PDFs, images, and archives are among the most commonly encountered file types in daily use. Ubuntu 26.04 provides a rich set of tools for handling these files. This article covers the usage of each tool in detail.

PDF Document Handling

Papers (Default PDF Viewer)

Ubuntu 26.04 uses Papers as the default PDF viewer (replacing the previous Evince). Papers is built on GTK4 and libadwaita, offering a modern interface and excellent performance.

Supported document formats:

• PDF
• DjVu
• XPS
• CBR/CBZ (comic book formats)
• Multi-page TIFF documents

Common Papers Operations

Annotations & Markup

Papers supports basic PDF annotation features:

• Text highlighting
• Underline and strikethrough
• Adding text annotations
• Annotations can be saved to the PDF file

Other PDF Viewers

If you need more features, you can install other PDF viewers:

# Okular - KDE's feature-rich document viewer
sudo apt install okular
 
# Foxit Reader (via Flatpak)
flatpak install flathub com.foxit.FoxitReader

Okular’s additional features include:

• Richer annotation tools (freehand, stamps, geometric shapes, etc.)
• Form filling
• Digital signature verification
• Support for many document formats

PDF Editing & Processing

Command-Line Tools

# Install PDF toolkit
sudo apt install pdftk poppler-utils qpdf
 
# Merge multiple PDFs
pdftk file1.pdf file2.pdf file3.pdf cat output merged.pdf
 
# Extract specific pages (pages 1-5 and page 10)
pdftk input.pdf cat 1-5 10 output extract.pdf
 
# Rotate pages (all pages 90 degrees clockwise)
pdftk input.pdf cat 1-endeast output rotated.pdf
 
# Split PDF into individual page files
pdftk input.pdf burst
 
# Convert PDF to images
pdftoppm -png -r 300 input.pdf output
 
# Compress PDF file size
qpdf --linearize input.pdf output.pdf

Graphical PDF Editing

# PDF Arranger - visual PDF page rearrangement tool
sudo apt install pdfarranger

PDF Arranger supports:

• Drag-and-drop page reordering
• Deleting unwanted pages
• Rotating pages
• Merging multiple PDFs
• Cropping page margins

Editing PDFs with LibreOffice Draw

LibreOffice Draw can open PDF files directly for editing:

1. Right-click a PDF file > “Open With” > “LibreOffice Draw”
2. Edit text, add graphics, modify layout
3. After editing, save via “File > Export as PDF”

Note: This method may alter the original layout of complex PDFs.

Image Viewing & Editing

Loupe (Default Image Viewer)

Ubuntu 26.04 uses Loupe as the default image viewer (replacing Eye of GNOME). Loupe uses GPU-accelerated rendering for fast image loading.

Supported image formats:

• JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP
• AVIF, HEIC/HEIF
• SVG, BMP, TIFF
• RAW formats (partial support)

Common Loupe Operations

• Browse images: Left/right arrow keys to navigate previous/next images in the same directory
• Zoom: Ctrl + +/- or two-finger pinch gesture
• Full-screen view: F11
• View EXIF info: Click the info button to view shooting parameters
• Rotate image: Ctrl + R to rotate clockwise

GIMP Image Editor

GIMP is the most powerful raster image editor on Linux, comparable to Adobe Photoshop.

sudo apt install gimp

GIMP core features:

• Layer system: Multi-layer editing, blend modes, transparency
• Selection tools: Rectangle, ellipse, free select, magic wand, select by color
• Drawing tools: Brush, pencil, airbrush, eraser, text tool
• Filters & effects: Blur, sharpen, distort, lighting, noise, etc.
• Color adjustments: Brightness/contrast, levels, curves, hue/saturation
• Batch processing: Automate operations via Script-Fu or Python-Fu scripts

GIMP Keyboard Shortcuts

Other Image Tools

# Inkscape - vector graphics editor (comparable to Adobe Illustrator)
sudo apt install inkscape
 
# Krita - digital painting tool
sudo apt install krita
 
# ImageMagick - command-line image processing
sudo apt install imagemagick

Command-Line Image Processing

Batch image processing with ImageMagick:

# Resize an image
convert input.jpg -resize 800x600 output.jpg
 
# Batch convert formats (PNG to JPEG)
mogrify -format jpg *.png
 
# Batch resize
mogrify -resize 50% *.jpg
 
# Add a watermark
composite -dissolve 30 -gravity southeast watermark.png photo.jpg output.jpg
 
# Convert image format
convert image.webp image.png
 
# View image information
identify -verbose image.jpg

Quick Editing After Screenshots

For simple screenshot annotations, Drawing (GNOME Drawing app) is recommended:

sudo apt install drawing

Drawing provides simple and intuitive editing features: brush, text, arrows, rectangles, cropping, and more — perfect for quickly annotating screenshots.

Archive Handling

Graphical Interface

The Ubuntu 26.04 file manager (Nautilus) has built-in compression/decompression support:

• Extract: Double-click an archive to browse its contents in the file manager, or right-click and select “Extract Here”
• Compress: Select files or folders, right-click and select “Compress”, supporting ZIP, tar.gz, 7z, and more

Installing Additional Archive Format Support

# Install full archive format support
sudo apt install p7zip-full p7zip-rar unrar unzip zip
 
# RAR format support
sudo apt install unrar
 
# Install graphical archive manager (more features)
sudo apt install file-roller

Command-Line Compression/Extraction

ZIP Format

# Extract ZIP
unzip archive.zip
 
# Extract to a specific directory
unzip archive.zip -d /target/directory/
 
# Create a ZIP archive
zip -r archive.zip foldername/
 
# View ZIP contents (without extracting)
unzip -l archive.zip
 
# Create password-protected ZIP
zip -e -r archive.zip foldername/

tar.gz / tar.bz2 Format

# Extract tar.gz
tar xzf archive.tar.gz
 
# Extract tar.bz2
tar xjf archive.tar.bz2
 
# Extract tar.xz
tar xJf archive.tar.xz
 
# Create tar.gz archive
tar czf archive.tar.gz foldername/
 
# View contents (without extracting)
tar tzf archive.tar.gz

7z Format

# Extract 7z
7z x archive.7z
 
# Create 7z archive (high compression ratio)
7z a archive.7z foldername/
 
# Create password-protected 7z
7z a -p archive.7z foldername/
 
# View contents
7z l archive.7z

RAR Format

# Extract RAR
unrar x archive.rar
 
# View RAR contents
unrar l archive.rar

Summary

Ubuntu 26.04 provides a rich set of tools for handling PDFs, images, and archives. Papers and Loupe as default viewers offer a lightweight and fast experience, while GIMP and various command-line tools meet professional editing needs. Mastering both graphical and command-line approaches lets you efficiently handle all kinds of file processing tasks.