It would seem that more recent versions of libevince break Denemo. The patch you give doesn't seem to allow --use-atril so that despite having atril installed I can't use the patch to build against libatril.
Can someone who understands the configure.ac file suggest how it should be modified to prefer libatril?

I am the original submitter of that bug and created a patch for this.



--- a/configure.ac 2021-02-10 05:01:18.504869919 +0100
+++ b/configure.ac 2021-06-30 16:58:17.796489927 +0200
@@ -251,10 +251,16 @@
     fi
 
     if test "x$have_evince2_3" = "xno"; then
-      PKG_CHECK_MODULES(EVINCE_2_32, evince-view-2.32 >= 2.0)
+      PKG_CHECK_MODULES(EVINCE_2_32, evince-view-2.32 >= 2.0, have_evince2_32=yes, have_evince2_32=no)
       CFLAGS="$CFLAGS $EVINCE_2_32_CFLAGS"
       LIBS="$LIBS $EVINCE_2_32_LIBS"
     fi
+
+    if test "x$have_evince2_32" = "xno"; then
+      PKG_CHECK_MODULES(ATRIL, atril-view-1.5.0 >= 1.5 have_atril=yes, have_atril=no)
+      CFLAGS="$CFLAGS $ATRIL_CFLAGS"
+      LIBS="$LIBS $ATRIL_LIBS"
+    fi
   fi
 fi
 
@@ -267,15 +273,25 @@
   LIBS="$LIBS $GTKSOURCEVIEW_LIBS"
 
   if test "x$useevince" != "xno"; then
-    PKG_CHECK_MODULES(EVINCE, evince-view-3.0 >= 3.0)
+    PKG_CHECK_MODULES(EVINCE, evince-view-3.0 >= 3.0, have_envince_3_0=yes, have_envince_3_0=no)
     CFLAGS="$CFLAGS $EVINCE_CFLAGS"
     LIBS="$LIBS $EVINCE_LIBS"
   fi
+
+  if test "x$have_envince_3_0" = "xno"; then
+    PKG_CHECK_MODULES(ATRIL, atril-view-1.5.0 >= 1.5, have_atril=yes, have_atril=no)
+    CFLAGS="$CFLAGS $ATRIL_CFLAGS"
+    LIBS="$LIBS $ATRIL_LIBS"
+  fi
 fi
 
 if test "x$useevince" = "xyes"; then
   CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -DUSE_EVINCE"
   LIBS="$LIBS -DUSE_EVINCE"
+  if test "x$have_atril" = "xyes"; then
+    CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -DUSE_ATRIL"
+    LIBS="$LIBS $ATRIL_LIBS"
+  fi
 fi
 
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(
diff -ruN a/src/printview/markupview.c b/src/printview/markupview.c
--- a/src/printview/markupview.c 2021-02-10 05:01:18.314877858 +0100
+++ b/src/printview/markupview.c 2021-06-30 16:54:34.574654343 +0200
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
+#ifdef USE_ATRIL
+#include <atril-view.h>
+#else
 #include <evince-view.h>
+#endif
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <math.h>
 #include <glib/gstdio.h>
diff -ruN a/src/printview/printview.c b/src/printview/printview.c
--- a/src/printview/printview.c 2021-02-10 05:01:18.314877858 +0100
+++ b/src/printview/printview.c 2021-06-30 16:54:40.591621493 +0200
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
+#ifdef USE_ATRIL
+#include <atril-view.h>
+#else
 #include <evince-view.h>
+#endif
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <math.h>
 #include <glib/gstdio.h>
diff -ruN a/src/source/proof.c b/src/source/proof.c
--- a/src/source/proof.c 2021-02-10 05:01:18.318211052 +0100
+++ b/src/source/proof.c 2021-06-30 16:55:18.887414370 +0200
@@ -21,8 +21,13 @@
 #include "source/proof.h"
 #include "core/view.h"
 #include "core/utils.h"
+#ifdef USE_ATRIL
+#include <atril-view.h>
+#include <atril-document.h>
+#else
 #include <evince-view.h>
 #include <evince-document.h>
+#endif
 
