Visual Studio Code PDF Viewer

A lightweight, reliable PDF viewer for Visual Studio Code, powered by Mozilla PDF.js.

GitHub: mathematic-inc/vscode-pdf

Overview

This extension runs the latest pdf.js underneath. A demo of their editor (hence ours) can be found here.

Why?

Most extensions currently in the marketplace have problems too deep to fix. These problems include memory leaks, outdated dependencies, and several debouncing issues. A priori, this extension does not have these issues and also seeks to provide only viewing capabilities. Nothing more.

Installation

Install from the Visual Studio Marketplace or from the Open VSX Registry.

Alternatively, search for "PDF Viewer" in the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X) inside VS Code.

Usage

Once installed, open any .pdf file in VS Code. The extension automatically registers as the default editor for PDF files and renders them using the built-in PDF.js viewer.

Support us

If you find this extension helpful, please consider supporting its development through GitHub Sponsors. Your support helps maintain and improve this extension. Click here to become a sponsor.

Updating PDF.js

• update pdfjs_version.txt to target version and hash
• from root folder of this repo run tools/prepare_pdfjs.sh, this will download PDF.js in given version and try to apply patches from the patches folder to it
  • if the patches apply cleanly the command terminates and you are done
  • if the patches fail to apply, for every conflict a *.rej file will be generated in the assets/pdf.js folder, you need to resolve these manually and then delete the .rej files

If you want to keep current version of PDF.js but add some more patches, run with flag --update-patches which will stop after applying the current patches same as in the above case, leaving you to modify the assets/pdf.js however you see fit, once done new patch will be created to match your edits.

After you prepared your patches you can run the same command again, the second time the patches should apply cleanly and the assets/pdf.js should have the updated content you created earlier.

The prepare_pdfjs.sh script does not create any commits in this repo, after you are happy with the patches you prepared be sure to commit everything manually.

This project is free and open-source work by a 501(c)(3) non-profit. If you find it useful, please consider donating.