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How to view PDF in terminal using FBGS

📅 2014-Aug-22 ⬩ ✍️ Ashwin Nanjappa ⬩ 🏷️ fbgs, fbi, pdf, ps, viewer ⬩ 📚 Archive

Framebuffer Ghostscript Viewer (fbgs) can be used to view PostScript (PS) and PDF files at the terminal. However, it only works with real terminals (/dev/tty) and not with pseudo terminals (/dev/pts).

fbgs ships along with the fbi package. So, to install it:

$ sudo apt install fbi

To be enable use of the program by any user, the username must be added to video group:

$ sudo adduser joe video

To view a PDF file:

$ fbgs foo.pdf

Tried with: FBI 2.07-11 and Ubuntu 14.04


© 2022 Ashwin Nanjappa • All writing under CC BY-SA license • 🐘 @codeyarns@hachyderm.io📧