ZATHURA(1)

📦
version 2026.10.23 · 9 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 NAME 💖

okay so bestie, this is the manual page for zathura(1) — literally a document viewer. that's the name section, but stay for the rest because it's lowkey iconic.

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

the whole launch vibe is:

zathura [-c PATH] [-d PATH] [-p PATH] [-w PASSWORD] [-P NUMBER] [--fork]
[-l LEVEL] [-s] [-x CMD] [--synctex-forward INPUT] [--synctex-pid PID]
[-find STRING] <files>

tiny note: -s is chillin' in that synopsis, and this page doesn't give it an options-list description, so I'm not gonna invent lore. periodt 💅

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

zathura is a highly customizable and functional document viewer. it gives you a minimalistic and space-saving interface, plus easy usage that mainly focuses on keyboard interaction. keyboard main character energy, fr fr.

zathura displays the given files. if a single hyphen-minus (-) is given as file name, the content will be read from the standard input. if no files are given, an empty zathura instance launches.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

every flag, every vibe, no skipping:

  • -c, --config-dir=path — path to the config directory.
  • -d, --data-dir=path — path to the data directory.
  • -p, --plugins-dir=path — path to the directory containing plugins.
  • -w, --password=password — the document's password. if multiple documents are opened at once, the password will be used for the first one, and zathura will ask for the passwords of the remaining files if needed.
  • -P, --page=number — opens the document at the given page number. pages are numbered starting with 1, and negative numbers indicate page numbers starting from the end of the document, -1 being the last page.
  • -f, --find=string — opens the document and searches for the given string.
  • -l, --log-level=level — set log level (debug, info, warning, error).
  • -x, --synctex-editor-command=command — set the SyncTeX editor command. overrides the synctex-editor-command setting.
  • --synctex-forward=input — jump to the given position. the switch expects the same format as specified for synctex's view -i. if no instance is running for the specified document, a new instance will be launched (only if --synctex-pid is not specified).
  • --synctex-pid=pid — instead of looking for an instance having the correct file opened, try only the instance with the given PID. note that if the given PID does not have the correct file open or does not exist, no new instance will be spanned.
  • --mode=mode — start in a non-default mode.
  • --fork — fork into background.
  • --version — display version string and exit.
  • --help — display help and exit.

🖱️⌨️ MOUSE AND KEY BINDINGS ⌨️🖱️

the keyboard is the main character here, and the mouse has its moments too.

🌟 General 🌟

  • J, PgDn — go to the next page.
  • K, PgUp — go to the previous page.
  • h, k, j, l — scroll to the left, down, up or right direction.
  • Left, Down, Up, Right — scroll to the left, down, up or right direction.
  • ^t, ^d, ^u, ^y — scroll a half page left, down, up or right.
  • t, ^f, ^b, space, <S-space>, y — scroll a full page left, down, up or right.
  • gg, G, nG — goto the first, the last or the nth page.
  • P — snaps to the current page.
  • H, L — goto top or bottom of the current page.
  • ^o, ^i — move backward and forward through the jump list.
  • ^j, ^k — bisect forward and backward between the last two jump points.
  • ^c, Escape — abort.
  • a, s — adjust window in best-fit or width mode.
  • /, ? — search for text.
  • n, N — search for the next or previous result.
  • o, O — open document.
  • f — follow links.
  • F — display link target.
  • c — copy link target into the clipboard.
  • : — enter command.
  • r — rotate by 90 degrees.
  • Meta-r — rotate page by 90 degrees.
  • ^r — recolor (grayscale and invert colors).
  • R — reload document.
  • Tab — show index and switch to Index mode.
  • d — toggle dual page view.
  • D — cycle opening column in dual page view.
  • F5 — switch to presentation mode.
  • F11 — switch to fullscreen mode.
  • ^m — toggle inputbar.
  • ^n — toggle statusbar.
  • Escape — hide notification bar.
  • +, -, = — zoom in, out or to the original size.
  • zI, zO, z0 — zoom in, out or to the original size.
  • n= — zoom to size n.
  • mX — set a quickmark to a letter or number X (may conflict with default action of X, e.g. 'O' or 'P').
  • 'X — goto quickmark saved at letter or number X.
  • q — quit.
  • w — toggle single-page mode.

🪟 Fullscreen mode 🪟

  • J, K — go to the next or previous page.
  • space, <S-space>, <BackSpace> — scroll a full page down or up.
  • gg, G, nG — goto the first, the last or the nth page.
  • ^c, Escape — abort.
  • F11 — switch to normal mode.
  • +, -, = — zoom in, out or to the original size.
  • zI, zO, z0 — zoom in, out or to the original size.
  • n= — zoom to size n.
  • q — quit.

