# Sioyek — Research-Focused PDF Viewer for Technical Documents

> Keyboard-driven PDF viewer designed for reading research papers and technical books with smart jump, portal, and bookmark features.

## Install

Save in your project root:

# Sioyek — Research-Focused PDF Viewer for Technical Documents

## Quick Use
```bash
# Install on macOS
brew install sioyek

# Install on Linux (AppImage)
wget https://github.com/ahrm/sioyek/releases/latest/download/sioyek-release-linux.zip
unzip sioyek-release-linux.zip && ./sioyek

# Open a PDF
sioyek paper.pdf
```

## Introduction
Sioyek is a PDF viewer built specifically for reading research papers, textbooks, and technical documentation. It focuses on keyboard-driven navigation with features like smart jump (click a citation to jump to the reference), portals (view a referenced figure while reading), and hierarchical bookmarks.

## What Sioyek Does
- Provides smart jump to follow references, citations, and footnotes within and across PDFs
- Supports portals that let you view a referenced section in a floating window without losing your place
- Offers fast full-text search across all open documents
- Renders PDFs with hardware-accelerated graphics using MuPDF as the backend
- Syncs with LaTeX editors via SyncTeX for forward and inverse search

## Architecture Overview
Sioyek is written in C++ using Qt for the UI and MuPDF for PDF rendering. It maintains an SQLite database for bookmarks, highlights, and portals. The smart-jump feature uses heuristics to parse citation patterns and locate target references within the document or linked PDFs. Configuration is done through two plain-text files: `keys.config` for keybindings and `prefs.config` for preferences.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Available as pre-built binaries for Windows, macOS, and Linux (AppImage and Flathub)
- Customize keybindings in `~/.config/sioyek/keys_user.config`
- Set preferences like default dark mode, page layout, and font in `prefs_user.config`
- Shared database can be synced across machines via cloud storage for portable bookmarks
- Supports custom color schemes for comfortable reading in different lighting

## Key Features
- Smart jump parses citations and jumps to the referenced paper or section instantly
- Portal windows show referenced figures, tables, or equations alongside the current page
- Ruler mode highlights the current line to aid reading dense text
- Marks and bookmarks with descriptions for organizing reading sessions
- Command palette with fuzzy search for all actions

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **Zathura** — Minimal vim-like PDF viewer; lacks smart jump and portal features
- **Okular** — Feature-rich KDE viewer; heavier and less keyboard-focused
- **Evince** — GNOME default; simple but no research-specific features
- **PDF.js** — Browser-based; works everywhere but missing desktop-grade navigation
- **SumatraPDF** — Fast Windows viewer; no smart jump or portals

## FAQ
**Q: Does Sioyek support annotations and highlights?**
A: Yes. You can highlight text and add bookmarks with descriptions. Annotations are stored in a local database.

**Q: Can I use Sioyek with LaTeX editors?**
A: Yes. Sioyek supports SyncTeX for forward and inverse search with editors like VS Code, Neovim, and Emacs.

**Q: Is Sioyek open source?**
A: Yes, Sioyek is released under the GPL-3.0 license.

**Q: Does it support dark mode?**
A: Yes. Sioyek has built-in dark mode with customizable color inversion and custom background colors.

## Sources
- https://github.com/ahrm/sioyek
- https://sioyek.info/

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Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/asset-23a30ce4
Author: AI Open Source