PDFs with zathura
Text first: do not open a window to read a PDF
pdftotext -layout file.pdf - # the text of every page (poppler)
pdftotext -f 3 -l 3 file.pdf - # one page
pdfinfo file.pdf # pages, title, author, size
If pdftotext is missing, soffice --headless --convert-to txt file.pdf also works. Tier: observe.
Show it to the user
desktop_launch with zathura file.pdf (add --page=12 to open at a page). zathura is keyboard-driven; with the window set, desktop_key:
| Want | Keys |
|---|---|
| next / previous page | J / K (or n / p for the next search hit) |
| go to page N | type N then G |
| zoom in / out / fit width | + / - / s |
| search | / then the text, Return |
| rotate | r |
| fullscreen | F |
Open it before clicking anything: zathura has no toolbar and no accessibility tree; screenshots are the way to verify what is shown.
Tier: observe. zathura never modifies the file.