Alternatives to Okular

Universal document viewer for PDF, EPUB, comics, DjVu and more. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as Okular.

  • Evince

    GNOME's lightweight document viewer for PDF, PostScript and other document formats on Linux.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Evince is GNOME's GPL viewer for PDF and PostScript with a simpler interface and no KDE dependencies, but it runs only on Linux and supports fewer formats.

  • Sumatra PDF

    A small, fast, open-source reader for PDF, EPUB, MOBI, CBZ, DjVu and other documents on Windows.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsCommand line

    Sumatra PDF is a lightweight GPL-3.0 reader for PDF, EPUB, comics and DjVu with a portable build, but it runs only on Windows.

  • MuPDF

    Compact, very fast PDF and XPS viewer with a command-line toolkit.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxAndroidiOSCommand line

    MuPDF is a very fast AGPL-3.0 viewer with a minimal keyboard-driven interface and a bundled command-line toolkit, adding Android and iOS versions.

  • Foxit PDF Reader

    Free PDF reader with annotation, form filling and signing.

    FreemiumProprietaryWindowsmacOSLinuxAndroidiOS

    Foxit PDF Reader is closed-source freeware on desktop and mobile with annotation, form filling and signing, though it promotes the paid Foxit PDF Editor.

  • Adobe Acrobat

    Adobe's PDF software: the free Acrobat Reader for viewing and commenting, and paid Acrobat plans for editing and conversion.

    FreemiumProprietaryWindowsmacOSWebAndroidiOS

    Adobe Acrobat is proprietary, with a free Reader for comments and Fill & Sign on Windows, macOS, web and mobile but no Linux version; editing requires a subscription.

  • Sioyek

    A PDF reader built for textbooks and research papers, with keyboard control and quick jumps to figures and references.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Sioyek is a keyboard-driven GPL-3.0 reader for papers and textbooks with figure and reference overlays, but annotation and form filling are weaker than Okular's.

  • Skim

    macOS PDF reader and annotator built for reading papers.

    FreeOpen sourcemacOS

    Skim is a BSD-licensed macOS-only reader and annotator with SyncTeX support, storing notes in its own format unless explicitly embedded.

  • Papers

    A GNOME document viewer for reading, searching and annotating PDFs, DjVu, TIFF and comics.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Papers is a Linux GNOME viewer with PDF annotation, DjVu, TIFF and comics support and an adaptive small-screen interface.

Also worth comparing

These listings name Okular as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.

  • Atril

    The MATE desktop's multi-page document viewer for PDF, PostScript, DjVu, XPS and comics.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Okular runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, opens EPUB, comics and DjVu, and adds annotations stored separately, but pulls in KDE libraries on non-KDE desktops.

  • PDF Tools

    Emacs package for viewing, searching and annotating PDF files inside the editor.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Okular is a KDE viewer and annotator for Windows, macOS and Linux that opens many formats and stores annotations separately, outside Emacs.

  • qpdfview

    A tabbed Qt document viewer for PDF, PostScript and DjVu files.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Okular opens a wider range of formats including EPUB and comics and runs on Windows and macOS too, but pulls in KDE libraries on non-KDE desktops.

  • Xreader

    Linux Mint's document viewer for PDF, PostScript, DjVu, XPS and comic book files.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Okular handles an even wider range of formats including EPUB, stores annotations separately and runs on Windows and macOS, but pulls in KDE libraries.

  • zathura

    A minimal, keyboard-driven document viewer with plugin support for PDF, PostScript and DjVu.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Okular runs on Linux, Windows and macOS with annotations and EPUB and comic support, but pulls in KDE libraries on other desktops.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.