Customize external viewers

SumatraPDF makes it easy to open the current document in a different program.

For example, if you also have Adobe Reader installed, you can use the File menu to open the PDF document you’re viewing in Adobe Reader. We auto-detect some popular apps (Adobe, Foxit, PDF-XChange, etc.).

You can add custom viewers using advanced settings.

To configure an external viewer:

use Settings / Advanced Settings... menu to open configuration file
modify ExternalViewers section

Relevant settings:

ExternalViewers [
  [
    CommandLine =
    Name =
    Filter =

    // ver 3.6+:
    Key =

    // ver 3.7+:
    ToolbarText =
    ToolbarSvgIcon =
  ]
]

Example:

ExternalViewers [
  [
    CommandLine = "C:\Program Files\FoxitReader\FoxitReader.exe" /A page=%p "%1"
    Name = Foxit &Reader
    Filter = *.pdf
    Key = Ctrl + m
    ToolbarText = Foxit
  ]
]

CommandLine is the full path of the executable used to open a file, followed by its arguments.

Arguments can use special values:

"%1" : will be replaced with the full path of the current document
%p : will be replaced with the current page number. Not all viewers support page numbers
"%d" : will be replaced with the directory of the current document. Useful for launching file managers. Available in version 3.5 and later
%% : will be replaced with a literal %. Use this to pass a % to the external program; for example, %%d reaches it as %d (handy for tools like sumatrapdf-tool draw -o page-%d.png). Available in version 3.7 and later

Please make sure to use quotes around file / directory special values (i.e. "%1" and "%d") to avoid issues with file paths that have spaces in them.

Name will be displayed in the File menu.

Filter restricts which files can be opened by the viewer. For example:

to only activate it for PDF files, use *.pdf
to activate for PNG and JPEG files, use *.png;*.jpg;*.jpeg
to allow all files, use * (useful for file managers)

Key is optional and is a keyboard shortcut to invoke that viewer. Available in 3.6 and later.

ToolbarText is optional and adds a toolbar button for that viewer. ToolbarSvgIcon is optional and sets an SVG icon for that toolbar button. If both are set, the SVG icon is used. Available in 3.7 and later.

SumatraPDF documentation

Customize external viewers