okular

KDE's universal document viewer

TLDR

Open document

$ okular [document.pdf]

Open at specific page

$ okular -p [5] [document.pdf]

Open in presentation mode

$ okular --presentation [document.pdf]

Open with specific backend

$ okular --backend [poppler] [document.pdf]

Print document

$ okular --print [document.pdf]

Unique instance (reuse window)

$ okular --unique [document.pdf]

Start without plugins

$ okular --no-plugins [document.pdf]

SYNOPSIS

okular [-p page] [--presentation] [--unique] [options] files

okular is KDE's universal document viewer. It supports PDF, EPUB, DjVu, PostScript, images, and many other formats through plugins.PDF viewing includes annotations, form filling, and digital signature verification. Documents can be annotated with highlights, notes, and drawings. Annotations save separately or embed in the file.Presentation mode provides fullscreen display for slideshows. Transitions and notes support make it suitable for presentations.Text selection and search work across supported formats. Continuous and multi-column layouts adapt to reading preferences.The editor integration enables clicking source locations in PDFs to open corresponding positions in LaTeX editors. This supports the SyncTeX workflow.Printing includes advanced options like booklet printing and page scaling. Print preview shows the exact output.

PARAMETERS

-p PAGE

Start at page number.

--presentation

Start in presentation mode.

--unique

Use single instance.

--print

Print and exit.

--backend NAME

Use specific backend.

--no-plugins

Disable plugins.

--editor-cmd CMD

Editor for source links.

--find TEXT

Search for text on open.

--noraise

Don't raise window.

INSTALL

sudo apt install okular

sudo dnf install okular

sudo pacman -S okular

sudo apk add okular

sudo zypper install okular

CAVEATS

KDE-based, pulls in KDE dependencies. Some format support requires optional backends. Large documents may be memory-intensive.

HISTORY

Okular was created for KDE 4 in 2007, merging several KDE document viewers (KPDF, KGhostView, KFax) into a unified application. It became KDE's standard document viewer, continuously expanding format support.