I would very much like this as well. I tried to integrate Zotero in my use case, but in the end it was more hassle than what I would like. I have a solution in place to sync my obsidian-related files all in one place, with no size restrictions, and I include my digital library in it as well. It works. I’m already able to point a link exactly to a single place inside a pdf, now I only need a way to annotate it directly.
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I find surprising that the value of this is not immediately obvious to everyone in the project. Every single person that uses Obsidian to study would benefit from core pdf annotations. Reading and interacting with pdfs composes at least 80% of the study time of everyone learning or doing science, mathematics and related fields.
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PDF++ plugin
I’m actually quite surprised that this issues hasn’t been resolved by the Obsidian team, considering Obsidian has been out for a few years now. This is a very big hole in Obsidian, along with handwriting, and it really needs to be filled if Obsidian is going to be taken seriously as a proper note-taking app, in my opinion. Using another app for reading PDFs results in context-switching, which is definitely not good for sustained, deep work because it causes a temporary restart and thus requires a brief build-up period to get back on track. Hopefully this request will not be lost in the void, as it’s such a basic requirement for doing any type of research.
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I further support the idea of a core feature of Obsidian that let us highlight and annotate pdf. Moreover, there’s already a great plugin called PDF++ that not only does that but also other cool things, but its own creator says that there’s high risk it won’t work in new Obsidian updates (see ush’s post in [Feature Request] Make Builtin PDF Annotations - Feature archive - Obsidian Forum); that thing stopped me from even trying this new plugin, since it would be frustrating to learn to use a thing that in few months/weeks could stop to work. I’d suggest Obsidian developers to take this great plugin and make it a core plugin of Obsidian: i’m sure even its creator @ush would be happy with that, considering all his effort would not get useless.
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@matar3 I’d say PDF++ can be considered to be more future-proof than other PDF plugins that store annotations as JSON code blocks with their own data structure (Annotator, Markmind, …), though. (details: Plugin Fragility? · RyotaUshio/obsidian-pdf-plus · Discussion #48 · GitHub)
But yeah, I agree it would be great if Obsidian could provide the functionalities natively or at least provide a stable public API for the PDF-related features in the future.
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I genuinely cannot believe how long it is taking to start implementing this. This should be the #1 priority as it is a massive gap in the feature set, and as paying user I am losing faith in the team’s ability to prioritize such critical issues…
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Every once in a while I come back to Obsidian hoping that the biggest missing feature has finally been added, and I can re-subscribe, but nope.
Is there at least a rough idea of when this will be worked on? It has been on the roadmap for ages.
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This is the most needed function for me and my friends！！！
I now take PDF processing as the main function of obsidian, but at present, I can only rely on a lot of plug-in collaboration, the experience is not good 
…
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I signed up to the forum to say that this is a really important feature for a note-taking app (I will likely move back to alternatives as a result). For the most common functionality, I think it should be implemented as part of the product and not rely on third party plugin developers. This is from both for security point of view (unaudited community plugins shouldn’t need to be trusted for basic note taking capabilities), and from a robustness/longevity point of view (there are several cases where maintenance of plugins has been dropped due to the developers being overstretched).
Of course the number of built in features should be kept to a minimum so that the Obsidian team does not become overburdened with their maintenance, and only cover core features, with more obscure features implemented by community plugins, but I am amazed this is not considered a core part of note taking. Thanks for all your hard work!
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I have grown very tired of waiting for this core feature to arrive. It is clear that there are many people that need this, quite disappointed to see it stalled for literally years…
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In this age of open source we assume a pdf document can be used like a markdown or text file.
This format was never intended for open usage; it remains a display and archiving format. Adobe is a financial juggernaut because of this proprietary format; you have to pay to get access. Still do, 30 years later. Adobe - I fart in your general direction! How do you spell monopoly?
Sadly, because Adobe “got there” first, the format has become ubiquitous. In todays world, it is a dinosaur whose time has long passed. But because so much of the worlds knowledge is contained in pdf format, all we can do is curse. And many of those pdf files we hold so dear, are still images - a graphic that you cannot copy and paste from.
