Sumatra PDF is a free, open-source document reader for Windows. It opens PDF files, ebooks, comic archives, DjVu documents, XPS files and CHM help files. Alongside reading, it provides text search, saved page locations, PDF annotations and printing.
Page layouts
Sumatra PDF can show one page at a time or arrange pages in pairs. Facing view places pages one and two together, then three and four. Book View leaves the cover on its own and pairs the following pages as they would appear in a printed book. Either arrangement can scroll continuously, so moving through a document does not require switching to a new screen for every page.
Fit Page keeps the whole page visible, while Fit Width enlarges it to the width of the window and leaves vertical scrolling available. Rotation changes the viewing orientation of a sideways page. For a PDF presentation, Presentation mode displays one page across the screen without the surrounding toolbar and tabs.
Document navigation
An embedded table of contents provides jumps to chapters or other sections when the file contains them. Favorites save pages chosen by the reader. The favorites sidebar brings saved locations from multiple documents together, and selecting one can reopen the file that contains it.
Text search locates a phrase within the current document, with commands for moving to the next or previous occurrence. Selected text can also be copied to the clipboard. Sumatra PDF supports these reading operations in ebooks as well as PDFs, so a passage can be located and copied without converting the book to another format.
Documents open in tabs, with keyboard commands for switching between them. The same file can also be opened in another window to keep two parts visible side by side. Session restoration reopens the previous collection of documents when enabled. The Command Palette adds access to reader commands by name: pressing Ctrl+K and entering part of a command filters the available actions.
Ebooks and comics in Sumatra PDF
Sumatra PDF reads unencrypted EPUB books, MOBI files and formats such as FictionBook and PalmDOC. Book contents and internal links provide routes through the text, while the page-view controls determine whether reading proceeds through individual pages or a continuous layout. Complex EPUB layouts can display differently from their intended design.
Comic archives use their contained images as pages. Support includes CBZ, CBR, CB7 and CBT, and Manga Mode reverses the arrangement of paired pages for right-to-left reading. Book View can keep a cover separate from the following spreads. Comic files can also be saved as PDF.
PDF annotations
Selecting text and pressing A adds a highlight; U adds an underline. The annotation menu provides other markup choices, including strikeout and squiggly underlining, as well as notes placed on the page.
Sumatra PDF can edit existing annotations and move supported annotation objects to another position. Changes can be saved into the original PDF or written to a new PDF, allowing an annotated copy to be kept separately. Default annotation colors and free-text settings can be adjusted through the advanced settings.
Printing
The print dialog selects the printer, copies and page range. Scaling controls fit pages to the printable area or retain their original size, while odd- and even-page selections support separate printing passes. Sumatra PDF renders pages as images before sending them to the printer, so the output follows the printer’s raster resolution. Command-line printing can submit files to a named printer or the default printer without opening the print dialog.
TeX preview
Sumatra PDF can reload a PDF when a TeX compiler rebuilds it, keeping the preview connected to changes in the source document. With SyncTeX output and an editor configured for the connection, forward search jumps from a source line to its corresponding location in the PDF. Inverse search travels back from the PDF to the matching source line.
