Sioyek
A PDF reader built for textbooks and research papers, with keyboard control and quick jumps to figures and references.
These buttons open the developer's own site, repository or store listing in a new tab. wares.gg does not host downloads.
3 more ways to get Sioyek
Package managers
- Chocolatey
choco install sioyek - Homebrew
brew install --cask sioyek - Flathub
flatpak install flathub com.github.ahrm.sioyek
About Sioyek
Sioyek is designed around the specific problem of reading a long technical document: you are on page 200 and the text refers to Figure 3.1 on page 47. It can open a reference, a figure or a table in a small overlay window without losing your place, which is the feature people install it for.
It is keyboard-driven in the vim tradition, with bookmarks, highlights and marks that are searchable across your whole library, a table of contents you can filter, and a command system for anything not bound to a key. It integrates with LaTeX editors through forward and inverse search.
The last tagged release is from 2022, with development continuing on a branch, and macOS users should expect the usual quarantine warning on first launch.
Strengths
- Opens a referenced figure, table or citation in an overlay without losing your place
- Searchable highlights, bookmarks and marks across your whole library
- Keyboard-driven with a command system, in the vim tradition
- Forward and inverse search with LaTeX editors
Limitations
- The last tagged release is from December 2022
- macOS shows a quarantine warning that needs working around on first launch
- The keyboard-first design is a real learning curve
- Annotation and form filling are weaker than in a general PDF reader
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree and open source under the GPL. The developer accepts optional donations.
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Developer
- ahrm
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Reading textbooks and papers where you constantly jump to figures and references
- Categories
- PDF tools
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Selected from the TechWalrus downloads catalog (Office); facts checked against the developer's own pages, 2 sources on file.
Alternatives to Sioyek
Compare allSoftware that can replace Sioyek for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
Okular
Universal document viewer for PDF, EPUB, comics, DjVu and more.
Okular is also open source and cross-platform, opens EPUB, comics and DjVu, and stores annotations separately, but lacks Sioyek's figure and reference overlays.
Skim
macOS PDF reader and annotator built for reading papers.
Skim is an open-source macOS-only reader with SyncTeX integration for LaTeX and annotation tools for papers, storing notes in its own format unless embedded.
Sumatra PDF
A small, fast, open-source reader for PDF, EPUB, MOBI, CBZ, DjVu and other documents on Windows.
Sumatra PDF is a small, fast open-source reader with many ebook formats and customizable shortcuts, but it runs only on Windows and lacks reference overlays.
Evince
GNOME's lightweight document viewer for PDF, PostScript and other document formats on Linux.
Evince is GNOME's open-source document viewer with a simple interface, but it runs only on Linux and has no keyboard command system or reference jumps.
MuPDF
Compact, very fast PDF and XPS viewer with a command-line toolkit.
MuPDF is an extremely fast open-source viewer with a keyboard-driven interface, adds Android and iOS versions plus the mutool command-line toolkit, but has minimal research features.
Foxit PDF Reader
Free PDF reader with annotation, form filling and signing.
Foxit PDF Reader offers stronger free annotation, form filling and signing across desktop and mobile, but it is closed source and promotes paid products.
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe's PDF software: the free Acrobat Reader for viewing and commenting, and paid Acrobat plans for editing and conversion.
Adobe Acrobat Reader is free on desktop, web and mobile with commenting and Fill & Sign, but it is proprietary and editing needs a subscription.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
Mendeley
A reference manager from Elsevier for collecting, annotating and citing research papers.
Xournal++
Handwritten notes and PDF annotation with a stylus, including on top of lecture slides and scanned papers.
Explainpaper
A web tool that explains highlighted passages of uploaded research papers in plain language.
ChatPDF
An AI tool that summarizes PDFs and answers questions about them, with citations to the source.
