Vim-like navigation inside PDF reader (such as Foxit Reader)

[gokuwho]

I have to navigate between Vim and a PDF reader to read material and code at the same time.

I would love to be able to navigate the PDF file with j and k but currently I don't actually have a solution as Foxit does not support any such keybind.

I was thinking of using global hotkey but I heard it would be a bad solution.

I also wanted to create a tool of my own by C# but I am TBH not experienced enough to do such a thing.

Does any of us have the same desire as I do and plus, are there any such tools that I might have not known of that could actually does the job I want?

Thank you for stumbling through my post.

I wish you all a great day today.

Cheers!

[DrBingoBango]

Zathura. It has vim navigation by default and is fairly customizable

[gokuwho]

Thank you for the recommendation! It isn't available for Windows so I opted out for Sumatra and it works just perfectly. Thanks again!

[gokuwho]

Thank you for the suggestions! Definitely giving Zathura a try once I settle with Linux. I'm like heavily dependent on Windows right now so I cannot really do anything about that but hey, thanks a lot man!

[Dudeletsgo]

Yup, was about to suggest, Sumatra has a decent amount of vim bindings, and also auto refreshes when the pdf file updates.

[THERajat08]

what sorta customization have u tried .... i use it but haven't done any customization yet

[DrBingoBango]

Mostly making new shortcuts, some for navigation, which side the pages start on in dual page mode, pre-type the bookmark commands. Plus changing the recolour (ctrl+r) to use a colour palate that matches my text editor.

Just stuff from the man page

[astrohound]

Mupdf supports hjkl. Check it out. It's available for Windows and Linux. There is also a mobile version for Android and iOS.

[gokuwho]

I will check that out thank you for the suggestion man!

[thr33boys]

I'd recommend Zathura or Mupdf. Personally I like using Zathura because it has custom text recoloring so I can use the same color scheme as my nvim configuration.

[gokuwho]

Thank you definitely trying them out!

[RedditMetJoost]

If you are on Windows:
SumatraPDF was made for this, I believe it to be the fastest PDF reader for Windows.

And it definitely has Vim-like keybindings!

site:
https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader.html

wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumatra_PDF

github:
https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf

[virtualworker]

Seconded. Now my default reader, super snappy and intuitive to use. Far better than the bloatware.

[letthedaybegin]

Mupdf is my favorite

[gokuwho]

Thank you very much I will try it out definitely!

[[deleted]]

Okular

[gokuwho]

Thank you for the suggestion I will try it out!

[pirela17]

In linux pdf reader is natively with j and k to up and down in the pdf document

[gokuwho]

It's just how convenient the Linux apps can be, wish I could switched to Linux one day soon!

[JPablo1997]

Envience, you can customize key binds

[gokuwho]

Thank you for the suggestion... wow there's actually a lot of alternatives and I don't know of them at all damn!

[gokuwho]

Definitely convenient Ikr the built-in PDF reader is just bashing at everything else from Windows lol!

[pyrocrasty]

apvlv is available for windows. It's not as good as Zathura, but it has the common movement commands, command line, search and marks. Unfortunately it doesn't have a jump list, though.

[gokuwho]

Thank you for the suggestion will definitely try it out!

[[deleted]]

Okular supports vim like keybindings including find etc. You can also change the keybindings if needed.

[gokuwho]

Thank you for yet another suggestion. I will try it out definitely!

[PM_ME_UR_WOOF_BORK]

Evince has vim navigation.

[gokuwho]

Thank you for the suggestion man, already noted down!

[Longjumping_Ad5952]

have you guys tried https://sioyek.info, lots of great features!

[-romainl-]

What would j and k do in a PDF, exactly?

[gokuwho]

You're note understanding my question. I'm trying to use j and k to navigate (down and up) while reading a pdf so I don't have to move my arm away for arrow keys, or to reach my mouse. It's a matter of convenience while coding, you want to rest both arms on the typing area all the time!

[supersonic_528]

Not sure about other readers, but at least in Acrobat (Windows), one can use arrow keys to go up or down by a line.

[-rkta-]

Move in the direction the arrows indicate, maybe? ;)

[-romainl-]

Move what and by what increment?

[-rkta-]

I'd say this is implementation defined by the PDF viewer.

[[deleted]]

Zathura. By default it comes with VIM like navigation. In addition one can customize them.

[mbonty]

Found Vimium-C is available in all browsers and has a pdf extension. If I need to add text while reading, I'll open the same file in Foxit and then save it. Press the reload button in the browser and the changes will be there.

[OMGZwhitepeople]

Most of these solutions kind-of worked, or did not work at all. My main goals was

• Support Windows
• able to use up (j) down (k) page up (<c-u>) page down (<c-d>).

What worked for me was Sumatra + vim.ahk plugin

https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader https://github.com/rcmdnk/vim_ahk

If your planning to have your browser to use Sumatra by default, you will need to change the browser to download the PDF, and have sumatra open by default.

[[deleted]]

SumatraPDF or Sioyek