 static const gchar *nearest_annotation_text = NULL;
 static GList *annotated_pages = NULL;
diff -ruN a/src/source/source.c b/src/source/source.c
--- a/src/source/source.c 2021-02-10 05:01:18.318211052 +0100
+++ b/src/source/source.c 2021-06-30 16:55:45.880270386 +0200
@@ -20,7 +20,11 @@
 #include "source/source.h"
 #include "core/view.h"
 #include "core/utils.h"
+#ifdef USE_ATRIL
+#include <atril-view.h>
+#else
 #include <evince-view.h>
+#endif
 
 static gboolean Dragging;
 static GdkPoint DragStart, DragEnd;
diff -ruN a/tools/annotator.c b/tools/annotator.c
--- a/tools/annotator.c 2021-02-10 05:01:18.344876604 +0100
+++ b/tools/annotator.c 2021-06-30 17:49:50.413450185 +0200
@@ -22,7 +22,11 @@
 #include <math.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include<gtk/gtk.h>
+#ifdef USE_ATRIL
+#include <atril-view.h>
+#else
 #include <evince-view.h>
+#endif
 
 #define SPOT_SIZE (10) size of spot for picking out an annotation
 typedef struct Location {
diff -ruN a/tools/pageswitcher.c b/tools/pageswitcher.c
--- a/tools/pageswitcher.c 2021-02-10 05:01:18.344876604 +0100
+++ b/tools/pageswitcher.c 2021-06-30 17:49:47.148464866 +0200
@@ -22,7 +22,11 @@
 #include <math.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include<gtk/gtk.h>
+#ifdef USE_ATRIL
+#include <atril-view.h>
+#else
 #include <evince-view.h>
+#endif
 
 #define SPOT_SIZE (10) size of spot for picking out an annotation
 typedef struct Location {
diff -ruN a/tools/pageturner.c b/tools/pageturner.c
--- a/tools/pageturner.c 2021-02-10 05:01:18.344876604 +0100
+++ b/tools/pageturner.c 2021-06-30 17:49:46.399468236 +0200
@@ -22,7 +22,11 @@
 #include <math.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include<gtk/gtk.h>
+#ifdef USE_ATRIL
+#include <atril-view.h>
+#else
 #include <evince-view.h>
+#endif
 
 #define SPOT_SIZE (20) size of spot indicating the position of a repeat to be returned to
 typedef struct Location {
diff -ruN a/tools/twopageturner.c b/tools/twopageturner.c
--- a/tools/twopageturner.c 2021-02-10 05:01:18.344876604 +0100
+++ b/tools/twopageturner.c 2021-06-30 17:49:45.517472206 +0200
@@ -22,7 +22,11 @@
 #include <math.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include<gtk/gtk.h>
+#ifdef USE_ATRIL
+#include <atril-view.h>
+#else
 #include <evince-view.h>
+#endif
 
 #if !((GTK_MAJOR_VERSION==3) && (GTK_MINOR_VERSION>=18))
 #define gtk_overlay_reorder_overlay(a,b,c) g_critical("Must be Gtk version 3.18 or greater"), exit(-1)

MATE uses a libenvince fork called libatril, the interface is nearly the same. It would be nice to add support for that library, so you don’t have to install envince and the GNOME boilerplate.

comment #2:

> I think this bug may be a misunderstanding on the part of the submitter: Denemo uses the libevince library to load and display PDF files, Denemo has nothing to do with the executable document viewer called evince. I use the Mate desktop and haven't noticed any problem - is there one?

If you compare these two, the interface is pretty much the same. This should be an easy integration.

https://github.com/mate-desktop/atril/blob/master/atril-view.h
https://github.com/GNOME/evince/blob/master/evince-view.h