KDE's Multi-Format Document Viewer
Open Viewing
View and annotate documents with Okular, a powerful and extensible document viewer for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Viewing and annotating documents is a daily task for many Linux users, whether in professional, academic, or personal contexts. PDFs, EPUBs, scanned documents, and technical manuals are all commonly handled through a single application, which must balance performance, correctness, and flexibility. Okular is the document viewer developed by the KDE project and distributed as part of KDE Gear. Although it is often associated with the Plasma desktop environment, Okular is a standalone application that runs well on any major Linux desktop, Windows, and macOS.
Unlike simple PDF viewers, Okular is designed as a multi-format document viewer, supporting a wide range of file types through a modular back end system. This article examines Okular's architecture, installation methods, main features, and integration in Linux workflows, with particular attention to its strengths and its limitations.
Installation and Setup
Okular is available in the repositories of virtually all Linux distributions. On Debian-based systems, it can be installed using the package manager with the command:
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
New KORA Linux Distro to Harness the Power of Local AI
The development team behind CyanogenMod, Android, and Playtron unveils KORA, a Linux distribution built specifically for AI nerds.
-
Epic Games Targets Linux for New Launcher
The Epic Games new launcher is still in preview, but it looks to land on several Linux distributions.
-
Fedora 45 Now Available
The latest iteration of Fedora has arrived with Gnome 51 and KDE Plasma 6.8.
-
Linux 7.4 is "Much Healthier" Thanks to AI
At nearly 42 million lines, Linux 7.4 is the largest merge in the kernel’s history.
-
Working Exploit for a Linux Kernel Flaw Made Public
Even before a bug received its CVE identifier or an upstream fix, the local privilege escalation vulnerability exploit found its way into the wild.
-
r/opensource Bans AI-Assisted and AI-Related Projects
The de facto subreddit for all things open source has not only banned AI-related projects but also users who "don't speak English."
-
Bottlenecks Discovered by Meta Engineers Lead to Scalability Improvements
Thanks to a small group of engineers at Meta, the Linux kernel module kernfs has been improved, which has led to some serious gains.
-
PwnEscape Poses VM Vulnerability
A guest-to-host escape flaw in Linux KVM, named PwnEscape, might be yet another means of attacking Linux.
-
Linux Mint 27 Set for a Christmas Release
The developers behind Linux Mint have announced a Christmas release, and it looks like Santa's sack will be brimming with features.
-
Is Linus Torvalds Vibe Coding?
The creator of Linux has added AI into his process for Linux kernel development, and it's more than just for debugging.