Compare software

PDF Tools vs Evince: catalog facts
PDF Tools	Evince
Free Free and open source under the GPL-3.0.	Free Free and open source under the GPL v2.0 or later.
Windows, macOS, Linux	Linux
Reads and annotates PDFs inside Emacs Search and link navigation	Opens several document formats in one viewer Simple interface that fits the GNOME desktop
Only useful to Emacs users Requires building or installing the epdfinfo server	Linux only A viewer rather than a PDF editor
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-3.0	License: GPL-2.0-or-later
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 24, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.