Evince

{{Infobox software

| title = Evince

| logo = GNOME Document Viewer icon 2019.svg

| logo size = 100px

| screenshot = GNOME Evince 40.0 (released in 2021-03).png

| caption = GNOME Evince 40 (released in March 2021)

| other_names = GNOME Document Viewer

| collapsible =

| author =

| developer = The Evince Team{{cite web

|url = https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince/Team

|title = Evince/Team – GNOME Live!

|publisher = wiki.gnome.org

|date = 2011-08-06

|access-date = 2012-08-16

|archive-date = 2016-03-05

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160305012704/https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince/Team

|url-status = live

}}

| released =

| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|reference|edit|P348|P548=Q2804309}}

| latest release date = {{start date and age | {{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}} }}

| latest preview version = {{wikidata|property|reference|edit|P348|P548=Q51930650}}

| latest preview date =

| discontinued =

| programming language = Primarily C, C++

| operating system = Linux and other Unix-like systems

| platform =

| replaced_by = GNOME Papers

| size =

| language =

| genre = Document viewer

| license = GPL-2.0-or-later

| website = {{URL|https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince}}

}}

Evince ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɛ|v|ɪ|n|s}}), also known as GNOME Document Viewer, is a free and open-source document viewer supporting many document file formats including PDF, PostScript, DjVu, TIFF, XPS and DVI. It is designed for the GNOME desktop environment.{{cite web |url=https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince |title=Apps/Evince - GNOME Wiki! |publisher=GNOME |access-date=4 January 2020 |archive-date=27 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227092024/https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince |url-status=live}}

The developers of Evince intended to replace the multiple GNOME document viewers with a single and simple application. The Evince motto sums up the project aim: "Simply a Document Viewer".

GNOME releases have included Evince since GNOME 2.12 (September 2005). Evince's code is written mainly in C, with a small part (specifically, the interface with Poppler) written in C++. Many Linux distributions that ship GNOME as their default desktop environment — including Ubuntu and Fedora Linux — include or have included Evince as the default document viewer.

Evince is free and open-source software subject to the requirements of the GNU General Public License version 2 or later.

The Evince FAQ highlights the meaning of the word "Evince" as "to show or express something clearly".{{cite web

|url = https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince/FrequentlyAskedQuestions

|title = Frequently Asked Questions about Evince

|date = 2015-10-13

|publisher = The GNOME Project

|access-date = 2016-07-28

|quote = Q: What does the word Evince mean? [...] A: Evince means to show or express something clearly.

|archive-date = 2016-08-07

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160807071035/https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince/FrequentlyAskedQuestions

|url-status = live

}}

In 2025, Evince will be replaced as the default document viewer in GNOME by a GTK 4 & Libadwaita hard fork of itself called Papers.{{Cite news |title=GNOME 48 beta is another nail in X11's coffin |url=https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2025/02/18/gnome_48_beta/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250307195451/https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2025/02/18/gnome_48_beta/ |archive-date=2025-03-07 |access-date=2025-03-16}}{{Cite web |last=patch-jh |date=2024-06-15 |title=Is Papers the replacement for Evince? |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/gnome/comments/1dgu9pb/is_papers_the_replacement_for_evince/?rdt=44674 |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=r/gnome}}

History

Evince began as a rewrite of GPdf,{{Cite web |title=Gpdf - Free Software Directory |url=https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Gpdf |access-date=2022-08-21 |website=directory.fsf.org}} which its support programmers had started to find unwieldy to maintain. Evince quickly surpassed the functionality of GPdf and replaced both GPdf and GGV in the September 2005 release of GNOME 2.12.{{cite web

|url = https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2005-June/msg00057.html

|title = ggv/gpdf and evince

|access-date = 14 May 2016

|last = Villa

|first = Louis

|date = June 2005

|archive-date = 11 April 2016

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160411112844/https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2005-June/msg00057.html

|url-status = live

}}{{cite web

| url = https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/2.12/

| title = GNOME 2.12 Release Notes

| access-date = 2020-01-04

| archive-date = 2017-11-22

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171122220817/https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/2.12/

| url-status = live

}}

There was at one time a Windows version of Evince and it was then included on the VALO-CD, a collection of "Best of Free and Open Source Software for Windows".{{Cite web|last=KekÃ€lÃ€inen|first=Otto|title=VALO-CD|url=http://www.valo-cd.net/|access-date=2020-06-16|website=VALO-CD|language=en|archive-date=2012-07-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120722121033/http://www.valo-cd.net/|url-status=live}}[http://www.valo-cd.net/programs VALO-CD programs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213054800/http://www.valo-cd.net/programs |date=2017-12-13 }}, retrieved 24 February 2012{{cite web |url=http://www.valo-cd.net/ |title=The Best of Free and Open Source Software for Windows |publisher=Valo-Cd |access-date=2012-08-16 |archive-date=2012-07-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120722121033/http://www.valo-cd.net/ |url-status=live }}

