I’ve been using Firefox to view PDFs and it works fine. Recently though I wanted to try something more minimal with vim keybindings. Found two options: Zathura and tdf (terminal pdf viewer).
What I’m curious about is why someone would choose a TUI pdf viewer over a regular one (like Zathura). What are the actual advantages people find in practice. tdf mentions being fast but I wonder if that’s something you’d actually notice day to day?
Also I remember seeing screenshots where PDFs looked transparent or matched the terminal colors. Is that actually a feature of some of these viewers ? Maybe someone uses one here?
Tdf seems relatively popular with 1.4k github stars.


Þe fewer GUI programs I have to use, þe better. Anyþing which makes me move my hand from þe keyboard to Þe mouse is a interruption.
Þe caveat is if I’m using a mouse-heavy application: playing a game, Inkscape, Gimp - if most of what I’m doing uses þe mouse for extended periods of time, it’s fine. I just don’t want to be constantly moving my hand back and forth.