Meta Post - Better PDF support

Feature archive
1

Use case or problem

PDFs are necessary attachments/assets/documents for student users as well as other users of Obsidian.

Rowing in more than one boat can be tedious and dangerous too.

Many users manage lapses in Obsidian PDF reader by using complementing app like a PDF reader or web browser or Zotero…

There is a strong need of many improvements in PDF support lent by Obsidian.

Purpose of this Post

I am creating this meta-topic to curate all PDF related feature requests. Not to confuse it with PDF Export option. This topic don’t cover requests related to PDF export.

Feature requests

  1. Better PDF interaction - DONE
  2. PDF highlighting and Block reference
  3. Internal Link to part of PDF
  4. Internal link to part of PDF - DONE
  5. Search in PDF
  6. Remember last page visited
  7. Go to page - DONE
  8. Hover Preview PDF under link - DONE
  9. PDF embed in note leaf - DONE
  10. PDF embed and other embed… - DONE

Plugin Request

  1. Retrieve Highlights into Note
  2. PDF to MD
9 Likes
2

I agree. RemNote has introduced many of these features in their latest update.

I’m currently using a workflow based on Zotero but I must admit it is rather cumbersome.

1 Like
3

Hi @ViaAhmed! Thank you for pulling together this post. I agree that better PDF integration/support is needed. After seeing my girlfriend starting all her research (reading/highlighting) in PDFs and then being stuck with “…now, what?”, I took time over the holidays and created two plugins that help her more easily bridge into Obsidian:

Hope this helps!

PS: You can install both via the plugin directory. They’re called “PDF to Markdown” and “PDF Highlights” respectively

3 Likes
4

Maybe you can add this too. I want to use Obsidian as a local pdf library. I used to use Mendeley but Obsidian is much more agile than. So I just want to add tags to pdf files.

1 Like
5

I am going to archive this thread as most things are done. We’ll leave the individual remaining requests up.