diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index b6802fa64da7..75371834094f 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -11563,7 +11563,7 @@ let
     external = {
       inherit (haskellPackages) ghc-mod structured-haskell-mode Agda;
       inherit (pythonPackages) elpy;
-      inherit rtags libffi;
+      inherit rtags libffi autoconf automake libpng zlib poppler pkgconfig;
     };
   };
 
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/emacs-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/emacs-packages.nix
index a92f0d66ad1a..e10262cd5e88 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/emacs-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/emacs-packages.nix
@@ -83,6 +83,34 @@ let self = _self // overrides;
     };
   };
 
+  tablist = melpaBuild rec {
+    pname = "tablist";
+    inherit (pdf-tools) src version;
+    fileSpecs = [ "lisp/tablist.el" "lisp/tablist-filter.el" ];
+    meta = {
+      description = "Extended tabulated-list-mode";
+      license = gpl3;
+    };
+  };
+
+  pdf-tools = melpaBuild rec {
+    pname = "pdf-tools";
+    version = "0.70";
+    src = fetchFromGitHub {
+      owner = "politza";
+      repo = "pdf-tools";
+      rev = "v${version}";
+      sha256 = "19sy49r3ijh36m7hl4vspw5c4i8pnfqdn4ldm2sqchxigkw56ayl";
+    };
+    buildInputs = with external; [ autoconf automake libpng zlib poppler pkgconfig ] ++ [ tablist let-alist ];
+    preBuild = "make server/epdfinfo";
+    fileSpecs = [ "lisp/pdf-*.el" "server/epdfinfo" ];
+    meta = {
+      description = "Emacs support library for PDF files";
+      license = gpl3;
+    };
+  };
+
   ag = melpaBuild rec {
     pname   = "ag";
     version = "0.44";