Vincent / I hate acrobat
Key Takeaways
- Existing PDF readers (Acrobat, Foxit) are criticized for being intrusive, slow, or lacking customization.
- The author highly values Zathura's keyboard-focused, Vim-like navigation but needs a cross-platform solution.
- Desired features include optional mouse controls, hot reloading, editor integration, and dark mode for both UI and PDF content.
- The most difficult feature to implement is PDF rasterization, which the author plans to base on the MuPDF backend.
- The author chose the 'iced' GUI framework for building the cross-platform native interface, aiming for a balance between complexity and customization.
The article details the author's frustration with current PDF reader options, citing Acrobat and Foxit as slow and non-customizable, while noting that browser readers lack features, and the excellent Zathura is limited to Linux/X11. The author aims to create a perfect, cross-platform PDF reader that incorporates Zathura's keyboard-centric, modal navigation style, while also adding optional mouse controls, hot reloading, editor integration, and comprehensive dark mode support. The most significant technical hurdle identified is PDF rasterization, a task the author plans to tackle by building upon the MuPDF backend, which powers Zathura's performance, using resources like 'MuPDF Explored' to understand the complex rendering process. For the user interface, the author rejected large frameworks like Qt and low-level OpenGL approaches, ultimately choosing the 'iced' GUI library to create a standard layout featuring a main window and a sidebar for navigation elements. The author expresses satisfaction with the initial performance results of their project, which is driven by the goal of achieving feature parity with Zathura and creating a more approachable program for others.
