Many documents are now distributed as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. One popular viewer for PDFs is Acrobat Reader®, released by Adobe® for Linux®. As FreeBSD can run Linux® binaries, it is also available for FreeBSD. Due to licensing restrictions, a package is not available so it must be compiled from ports. Several localizations are available from the print category of the Ports Collection.

This command installs the English version of Acrobat Reader® 9 from the Ports Collection. To instead install a localized version, cd into the desired port's directory.

gv is a PostScript® and PDF viewer. It is based on ghostview, but has a nicer look due to the Xaw3d library. It is fast with a clean interface. gv has many configurable features, such as orientation, paper size, scale, and anti-aliasing. Almost any operation can be performed with either the keyboard or the mouse.

To install gv as a package:

If a package is unavailable, use the Ports Collection:

For users that prefer a small FreeBSD PDF viewer, xpdf provides a light-weight and efficient viewer which requires few resources. It uses the standard X fonts and does not require Motif® or any other X toolkit.

To install the Xpdf package:

If the package is not available, use the Ports Collection:

Once the installation is complete, launch xpdf and use the right mouse button to activate the menu.

GQview is an image manager which supports viewing a file with a single click, launching an external editor, and thumbnail previews. It also features a slideshow mode and some basic file operations, making it easy to manage image collections and to find duplicate files. GQview supports full screen viewing and internationalization.

To install the GQview package:

If the package is not available, use the Ports Collection: