Highlighting / annotation of PDFs as a core feature of Obsidian (annotate)

Annotating directly in the pdf and being able to create paragraphs or take image straight from that annotation is much much better than any other workaround flow.

It’s faster, smoother and keeps everything in one place. Would love for the team to implement it.

8 Likes

This is the single biggest feature missing from Obsidian! Please make it happen in a fashion that resembes Logseq!

Anything we can do to let the dev team know this is a highly desired feature ? :slight_smile:

6 Likes

This would be amazing to have. Is there any updates on whether Obsidian team has considered this as a core feature? Especially with canvas in place, it will be a game-changer.

A glimmer of hope!

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Use case or problem

I see some plugin use Mozilla pdf.js to open PDF, Maybe Obsidian can make it built-in, so no need to install plugin, as I found Mozilla pdf.js is better when rendering PDF, also it has built in annotation like feature.

Proposed solution

I think obsidian can put this technology as replacement for PDF viewer

Current workaround (optional)

For now, I am using plugin custom frame, and put the link to Mozilla pdf.js that it is accessible through web version, so I can access it from custom frame, and I drag and drop my PDF there to open it.

Related feature requests (optional)

1 Like

I use Obsidian a lot for extracting notes on engineering articles I read from my Zotero library. That being said, I would love to just be able read and annotate PDFs directly within Obsidian. I know there is the annotation plugin, but that is very limited and doesn’t work well with math text. Also, I cannot draw freehand on the PDF. So, in summary, I want to request a PDF plugin that can allow you to highlight, write notes, draw freehand on the PDF, and then extract the highlights and notes from the PDF into Obsidian.

12 Likes

I’m also currently figuring out how to deal with PDFs in Obsidian. So far the best way forward seems to just embed a PDF into a markdown file via “![[Name of PDF]]” (without quotation marks). The Markdown file is than taggable, you can code and do whatever you usually expect from a file in Obsidian.

Not sure if that helps in your case, you seem to want something that is specifically for annotation. What would you expect to be the use-case of doing that in obsidian instead of importing the annotated PDF?

You may have guessed by now that Obsidian is one of my favorite materials to work with while playing Dungeons & Dragons. The convenience of using PDF addendums is a major one. You probably have as many as a hundred PDFs from places like the DM’s Guild, DriveThruRPG, Kickstarter, etc., if you’re anything like me. Although there is a lot of useful information there, I found it difficult to apply.

For crucial information, I’d have to copy and paste it or take a screenshot. A lot of the time, I had to completely rework things in a way that would be more helpful. At the end of the day, I don’t want to waste time repeatedly clicking through a hundred pages to get the table I need. Bookmarks are just another item that needs to be kept track of.

1 Like

Yes please! Something analogous to Logseq would be huge

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I would like to create [[links]] to especific paragraphs, zones or pages of a pdf.

I would be interesting to be able to link file images, diagrams, etc. Something like “capture selection” feature from FireShot Chrome extension.

Use case or problem

Pdf editors available in the plugins are not a good solution to annotating pdfs inserted anywhere in a note . Moreover the pdf window cannot be customised to make it a little smaller. Native pdf tools are thus a necessary requirement.

Proposed solution

Add a native pdf editor with tools like , highlighter , adding sticky notes , text notes and saving it natively on the pdf rather than as a markdown file.
It shld also be able to open pdfs from any location on my pc so that I don’t have to make a copy of the large file into the Obsidian vault.

Current workaround (optional)

No good workarounds are there. The plugins Annotatr and Better-pdf-plugin are incomplete and difficult to handle and don’t work quite satisfactorily.

Related feature requests (optional)

Maybe a Craft like view of the vault and the Attachments tucked into a common folder in the explorer to declutter the zone.
10 Likes

YES TO THIS PLEASE. There’s the annotator plugin, but as far as I know, it doesn’t save the annotations on the PDF file itself but on a separate markdown file. I just want a simple solution where, when I click on a PDF file inside Obsidian, I can automatically start annotating and it saves the annotations on the file. This way, when I choose to open the PDF in another app, the annotations are still there.

Maybe Obsidian can try to implement PDFjs or something similar instead of using Chromium’s default PDF viewer

4 Likes

I definitely second the request. A good pdf viewer /editor would truly be a blessing.
Workaround: Right now I am trying to make Obsidian and Losgesq - which has a terrific way of dealing with pdfs - together. However, the downsides of using the 2 together - as an Obsidian user - are too many right now.

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Much needed! But most good pdf editors are expensive out there( for reasons I fail to understand), so I’m a little pessimistic about this one.

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Microsoft Edge is free and serves the needs.
Obsidian developers can make a pdf editor like Edge probably. Using Edge alongwith Obsidian doesn’t reduce the problem though , rather it uses more memory and is problematic.

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+1 for a nice in-obsidian pdf editing and saving solution. I would lovt to use a PDF of my workout plan in obsidian and it IS possible to check the boxes (Monday - check), but there is no way to save it. That hurts, even tough I love the rest of the program.

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A good pdf reader would be great. Right now I’m saving, underlying etc. pdfs in Logseq . I also extract text there and take notes. Then I have a corresponding note in Obsidian where I put the most relevant infos and a link to the Logseq page. Not the worst possible workaround, but not ideal either…

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+1 would love to handle pdf editing without switching the application…
Would be awesome to be implemented lile canvas.

6 Likes

Please make integrated annotations happen in Obsidian. This would be an amazing step forward.

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I really don’t think the Obsidian team is going to do this, unfortunately