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Johannes33 09-11-2018 04:46 AM

PDF viewer with good search function and background color.
 
Hi,
I would like to find a pdf viewer that has a good search function.
That is:
Search in the whole document for all the hits of a string.
The return format for the search should be with page or percent of book, present some rows/row before and after the hit. It should be able to search for a whole word not just part of word.

Also I would like to be able to change the background color of the window to make it easier on eye strain.

for android all this and more exist in moon+ reader pro if you are familiar with it perhaps you understand better what I want.

Thanks for suggestions
/Johannes

business_kid 09-11-2018 04:56 AM

What's wrong with google? Personally, I don't think you'll get a reader with all that eye candy.
What have you found and what's why can't you use it?

Johannes33 09-11-2018 05:57 AM

haha.. yes google is nice as a search engine sometimes.
But... with a big but: If I search for this functionality in google I get so many unrelevant hits that I do not find anything useful. What I get is a lot of people liking different pdf readers and this functionality is not mentioned. I could try to install all the ones they like but I think it would be better to just ask if the community knows.

The main thing is to be efficient in search.
To search for a whole word is to me not eye candy it is just efficient functionality.
I have to date not tried any reader that can perform whole word searches in a pdf document on a linux maschine.

allso I would like this thread to be on topic so if you do not have any suggestions on pdf reader that could manage this task or part of what I'm looking for please do not post.

All the best
/Johannes

Johannes33 09-11-2018 06:26 AM

Evince has some functionality. it searches the whole document shows all hits and have inverted backgound color option. but I can not find any whole word search.
So some luck there.

business_kid 09-11-2018 10:59 AM

I'm saying it's not out there. I've tried xpdf, master pdf editor, Adobe under various OSes, and various kde readers and none have an exhaustive text search you describe. The way I achieve that functionality is
  • pdftotext <file.pdf>
  • grep -options <file.txt>

hydrurga 09-11-2018 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johannes33 (Post 5902096)
allso I would like this thread to be on topic so if you do not have any suggestions on pdf reader that could manage this task or part of what I'm looking for please do not post.

Johannes, with all due respect, the post by business_kid was relevant, particularly his request that you inform us about which PDF readers you have already tried.

Once you start a thread here, it belongs to the community, not the OP - you can't stop someone posting. If you feel that any posts have broken LQ rules then you can report them to a moderator.

Johannes33 09-11-2018 04:30 PM

Hi hydrurga,
Well I actually do not agree with you about business_kids first post.
Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid (Post 5902085)
What's wrong with google? Personally, I don't think you'll get a reader with all that eye candy.
What have you found and what's why can't you use it?

If you analyze what he wrote one more time you might just agree with me.
"What's wrong with google?"
I think it would be relevant if he would have tried to google it himself and found a ton of easy answers. But since I did that before asking the question, and I know you get nothing, this is just a person with high rep wanting to put down a person with low.

"Personally, I don't think you'll get a reader with all that eye candy." diminishing my question for functionality to being eye candy is just an other example.

"What have you found and what's why can't you use it?" I have found nothing. If I would have found the functionality I'm looking for would I have posted the question? Since I got no help I started to install pdf viewers and found one that partly fit the bill. and posted it here for every one to read.

I have seen so many threads over the years being hijacked like what you just did and resulting in page long discussion about other stuff. So even if you disagree with me about what an op has the right to demand. I mean if you want to discuss other stuff you could start your own thread about that stuff. I still would like to end this discussion here in this thread and let it enlighten other viewers in the years to come about pdf viewers with good search function and perhaps a invert colors or change backgrounds colors.

I do not want to offend any one with this.
cheers

/Johannes.

hydrurga 09-11-2018 04:42 PM

Well here's the thing. As soon as I saw your thread, I opened up a PDF document in XViewer, Calibre and then LibreOffice to see if they had the functionality you were looking for (as well as representing the document as accurately as possible). They don't. However, I would have saved myself the trouble if you had given us a list of PDF viewers you had already tried and any of these three were included in that list.

So, I ask you again, which PDF viewers have you already tried apart from Evince?

The reason I ask is that the process of elimination might ultimately provide an answer to your question, i.e. that there is no product that we know of that meets your specification - not perhaps the answer you're looking for, but an answer nonetheless.

So far, between us, we have tried Evince, XViewer, Calibre, LibreOffice, Xpdf, Master PDF Editor, Adobe under various OSes, and "various kde readers".

business_kid 09-12-2018 04:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johannes33
this is just a person with high rep wanting to put down a person with low.

Excuse me, I never noticed your reputation (or mine, for that matter). I never insult somebody intentionally, and apologize if it came across that way. You're expected to basic homework, as the more specific you make your question, the quicker your problem gets solved.

Johannes33 09-12-2018 06:39 AM

@business_kid Ok apology accepted. I thought I was specific and normally I do my homework. /Regards

@Hydruga:
I have a problem deciphering
"What have you found and what's why can't you use it?" to which ones have I have tried.

