MuPDF Review

MuPDF is an open source, oversimplified and lightweight PDF reader that also supports ePub, XPS, and CBZ documents. Focusing on PDF features, it lets you view PDF files content without efforts or complications. MuPDF replaces Adobe Acrobat Reader for novice and inexperienced users thanks to a minimalistic and standards interface. The UI show few options, but if you try keyboard shortcuts you’ll find what you need: with plus and minus signs you can zoom in and out, apply negative or greyscale effect with “I” and “C” key, switch to full screen with “F” or rotate pages with “A” and “S” keys.

Left and right arrows help you navigate to the previous or next page, while “Page Up” and “Page Down” let you move on the same page. The search function is available pressing F1 on the keyboard, but it’s quite incomplete and shows you only the first entry it finds. It’s also possible to extract text and add annotations, form-filling, hyperlinks and electronic signatures to your documents and create a new PDF file from scratch. MuPDF is a portable app you can easily store on a USB flash drive and run its executable file on any computer, using it on the go.

MuPDF works with a low-to-moderate amount of system resources and offers an adequate documentation showing keyboard shortcuts.