this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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Is there any way I can convert my PDF into a dark mode version without converting it into images first and invert that image and combine them, instead simply invert every element in the PDF and make it dark (preserving the original text and hyperlinks). appreciate any help!

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

I don’t remember where I got this. I jotted it down in my notes. (Sorry to whoever was the original author for not giving credit)

gs -o inverted.pdf -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -c "{1 exch sub}{1 exch sub}{1 exch sub}{1 exch sub} setcolortransfer" -f original.pdf

Edit: this might well be the original post I found: https://stackoverflow.com/a/30287097

[–] [email protected] -1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

If it works for your use case. Dark Reader and a Firefox PDF tab works.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Can I save it locally as an inverted pdf?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

No, but you can open it locally in Firefox. You'd just have to use that as your reader. Unfortunately I don't know if any other readers have a dark mode feature; I only discovered Dark Reader working for PDFs by accident.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

SumatraPDF can.... But it's a Windows only program (run with wine, perhaps?)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

zathura does this as well