Magic PDF
View, annotate and translate PDF files inside VS Code — dark mode, page-color inversion and AI translation.
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f8e57d99-7afb-47c5-bb7d-24ef92ea33fd
Features
- Native
.pdf custom editor — opens PDFs in a regular editor tab, built on a pinned PDF.js prebuild.
- Theme sync — the viewer follows your VS Code theme (light / dark / high-contrast) automatically, or pin it from the toolbar.
- Page-color inversion — invert page colors independently of the theme for comfortable dark reading.
- AI translation on selection — select text in the PDF and translate it inline using a language model via
vscode.lm (GitHub Copilot).
- Outline tree view — navigate the document's bookmarks from a dedicated Outline view in the Explorer.
- Page & zoom status bar — current page and zoom in the status bar; click to jump to a page.
- Annotations & forms — fill forms and add annotations (highlight, ink, free text, …), with save and hot-exit backup support.
Requirements
- VS Code
^1.91.0 or newer.
- AI translation requires an available
vscode.lm chat model — install and sign in to GitHub Copilot. Everything else works without it; only translation is disabled.
- Runs as a UI extension (
extensionKind: ["ui"]): it needs local filesystem access and does not support virtual/remote workspaces.
Extension Settings
All settings live under the magicPdf.* namespace.
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
magicPdf.theme |
auto |
Page color theme. dark forces a dark background/foreground via PDF.js page colors. |
magicPdf.default.cursor |
select |
The default cursor tool for preview. |
magicPdf.default.scale |
auto |
Default zoom. Allowed: auto, page-actual, page-fit, page-width, or a numeric scale (1.0 = 100%). |
magicPdf.default.sidebar |
none |
Sidebar view shown on load. |
magicPdf.default.scrollMode |
vertical |
The default scroll mode. |
magicPdf.default.spreadMode |
none |
The default spread mode. |
magicPdf.default.textLayer |
enable |
Selectable text layer over the PDF. enablePermissions honors the PDF's copy-permission flag. |
magicPdf.default.annotations |
enableForms |
Render annotations (links, forms, …). enableStorage keeps in-session annotation edits. |
magicPdf.default.annotationEditor |
none |
Annotation editor mode loaded by default. |
magicPdf.default.externalLinkTarget |
blank |
How external links inside the PDF are opened. |
magicPdf.enableScripting |
false |
Allow execution of JavaScript embedded in PDFs. Disabled by default for security. |
magicPdf.enablePermissions |
true |
Respect the PDF's permission flags (copy / modify / annotate). Disable to bypass them on your own files. |
magicPdf.enableHWA |
true |
Use hardware acceleration for canvas rendering. |
magicPdf.maxCanvasPixels |
33554432 |
Maximum canvas pixels per page. Lower it for very large PDFs that exceed GPU limits. |
magicPdf.toolbarDensity |
normal |
Toolbar density. compact shrinks paddings for small windows; touch enlarges hit targets for touch screens. |
Keyboard Shortcuts
See docs/KEYBOARD_SHORTCUTS.md for the full list (navigation, zoom, find, cursor tools, rotate, sidebar, save / print, annotations).
Known Issues
- Same PDF in two split panels: if you edit in both panels, only the active panel's edits are written on save. Split-screen for reading is unaffected.
- AI translation needs a Copilot language model installed and authorized; without one, translation is unavailable.
Release Notes
See CHANGELOG.md.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, scripts, conventions, and how to update the bundled PDF.js prebuild.
License
Licensed under Apache-2.0.
