Works in version 3.3.3 but a short term issue with command line affects 3.4.0/1 (should be working again in 3.4.2 onward) – users ask how to alter between two states like an on off toggle so for those its easiest to set via command line or two+ shortcuts. Intrigued that elsewhere you recommend SumatraPDF which has such an advanced options setting that can be switched at will from command line start (agreed it not that easy) via shortcuts.įor Sumatra users who find this answer: an easier way is to go to Settings > Advanced Options, then change the 'BackgroundColor =' value, to something like #eeeeee. However, some conforming readers may choose to provide a different backdrop. The backdrop is nominally white, although varying according to the actual properties of the medium. This was mentioned by in a previous 2014 answer to a similar opposing question.

Usually may include that option, Acrobat, SumatraPDF, Okular (the widest set of choices) and several others do, its only browser inbuilt extensions may not. The resulting PDF in this case will work with any viewer since the PDF file now has the background 'built in'. But I suspect that would defeat any trickery with viewer backgrounds too. For a darker gray change the value of setgray from 0.9, 0 = black, 1.0 = white.Īs I said, if the PDF file does something such as filling the entire page with white this will defeat the background painting, because it will overwrite the background.

You should find that 'out.pdf' has the same content as in.pdf, but the page background is now a light gray. Then invoke Ghostscript like this: gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -o out.pdf gray.ps in.pdf Make a text file on disk (eg gray.ps) with this content %! If you use the pdfwrite device as the output device then you can create a new PDF file where the background is non-white. You can use a BeginPage procedure with Ghostscript to initially fill the page with a colour, and then render the page contents.

Sumatra pdf linux