Atril Document Viewer

Atril is the default document viewer for the MATE desktop environment, which is really popular in the Linux community. You might notice that it has a mix of classic and modern styles, combining elements from GNOME 2 and GNOME 3 with some fresh features. It's pretty cool!

What is Atril?

Atril is a free and open-source multi-page document viewer. And guess what? It’s actually a fork of Evince, which you might be familiar with if you're an Ubuntu user. Evince aims to simplify things by being a single app that can handle multiple document formats instead of needing several different viewers.

Document Formats Supported

So, what kind of files can Atril handle? Well, it supports loads of formats! You can view PDFs, PostScript (PS), DJVU, TIFF, DVI, XPS, SyncTex, and even comic book formats like CBR and CBZ. Pretty neat for all you comic lovers out there!

Atril's Features

Now, I wouldn’t say Atril is the best document viewer out there, but it's definitely solid for its purpose. Since it's based on Evince, it has similar features. You can search for text within your documents or copy text to your clipboard. Plus, it offers hypertext navigation and bookmarks through the table of contents.

A Few Downsides

But it’s not perfect! One annoying thing about Atril is that it always opens files at the page width by default. Sure, you can zoom in or out every time you open a new PDF file; however, doing that repeatedly can get old fast.

How to Install Atril

If you're interested in installing Atril on your Linux system, just head over to their GitHub Releases page to download the binary file or use your package manager like apt or apt-get if you're on Ubuntu. If you're feeling adventurous, you could also try building it from source by following instructions on their GitHub page.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, while Atril may not be top-tier compared to other document viewers out there for daily tasks, it's certainly decent as a default option. So don’t dismiss it too quickly—give it a try!