2

My process is:

  1. Revise tex file.
  2. Compile tex file.
  3. Open pdf file in mupdf (a lightweight PDF viewing software) to check if revisions worked.
  4. Close mupdf and repeat.

Is there any software that allows the PDF to be just open in a window, that automatically updates the PDF file when it detects that the PDF has changed, giving closer to a 'live' view of the PDF in Linux, eliminating the step of having to constantly open the PDF file to check it. This software doesn't need to do the compiling, only displaying of the PDF.

Village
  • 13,603
  • 23
  • 116
  • 219
  • TeXStudio works fine, been using it for years now. Maybe give it a shot? – Anthony Aug 22 '22 at 19:23
  • 1
    Some PDF viewers like Evince reload the PDF if it is changed on disk. Moreover, there are several LaTeX editors with PDF preview (Texworks, Setzer ... ) and Gummi moreover can compille automatically every x seconds (insane in large documents) or every x seconds of inactivity, to show a live preview. – Fran Aug 22 '22 at 21:28
  • Also, see this: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/425907/how-to-make-mupdf-automatically-refresh-a-document – Ingmar Aug 23 '22 at 05:02
  • Nowadays there are many IDE that can visualize PDF real-time when editing a tex code. I personally like VS Code https://code.visualstudio.com/. – High Performance Rangsiman Nov 03 '22 at 13:03

2 Answers2

1

Okular, among its many nice features, does this by default.

If not, make sure the "Reload document on file change" is selected in Okular's general preferences:

enter image description here

Clément
  • 5,591
0

The PDF viewer xpdf will work without 'close and reopen', but you need to scroll to a new page, or press 'r' to reload without changing pages.

I haven't used mupdf, but xpdf is fairly light-weight on system resources, so might be a suitable replacement. You may find it looks quite dated in appearance, though, which you might not like. Although, having looked at the documentation for MuPDF, you can use 'r' to reload, which should stop the close/reopen cycle.

enkorvaks
  • 487