How can I organize and annotate my PDFs on linux?

November 25, 2008 4:59 PM

Help me get my PDF's organised! I need to be reading large quantities of academic papers for research I am working on and currently don't have a way to keep my readings organised. Is there some snazzy yet simple software (preferably for linux) to help me keep a library of PDF files, and hopefully jot some comments down after I'm done reading? Additionally, any good linux software for simple highlighting/annotating of these files?
posted by comwiz to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Papers is fantastic, though I believe it's Mac-only at this point. You said "preferably" for linux, so I thought I'd toss it out there.
posted by you're a kitty! at 5:08 PM on November 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

Jabref is what I used to use. I now use Zotero (firefox plugin) since I end up pulling most of my papers from the web; it saves me some typing. I believe the latter has some kind of pdf tagging feature, but I haven't played with it.
posted by PercussivePaul at 5:11 PM on November 25, 2008

Mendeley
posted by chrisamiller at 5:40 PM on November 25, 2008

Zotero is what you want without a doubt. Also integrates with open office, and with some work, Bibtex for citation support.
posted by singingfish at 5:48 PM on November 25, 2008

If OS X is in the running, then consider using Skim together with the aforementioned Papers.
posted by needled at 6:10 PM on November 25, 2008

Referencer is pretty snazzy.
posted by aheckler at 7:23 PM on November 25, 2008

If you're looking for a really simple solution, itunes might work.
posted by kdern at 9:04 PM on November 25, 2008

I wish i'd organized my PDFs from the beginning using something like Referencer; right now I have a mess of folders. I use Xournal for highlighting and basic notes within PDF files. It saves the highlight/notes as a seperate file and renders them on top of the PDF. SInce you're using linux, take advantage of Tracker or Beagle to index your PDFs.
posted by PueExMachina at 11:29 PM on November 25, 2008

Another good one, though for OS X only, is BibDesk.
posted by jonesor at 3:10 AM on November 26, 2008

Zotero for the 3rd time.
posted by Sitegeist at 6:43 AM on November 26, 2008

Try Yep! It's the best way I've found to manage a lot of .pdf files.
posted by aether516 at 10:44 AM on November 26, 2008