But I see your point. Thanks for pointing it out to me.

Well apart from the list you mentioned I also have tried bookworm, FBreader and Xreader.
Bookworm has all the functionality which I desire but no word search and with some formatting issues when displaying the page and no left margin in the window. FBreader can only read pdf files on android with a plugin. So I still think Evince might be the best so far.

I was thinking, is it possible to force a program to include white space (<space>) in the beginning and end of a word? Then I would come closer to be able to search for whole words.

updated list so far:
Tried readers:
FBreader, Evince, Calibre, LibreOffice, Xpdf, XViewer, Master PDF Editor, Bookworm, Adobe under various OSes, and "various kde readers"
Conclution:
Evince and Bookworm has some of the functionality. I think Bookworm or FBreader should be the best readers for epub, and evince for pdf.

Regards
/Johannes

hydrurga 09-12-2018 06:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johannes33 (Post 5902483)
I have a problem deciphering
"What have you found and what's why can't you use it?" to which ones have I have tried.

But I see your point. Thanks for pointing it out to me.

Well apart from the list you mentioned I also have tried bookworm, FBreader and Xreader.
Bookworm has all the functionality which I desire but no word search and with some formatting issues when displaying the page and no left margin in the window. FBreader can only read pdf files on android with a plugin. So I still think Evince might be the best so far.

I was thinking, is it possible to force a program to include white space (<space>) in the beginning and end of a word? Then I would come closer to be able to search for whole words.

updated list so far:
Tried readers:
FBreader, Evince, Calibre, LibreOffice, Xpdf, XViewer, Master PDF Editor, Bookworm, Adobe under various OSes, and "various kde readers"
Conclution:
Evince and Bookworm has some of the functionality. I think Bookworm or FBreader should be the best readers for epub, and evince for pdf.

Regards
/Johannes

It's interesting that you mention that. Yesterday, when I was testing Xreader, I tried searching for <space>Word<space> (with <space> being the character produced by the spacebar) and it worked well. The problem with that, however, is that it won't catch whole words that come before or after punctuation.

I wouldn't give up yet if I were you though. There will be other Linux PDF readers out there - do a web search and try as many as you can.

For example, here are some more that you can try: https://alternativeto.net/software/e...platform=linux

Johannes33 09-19-2018 07:53 AM

Hahaha... Interesting that it worked with <space>.
A little dangerous though for them to implement not to remove white space if you copy paste and accidentally grab some white space. But perhaps that is such a small number of searches that it is insignificant.

Yes I will try that and get back to this thread when I have done so.

Anyway I saw that you where on LM19. I have a pretty specific question about how cinnamon treats keyboardlayouts. If you are knowledgable about that you could check out my question at https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtop...f=208&t=277960

Otherwise thank you for your input here.

Best regards
/Johannes

Johannes33 09-21-2018 05:06 AM

Update.

Evince seems to accept white space <space> in it's searches.
So to search for whole words you can use space before and after. But you might miss some as remarked by hydruga. Therefor you could also try with space just after the word and no space before or just before and have no space after. Space before eliminate missed matches due to punctuation and commas, space after eliminate beginning of a new line.

So far Evince is the pdf viewer that supports most of my criteria.

ondoho 09-22-2018 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hydrurga (Post 5902285)
So far, between us, we have tried Evince, XViewer, Calibre, LibreOffice, Xpdf, Master PDF Editor, Adobe under various OSes, and "various kde readers".

i use mupdf (µPDF) and am very happy with it.
one can change background "tint" (i.e. color) for fullscreen viewing.
it has very mature search functionality a lá less or more, key- and mousebindings and much more:
Code:

man mupdf

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johannes33 (Post 5902279)
I have seen so many threads over the years being hijacked like what you just did

you really need to pipe down a little here. the initial offending post might have sounded a little impolite to you, but technically it makes a valid point (as i believe has been sufficiently explained by now).
however you interpret it, it was not hijacking anything. you actually did that yourself by making an elephant out of a fly.
i might have let it slide and just shut up, but i really am allergic to users saying "don't post to my thread".
peaceout.

Johannes33 09-29-2018 03:45 PM

I think my remarks where valid and as explained I do not agree with you.

Well on the pdf reader side.
I tried your pdf suggestion installed it and used it to be honest only little.
You said the search functions where like less. perhaps I did not try it enough but I could not make it understand regular expression searches which would have been good. It was very snappy and it could change background colors.
The thing I miss is the search summations I get when one line is printed with the hit (evince got this) and when I'm new to a program some sort of menu system before you learn the shortcuts.

updated list so far:
Tried readers:
mupdf, FBreader, Evince, Calibre, LibreOffice, Xpdf, XViewer, Master PDF Editor, Bookworm, Adobe under various OSes, and "various kde readers"
Conclution:
Evince, mupdf, Bookworm has some of the functionality. I think Bookworm or FBreader should be the best readers for epub, and evince for pdf.


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