid version. I might revisit though to test printing accuracy.
– Major browsers – they do seem to render PDF format correctly and print most PDF files adequately but failed on printing of my test files – formatting issue.
– Master PDF Editor (thanks for sharing experience) – I did not test yet but will soon…
At this point I am still hoping to discover some PDF viewer capable of accurately rendering and correctly printing, that would be a better fit for antiX…- This reply was modified 1 year ago by olsztyn.
Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters
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