---
name: "pdfcube"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "pdfcube"
version: "0.0.5-2+b7"
release: "Debian 12 (Bookworm)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pdfcube"
---

# pdfcube(1)

a PDF presentation viewer with 3D effects.

## NAME

**pdfcube** - a PDF presentation viewer with 3D effects.

## SYNOPSIS

**pdfcube** \[*FILE*\] \[**--help**\] \[**--bgcolor** *f:f:f*\] \[**--top-color** *f:f:f*\] \[**--no-fullscreen**\] \[**--demo**\] \[**--program** *n:x:n:x:...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

[**pdfcube**(1)](/pdfcube/1.md) is a tiny (about 30KiB) viewer for Portable Document Format (PDF) files that adds spinning cube transition effect to your PDF presentation files. It can also zoom on 5 predefined areas with a smooth zooming effect. This program is suited only for landscape PDF files, mostly presentations done with LaTeX (Beamer, Prosper, etc.) or OpenOffice.org Impress.

If FILE is not given a file-open dialog box is shown to the user.

[**pdfcube**(1)](/pdfcube/1.md) is an open source, low-effort, spare-time, money-less project. Your help is welcome!

## OPTIONS

- **-h** \[ **--help** \]

  This help message.

- **-v** \[ **--version** \]

  Version information

- **-b** \[ **--bgcolor** \] arg

  Background color is 'r:g:b' with real values between 0.0 and 1.0, no spaces.

- **-t** \[ **--top-color** \] arg

  Cube top color in 'r:g:b' format again with reals in \[0,1\].

- **-n** \[ **--no-fullscreen** \]

  Don't activate full-screen mode by default.

- **--demo** Automatically auto-advance presentation based on the

  frame duration PDF attribute (\\transduration when using Latex Beamer) or the specified program (see the --program option).

- **--program** A program in the form

  n:x:n:x:n:x... where n are durations in seconds and "x" can be either "c" for cube transition and "p" for plain transition. (e.g. --program 5:c:3:p). The last program is used for all remaining slides.

### Notes

The first (and only) non-option string is treated as the input file.

## INTERACTIVE CONTROL

- **c, a**

  Will display the next/previous page with a cube transition effect.

- **SPACE, PG-DOWN**

  Will switch to the next page with the programmed effect.

- **h, j, k, l, z**

  Will zoom into the predefined areas.

- **g**

  Will undo any zoom.

- **ESC, Ctrl-q**

  Will exit pdfcube immediately.

- **PG-UP, Left-Arrow**

  Will quick-switch to the previous page.

- **Right-Arrow**

  Will quick-switch to the next page.

- **f**

  Will toggle full-screen mode.

- **t**

  Will toggle auto-advance (demo) mode.

- **Ctrl-l**

  Will redraw the screen.

- **Ctrl-1, Ctrl-2, ..., Ctrl-9**

  Will jump to the page corresponding to the n-th programmed transition (if any).

- **1, 2, ..., 9**

  Will jump to page 5\*(n-1).

## CONFIGURATION FILE

If the *~/.pdfcuberc* file exists, it is used as a configuration file. The configuration file uses the same options as the command line (using the boost program options syntax). e.g.

demo=true\
 bgcolor=0:0:0\
 program=5:p

## EXAMPLES

- **pdfcube** foo.pdf

  Will display 'foo.pdf' in full-screen.

- **pdfcube** --demo --program 5:c foo.pdf

  Will display 'foo.pdf' in full-screen and will do a cube transition every 5 seconds.

- **pdfcube** foo.pdf **--bgcolor** 0:0:0 **--top-color** 0.6:0.2:0.2

  Will display 'foo.pdf' with custom background and cube color.

## BUGS

On some systems color values are locale dependent (e.g. you may have to write 0,6 instead of 0.6)

See http://code.100allora.it/pdfcube/report/ for the bugtracker of [**pdfcube**(1)](/pdfcube/1.md) (you should obtain an account contacting the author first). Or please report any bug to the author.

## AUTHORS

Written by Mirko Maischberger \<mailto:mirko.maischberger@gmail.com\> and Karol Sokolowsky \<sokoow@gmail.com\>

## RESOURCES

Main web site: http://code.100allora.it/pdfcube/

## THANKS

I'd like to thank the LILiK laboratory in Florence, Italy for having teached me the value of open-source and open-culture.

## COPYING

This manpage is available under the same GPL v2 or later license as the main program, the original manpage was written by Alexander Wirt \<mailto:formorer@debian.org\> for the Debian distribution. The 0.0.5 version is Copyright (C) 2008-2012 Mirko Maischberger.