it says “waiting on pdf.js support” on the roadmap but pdf.js has had improved support for highlighting and editing annotations for over a year now, sometime around this release. I can see and use these features (highlight, textbox, freedraw, image overlay) in firefox, which also uses pdf.js. It seems like this feature is extremely deprioritized when we have been waiting over a year to just move to a newer version of pdf.js to enable this feature in obsidian (not even a major version update, as many of these features seem to be available in 3.x!). The roadmap describes this feature as “planned”, not even active, despite no longer being blocked by pdf.js.
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Exactly. The fact that the even the roadmap line item is out of date is not super reassuring that this is a priority. I’m sure it will also take a fair amount of time to build when it finally gets picked up…
The highlight support was finalized last month, not a year ago. Upstream work is still ongoing.
Nevertheless, we never provide timelines or estimates, so please don’t ask for ones.
The fact that this FR is on the roadmap is already more than we say of the other almost 5K feature requests present on on this forum.
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I’m happy it’s slated to arrive one day! Just impatient 
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I will wait for it with great pleasure
I’m also looking forward for this feature, whenever it arrives. Thank you for at least considering adding it.
this post is fixed 5 month ago, any progress about it ? I will wait for it with great pleasure
I am sorry. We do not provide updates or timelines. Sorry again!
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@WhiteNoise, thanks for providing more feedback on this FR. When you mentioned -
does that mean the Obsidian dev “hands are tied” until the pdf.js work is finished? If so, is there anything the community here can do to petition for that work to move forward? I’m mostly ignorant about this whole world, so please forgive if this is a stupid question.
On a separate personal note, Obsidian has literally provided the means for me to organize my entire academic/professional life. I never expected to be so grateful for a software package - especially free of charge! I’m planning on monetarily supporting the team in a couple years when my own finances are stabilized. My vault is too large for Obsidian sync (I sync through pCloud) so will likely favor the other means of contributing.
I also wish to add another voice of support for PDF annotation. I’ve been using PDF++, but as @matar3 noted -
One weighty question I hope you can answer - will Obsidian’s PDF core annotation be able to preserve the annotations previously made using PDF++?
With currently ~150k users relying on this plugin (myself included), I’d be fairly crushed to lose my PDF annotations if a more permanent core solution changes that framework.
At the end of the day, I have no doubt that everyone lauds and praises the Obsidian devs for putting together such an astounding creation. I must also admit, a lack of core PDF annotation causes me daily pain and worry. Will my many hours of reading and highlighting eventually be for naught? Maybe that would be my own fault for overly-depending on a plugin, but I think that’s a real Catch 22 many users are finding themselves in. On the one hand, @EleanorKonik noted -
On the other hand, PDFs are core to just about everything outside of Obsidian, so trying to work in Obsidian without PDFs seems to be an exercise in futility, at least without double-work of some kind.
But we know that beggars can’t be choosers. It’s challenging to write a critical post without being overly-negative in an overreaching manner. To conclude, I again praise and thank the devs for providing this life-changing software. We all know y’all work your tails off, and with or without PDF annotation, I tell everyone who will listen about Obsidian. It’s truly the best.
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Our hands are not completely tied and please do not attempt to nudge upstream developers to speed up their work.
I can’t answer this question at this time. Sorry!
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Thanks @WhiteNoise for the fast response. If I may bend your ear for another question.
As of now, if I create a highlight in PDF++, but then turn the plugin off and click that link, the link will still return me to the original highlight location in the PDF (presumably using Obsidian’s native functionality). See image below for what I mean.
My question is, as the Obsidian team works on PDF annotation, are you able to say whether or not the functionality of these links will be preserved? If “yes,” I think I can continue my workflow as normal. Without the PDF++ plugin I may not see all of the the highlights throughout the PDF, but I can live with that. Thanks for more of your time.
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I don’t know what PDF++ does because I do not use it.
Creating links to a selection in a PDF is already a built-in feature of Obsidian.
Sorry, I cannot make promises that whatever you do now with PDF++ will work when the built-in annotation feature will be release.
I just want to add that I hope PDF++ is treated a first class plug-in. It’s the main reason I use Obsidian. Thank you!
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Hello,
I think that perhaps you didn’t see that the creator of pdf++ had answered my post previously, and he said:
The only thing that would not work if pdf++ got discontinued in the future will be one thing that is well highlighted in the manual, but it is just a minor thing (i don’t even remember about it, but see the pdf++ documentation for reference). For the record, after this reply i did start to use pdf++ and i’m loving it. The hyperlinks to pages of pdf will continue to work even if pdf++ got discontinued; the documentation is clear enough, though it takes much time to deal with it because it is a very long document.
Just started using Obsidian a couple of days ago and I am blown away. This is the absolute late feature I need that would completely solve all my note taking problems.
Reading this whole thread, its kind of incredible seeing the ups and downs of the old plugin then PDF++. Going to try it and hope that when eventuallyyyyyy we finally get native annotation support, that we’re just able to easily transition our notes.
Waiting w eager eyes!
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For now, try using the plugin - “Handwritten Notes”. I consider, it’s a great way out of the present situation
just coming here to say native ability to annotate pdfs (and epubs!!!) feels like the absolute top most valuable thing after views based on properties.
fingers crossed.
readwise is emphatically not my cup of tea. obsidian is vastly more elegant
it would account for the the threefold aspects of “knowledge work”
input > creation > output
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commenting to support. for anyone reading curious about the mid-2025 state of affairs, it appears that PDF++ is the go-to for non-handwritten annotations, accompanied by Handwritten Notes and/or Obsidian Ink for handwritten annotations.
still lots of friction, but it is a testament to the remarkable Obsidian community that the state of affairs has progressed so much over the past two years! i suppose it is also a testament to how emphatically desired this feature is 
FWIW - the last three releases at Releases · mozilla/pdf.js · GitHub have been focused on annotations and the annotion editor.
the folks at ElasticPDF put out a video in the last week demonstating the latest functionality - https://www.youtube.com/@elasticpdf-pro-editor/videos
Salivating for sure but I’m basking in the the recent updates to Bases… I can wait.
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