Document Viewer

Papers is a modern document viewer capable of displaying multiple and single-page document formats like PDF, Comic Book Archives (CBR/CBZ), DjVu, and TIFF.

For more general information about Papers and how to get started, please visit https://welcome.gnome.org/app/Papers.

Installation

Windows Installation

📦 Via Winget

You can install GNOME Papers on Windows directly using the Windows Package Manager:

winget install Papers.PDF.Desktop

🚀 Via GitHub Releases (Recommended)

Download pre-built binary packages from GitHub Releases:

• Setup Installer (.exe): Automatic installation with Start Menu shortcuts and file associations (.pdf, .djvu, .cbr).
• Portable Package (.zip): Standalone portable archive — extract and run papers.exe.

Linux Installation

Papers is licensed under the GPLv2.

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Windows Implementation & Building on Windows

Papers features native cross-platform support for Microsoft Windows (x86_64) using the MSYS2 UCRT64 toolchain and GTK4.

Windows Architecture Highlights

1. POSIX & Unix API Gating: Replaced Unix-specific process execution (glib::spawn_command_line_async) with cross-platform process spawning (std::process::Command), and gated file descriptor operations behind Windows-safe preprocessor checks.
2. Automated CI/CD Release Bundling: Includes automated GitLab CI pipelines (win32-ps runners) generating both standalone portable archives and Modern UI setup installers (.exe).

Building on Windows (MSYS2 UCRT64)

Automated Setup (Recommended)

An automated PowerShell setup script is provided in the repository root:

1. Open PowerShell as Administrator.
2. Run the environment setup script:

   Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process
   .\build-aux\windows\auto-setup.ps1

3. The script configures MSYS2 UCRT64, GCC, Meson, Ninja, Rust, GTK4, Libadwaita, Poppler, and all optional document backend libraries.

Manual Build Steps

In an MSYS2 UCRT64 terminal:

# Add UCRT64 binaries to PATH
export PATH=/ucrt64/bin:$PATH

# Setup build directory
meson setup build --buildtype=release --strip --reconfigure

# Compile all targets
meson compile -C build

# (Optional) Create standalone release bundle
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\bundle.ps1

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Reporting and Development

If you experience issues with Papers, check out the reporting tips. Developers should make sure to read the contributing guidelines before starting to work on any changes.

Papers Requirements

• GNOME Platform libraries
• Poppler for PDF viewing

Papers Optional Backend Libraries

• DjVuLibre for DjVu viewing
• Archive library for Comic Book Resources (CBR) viewing
• LibTiff for Multipage TIFF viewing

Documentation

The documentation for the libraries can be found online:

• libppsview
• libppsdocument

Code of Conduct

When interacting with the project, the GNOME Code Of Conduct applies.