PDF Commenter
kirangathani618 downloadsA PDF viewer with an annotation system backed by markdown notes. Select text, create comments with backlinks, and keep everything inside your vault.
- Overview
- Scorecard
- Updates16
An Obsidian plugin for reading and annotating PDFs. Select text, leave comments, and link them to other notes in your vault with backlinks.
Comments are stored as individual markdown notes with frontmatter, not embedded in the PDF. Everything stays in your vault as plain files.
Desktop only.
Features
- PDF viewer with zoom controls and pinch-to-zoom
- Select text and create comments anchored to that position
- Comments pane sits alongside the PDF with scroll sync
- Each comment is a markdown note — edit it, link to it, find it in search
- backlinks autocomplete in the comment editor
- Highlighted text regions rendered on the PDF pages
- Right-click context menu: copy text, create comment, copy to active note
How it works
When you annotate a PDF, the plugin creates:
- A sidecar file (
<pdf>.mg-comments.json) storing annotation positions and metadata - A folder of markdown notes (one per comment) with frontmatter linking back to the PDF
Install
Via BRAT (recommended)
- Install the BRAT plugin from Obsidian's community plugin browser (Settings > Community plugins > Browse, search "BRAT").
- Open BRAT settings (Settings > BRAT).
- Click Add Beta plugin.
- Paste the repo URL:
kirangathani/pdf-commenter - Click Add Plugin. BRAT will download the latest release and keep it updated.
- Enable PDF Commenter in Settings > Community plugins.
Manual install
Download main.js, pdf.worker.js, styles.css, and manifest.json from the latest release and place them in your vault at .obsidian/plugins/pdf-commenter/.
Keyboard shortcuts
General
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+Alt+M |
Create comment from selected text |
Alt+Backspace |
Delete selected comment |
Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z |
Undo last comment deletion |
Alt+D |
Cycle to next comment |
Alt+Shift+D |
Cycle to previous comment |
Ctrl+F / Cmd+F |
Open search bar |
Escape |
Close search bar / context menu |
Ctrl+Scroll / Cmd+Scroll |
Pinch-to-zoom |
Comment editor
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter |
Save comment |
[[ |
Open wikilink autocomplete |
Arrow Up / Arrow Down |
Navigate autocomplete suggestions |
Enter |
Accept selected suggestion |
Escape |
Dismiss autocomplete |
Search bar
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Enter |
Next search result |
Shift+Enter |
Previous search result |
Escape |
Close search bar |
Build from source
npm install
npm run dev # watch mode
npm run build # production build
Requires Node 16+.
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About
Read and annotate PDFs on desktop with selectable text highlights and anchored comments.
Store each comment as an editable Markdown note in your vault, with frontmatter, backlinks, and full-text search.
View a synced comments pane alongside the PDF, see highlighted regions on pages, and use context-menu actions like copy text or create comment.Details
Current version
1.5.0
Last updated
Last month
Created
Last year
Updates
16 releases
Downloads
618
Compatible with
Obsidian 1.6.6+
Platforms
Desktop only
License
MIT