It is not Obsidian’s fault that this functionality does not exist. It is not easy or even legal to annotate pdf’s in the same way we do other file formats. You either pay for an app (developer pays royalty) or resort to complicated workflows as mentioned above.
I was heartened this week to see the recent annotation changes to pdf.js.
I have no doubt, we’ll get a decent implementation from Obsidian, but annotation of PDF files will always be a PIA.
PDFs have been an open standard since 2008, maintained by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).
Other applications, such as the Open Source Logseq, offer highlighting and annotations in core and don’t have to pay Adobe anything.
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On the surface, I agree with your premise with caveat…
- logseq lifts a copy of an external pdf as an asset in the graph. It is not linked in any way to the source pdf file.
- logseq does not recognize any legit annotations put into the source pdf, you have to reselect them to use in logseq.
- annotations you create in logseq are not reflected in the source pdf and I don’t see a way to update the source.
- this approach is fine if the above constraints are not an issue for a given users workflow.
Interestingly:
- Obsidian does recognize legit pdf annotions in a pdf file in the Obsidian vault.
- I can link to that annotation but cannot yet transclude it.
- If I annotate the file externally, Obsidian recognizes them.
- It would appear that all the right set pieces are in place for a real solution in Obsidian; except for the gesture of creating legit annotation in a source pdf file. The missing piece is pdf.js functionality allowing for a legit annotation to be properly created within Obsidian; insuring portability.
So, I agree that one can annotate and use them in Logseq, but I question the manner in which they do it; doesn’t work for me.
Annotation functionality in Logseq seems proprietary and, it appears, not portable.
Please correct me if I’m wrong. I really like some aspects of LogSeq, I just don’t want to have to become fluent in yet another app for my pkm work.
I is impressive what Obsidian has already done. I am happy to wait; perhaps Logseq was a little too hasty “to get there first”.
PS - I may be totally wrong 
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None of that is relevant in the slightest. It’s an implementation detail, which the end-user doesn’t care about. Many apps have PDF annotation, there’s no reason why obsidian can’t. The userbase is continually asking for it, since at least 2022 as indicated by this request.
I don’t know how else to put it. This is a must have functionality for the tool.
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Man, I have been waiting for this functionality for years now…
This is critical for so many people that work with PDFs on a daily basis. Why can’t it be prioritized??
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I suppose implementing a feature requires two things:
- There must be demand for the feature.
- The feature must be practically achievable.
There seems to be significant demand for the feature. So, it is reasonable to assume that what’s holding it back are practical challenges.
These practical challenges might be technical, but on the other hand, they might be related to the ethos Obsidian aims to embody. There seems to be a firm commitment to markdown, perhaps because of the “open”, non-proprietary nature of that format. There’s a desire for one’s library of notes to be straightforwardly accessible no matter which markdown viewer one chooses.
I think it is intuitive to suppose that considerations like these might complicate and delay the implementation of pdf annotation.
Personally, I find Obsidian’s pdf reader unusable, so I’m not sure that I would even use the annotation feature if it was implemented. But, if the pdf reader were to be improved, then pdf annotation would be a total game changer. Much of my thinking occurs in response to pdf documents. This feature would allow me to write down my most immediate reactions to what I read in pdf documents.
Thus, while the nature of the pdf format does not sit well with Obsidian’s core ethos, it’s an unfortunate fact that much human thought, especially academic thought, is conveyed using this format, and so, to the extent that Obsidian aims to facilitate the development and documentation of thoughts, the pdf annotation feature is a no-brainer.
I don’t think annotation should be restricted to pdf documents. If Obsidian lets me add little speech bubbles with comments in them to the backwards, parochial pdf format, then would it not be abominable and perverse that I cannot add speech bubbles with comments to the glorious and open markdown text file?!
PDF annotation is on the roadmap, so there is no need to speculate if it will happen. When is undetermined.
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It certainly is, but it has been there for years. At this rate, it could remain there for multiple years without any tractions it seems.
I think users are just trying to express the desire for this over pretty much anything else that’s currently on the roadmap, at least that’s the case for me!
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100% this.
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