In either GNOME 48 or 49, Evince will be replaced as the default document viewer by a GTK 4 & Libadwaita hard fork of itself called Papers.{{Cite web |title=Papers – Apps for GNOME |url=https://apps.gnome.org/Papers/ |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=apps.gnome.org |language=en}} Ubuntu 25.04 will likely be the first distro shipping GNOME by default to replace Evince with Papers.{{Cite web |last=Sneddon |first=Joey |date=2025-03-05 |title=Ubuntu's New PDF Viewer App Begins Rolling Out |url=https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/03/ubuntu-25-04-new-pdf-viewer-app-official |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=OMG! Ubuntu |language=en-GB}} Joey Sneddon of OMG! Ubuntu suggested that the reason that the GNOME developers made a new document viewer application was that it would take a lot of work for Evince, a 20 year old program at the time of the decision, to be ported over to GTK 4 & Libadwaita, hence why a new application hard forked from Evince's codebase was made rather than continuing to rework Evince proper was made. This was similar to why Gedit, Eye of GNOME, and Cheese were replaced by GNOME Text Editor, Loupe, and Snapshot respectively rather than port the existing applications over to GTK 4 and Libadwaita.{{Cite web |last=Sneddon |first=Joey |date=2024-11-13 |title=Ubuntu 25.04 Set to Ship With New PDF Viewer |url=https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/11/ubuntu-25-04-papers-evince-swap |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=OMG! Ubuntu |language=en-GB}}

Features

Evince incorporates an integrated search that displays the number of results found and highlights the results on the page. Users can optionally display (in the left sidebar of the viewer) thumbnails of pages to assist in page navigation within a document. When documents support indices, Evince gives the option of showing the document index for quickly moving from one section to another.{{cite web|url = https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince/Features|title = Evince – Features|access-date = 2009-05-11|last = The GNOME Project|date = February 2008|archive-date = 2016-03-04|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045805/https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince/Features|url-status = live}}

Evince can show two pages at a time, left and right, and offers full-screen and slide-show views.

Evince allows the selection of text in PDF files and allows users to highlight and copy text from documents made from scanned images, if the PDF includes OCR data.

Evince used to obey the DRM restrictions of PDF files, which may prevent copying, printing, or converting some PDF files, however this has been made optional, and turned off by default in gconf.[https://help.gnome.org/users/evince/stable/noprint.html.en PDF printing restrictions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911141858/https://help.gnome.org/users/evince/stable/noprint.html.en |date=2014-09-11 }} "The document viewer overrides this restriction by default"{{cite web|url=https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=305818|title=Bug 305818 – allow the user to override document restrictions|website=bugzilla.gnome.org|access-date=6 November 2017|archive-date=1 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401064447/https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=305818|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://old.nabble.com/DRM-protected-PDF-files-td12518208.html|title=DRM protected PDF files|website=nabble.com|access-date=6 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231933/http://old.nabble.com/DRM-protected-PDF-files-td12518208.html|archive-date=3 March 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=https://lwn.net/Articles/335415/|title=Okular, Debian, and copy restrictions [LWN.net]|website=lwn.net|access-date=6 November 2017|archive-date=25 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525131144/https://lwn.net/Articles/335415/|url-status=live}}

Since version 3.18.2, Evince allows for text and highlight annotations of documents.{{Cite web |last=Benítez León |first=Nelson |date=15 March 2018 |title=Allow adding Highlight annotations from text selection |url=https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/evince/-/commit/fc0d21167185b34955f4996b35b0c479e0d482f3 |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=gitlab.gnome.org}}

Supported document formats

Evince supports many different single and multi-page document formats:{{cite web|url=https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince/SupportedDocumentFormats|title=Apps/Evince/SupportedDocumentFormats - GNOME Wiki!|website=wiki.gnome.org|access-date=6 November 2017|archive-date=7 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107003518/https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince/SupportedDocumentFormats|url-status=live}}

;Built-in support

PDF using the Poppler backend
PostScript using the Ghostscript backend.
Multi-page TIFF
DVI
DjVu using the DjVuLibre backend
OpenDocument Presentation (.odp) when built with the --enable-impress option
Images (currently included as a toy, but needs work)
CBR, CBZ, CB7 (Comic Book Archive file)
Adobe Illustrator Artwork{{cite web|url=https://git.gnome.org/browse/evince/tree/NEWS#n34|title=evince - View multipage documents|website=git.gnome.org|access-date=6 November 2017|archive-date=29 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429173609/https://git.gnome.org/browse/evince/tree/NEWS#n34|url-status=live}}