How to create external link to PDF page (without Zotero)

Zotero 6 features to highlight inside its own reader and export to .md are amazing (there was already a plugin version workflow for it). However, because of this future proof “obsession”, I want to replicate this kind of note-to-paragraph linking without Zotero:

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Is it possible to export notes from any PDF reader (acrobat or any other), export to .md the highlights and annotations and then have these kind of Zotero links to the original paragraph of the PDF?

Obviously, at some point, any software will disappear, but Zotero is not like Obsidian. Zotero could not have a successor able to read its “old” files.

:exclamation: On the other hand, I was thinking that this hypothetical “native” links from Obsidian to the original PDF, could use different syntax depending on the PKM software or even the PDF reader… If this is the case, please let me know, because this would also directly invalidated or add more difficulties to my future-proof idea. And hence I would directly go with Zotero.

What I’m trying to do

I have found and tried things like this, but there is not final answer for the question.

Thank you.

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I was looking for a similar functionality as well. Using zotero itself for now. I was thinking about it and Remnote is able to link to specific text of a pdf either locally or via cloud. Uses some kind of Custom URI. However, what Ive seen is that these kind of links break. And for no particular reason that I can see. If this can be fixed, and the functionality ported to Obsidian natively, it would be great.

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@Asish Yes, maybe the question would be if there is any markdown standard way to implement this. Otherwise, I suppose we need to use third party tools (Zotero, Remnote…) or manually search for it in the original pdf.

No one has faced this issue? Or maybe it makes no sense because there is no markdown standard way of replicating the Zotero hyperlinks to PDFs?

I don’t have the answer for your question, but have you ever thought about learning how to program? I also worry about the future of the tools I’m currently using, and after thinking for some time about it, I’ve realized that the best way to maintain my workflow is to learn how the tools work and how to fix or recreate them if necessary - it helps a lot if the tool is open source. If you’re relying on Zotero and suddenly it disappears, you can always create some kind of script to convert your data into another format that it is acceptable by other tool that you decided to use. If you’re using a plugin and it suddenly breaks, you can fork the repository and fix it for yourself - no need to deprive yourself of its benefits just because eventually it can stop working.

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