Viewing PDF in console?

Sastian · 07-13-2003, 04:06 PM

Hello All!

I'm a newbie to Linux as many of you.
My question is:
is it possible to view PDF files in console mode without the necessity to run X Window? Also I would like to know if it is possible to view images, play movies etc.

I'd be very grateful for any information.

Best regards,
Sebastian

cnjohnson · 07-13-2003, 04:10 PM

Yes, you will need X.

Cheers--
Charles

slakmagik · 07-13-2003, 04:20 PM

I haven't gotten around to trying but there's zgv (I think that's what it's called) and others for viewing images. Lynx, w3m, links, others for surfing. Workbone for playing CDs. You can do most things without X. Not sure about your specifics, though. Check software sites with a 'console' filter, or something like, on your searches and you'll turn up some cool non-X apps. I mean, like I say, this doesn't help your question, but just to let you know there's whole world of non-X out there.

green_dragon37 · 07-13-2003, 04:23 PM

The only way that I am sure of to view PDFs in console is to use "ps2ascii file.pdf > file.txt; less file.txt". That works only if the pdf has text, and you will not be able to view any images in the pdf.

As for your second question(s): I believe thet you can use mplayer in the console with framebuffer to view movies, and there are some programs that allow you to view images in the console, as well, but I do not know their names.

Ian

Sastian · 07-13-2003, 04:35 PM

Hi again!

Maybe I should've done that before I posted my message, but I'm after a long day's work and it just didn't cross my mind... You'll have to forgive me.

Anyway I googled for "+view +PDF +console" and here's what I found:

Vimal Joseph posts :

>> Use pdftotext to view pdf files from console

There is no such package as `pdftotext' but a search shows that it is
contained in the `xpdf-utils' package.

gnuhead:~# dpkg -S pdftotext
xpdf-utils: /usr/bin/pdftotext
xpdf-utils: /usr/share/man/man1/pdftotext.1.gz

Tnx anyway and now inside mc, I am able to read a pdf file without
firing up X...

So - it is possible to view PDFs without starting X'es.
I'm off to check that.

Bye for now. You'll hear from me yet ;-)
Sastian