🎤 Presentation mode 🎤

  • space, <S-space>, <BackSpace> — scroll a full page down or up.
  • ^c, Escape — abort.
  • F5 — switch to normal mode.
  • q — quit.

📑 Index mode 📑

  • k, j — move to upper or lower entry.
  • Up, Down — move to upper or lower entry.
  • ^u, ^d — scroll and move up or down by half a screen.
  • l, Right, zo — expand entry.
  • zO — expand entry recursively.
  • L, zR — expand all entries.
  • h, Left, zc — collapse entry.
  • zC — collapse entry recursively.
  • H, zM — collapse all entries.
  • space, Return, ^j — select and open entry.
  • gg, G — goto the first or last entry.
  • Tab, Escape, ^[, ^c — hide index and switch to normal mode.

🖱️ Mouse bindings 🖱️

  • Scroll — scroll up or down.
  • ^Scroll — zoom in or out.
  • Drag Button2 (middle button drag) — pan the document.
  • Button1 (left click) — follow link.
  • Drag Button1 — select text.
  • Drag S-Button1 — highlight region.
  • Button3 (right click) — open popup menu to copy/save image (activates for images recognized by export command).

💻 COMMANDS 💻

  • bmark — save a bookmark.
  • bdelete — delete a bookmark.
  • blist — list bookmarks.
  • bjump — jump to given bookmark.
  • jumplist — show recent jumps in jumplist (by default last 5). optional argument specifies number of entries to show. negative value "-N" shows all except the first "N" entries.
  • mark — set a quickmark.
  • delmarks — delete a quickmark. abbreviation: delm.
  • close — close document.
  • quit — quit zathura. abbreviation: q.
  • exec — execute an external command. $FILE expands to the current document path, $PAGE to the current page number, and $DBUS to the bus name of the D-Bus interface. alias: ! (space is still needed after).
  • info — show document information.
  • open — open a document. abbreviation: o.
  • offset — set page offset.
  • print — print document.
  • write(!) — save document (and force overwriting). alias: save(!).
  • export — export attachments. first argument specifies the attachment identifier (use completion with Tab), second argument gives the target filename (relative to current working directory).
  • dump — write values, descriptions, etc. of all current settings to a file.
  • source — source a configuration file. it is possible to change the config directory by passing an argument.
  • hlsearch — highlight current search results.
  • nohlsearch — remove highlights of current search results. abbreviation: nohl.
  • version — show version information.

🛠️ CONFIGURATION 🛠️

the default appearance and behaviour of zathura can be overwritten by modifying the zathurarc file (default path: ~/.config/zathura/zathurarc). for a detailed description please consult zathurarc(5).

🧚 SYNCTEX SUPPORT 🧚

both SyncTeX forward and backwards synchronization are supported by zathura. to enable SyncTeX forward synchronization, please look at the --synctex-forward and --synctex-editor options. zathura will also emit a signal via the D-Bus interface. to support synctex backwards synchronization, zathura provides a D-Bus interface that can be called by the editor. for convince, zathura also knows how to parse the output of the synctex view command. it is enough to pass the arguments to synctex view's -i option to zathura via --synctex-forward, and zathura will pass the information to the correct instance.

for gvim forward and backwards synchronization support can be set up as follows: first add the following to the vim configuration:

function! Synctex()
  execute "silent !zathura --synctex-forward " . line('.') . ":" . col('.') . ":" . bufname('%') . " " . g:syncpdf
  redraw!
endfunction
map <C-enter> :call Synctex()<cr>

then launch zathura with:

zathura -x "gvim --servername vim -c \"let g:syncpdf='$1'\" --remote +%{line} %{input}" $file

some editors support zathura as viewer out of the box:

🌱 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🌱

  • ZATHURA_PLUGINS_PATH — path to the directory containing plugins. this directory is only considered if no other directory was specified using --plugins-dir.

🛡️ SANDBOX 🛡️

the zathura-sandbox binary runs zathura with a seccomp and/or landlock based sandbox enabled. some features are disabled when using sandbox mode:

  • saving/writing files
  • use of input methods like ibus
  • printing
  • bookmarks and history
  • D-Bus integration
  • SyncTeX support
  • accessibility support

the sandbox mode is still experimental with some libc implementations. the current supported and tested libc implementation is glibc.

💀 KNOWN BUGS 💀

if GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS is enabled you will experience problems with large documents. in this case zathura might crash or pages cannot be rendered properly. disabling GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS fixes this issue. the same issue may appear, if overlay-scrollbar is enabled in GTK_MODULES.

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

🖋️ Author 🖋️

pwmt.org

2009-2026, pwmt.org

that's the whole zathura(1) manual, from zathura version 2026.10.23, dated 2026-10-23 — mwah, bye bestie! 🫶💖

📦 where this page comes from