PDF Phoenix
View and annotate PDF files right inside VS Code, and actually save your annotations back into the file. Powered by Mozilla's pdf.js, with a viewer engine that keeps itself up to date.
Open any .pdf and it renders in pdf.js's full viewer: toolbar, page navigation, text search, thumbnails and document outline, zoom, rotate, and print.
Why PDF Phoenix
Most PDF extensions for VS Code are view-only wrappers around a fixed pdf.js build. PDF Phoenix adds the things they don't:
- Annotations that save. Highlight text, add text notes, draw, and add images or stamps, then press
Ctrl/Cmd+S and the changes are written straight back into the PDF file. The editor tab shows the usual unsaved-changes dot, and File: Revert File discards edits. (This is real saving into the document, not a separate sidecar file.)
- A self-updating PDF engine. PDF Phoenix can pull the latest Mozilla pdf.js on its own, with your permission, so you get new rendering fixes and features without waiting for this extension to be updated. A known-good version is always bundled as a fallback, and you can pin, switch, or roll back the engine version yourself.
- Your VS Code shortcuts stay yours. pdf.js normally grabs
Ctrl/Cmd+P and Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P to print, popping a "Preparing to print" overlay over Quick Open and the Command Palette. PDF Phoenix stops that, so both shortcuts behave exactly as they do everywhere else in VS Code. Printing is still one click away on the viewer toolbar.
- Opens the way you want. Out of the box, a document opens at Page Fit zoom with the outline (bookmarks) sidebar showing, instead of leaving you to zoom and open panels first. Both are configurable (see Settings).
Opening a PDF
Just open any .pdf file. PDF Phoenix is the default editor for PDFs, so a normal click in the Explorer opens it in the viewer. To switch back and forth with another editor, use View: Reopen Editor With...
Editing and saving annotations
- Pick a tool from the viewer toolbar: highlight, text, draw, or image/stamp.
- Make your marks. The editor tab shows a dot to indicate unsaved changes.
- Save with
Ctrl/Cmd+S. The annotations are written into the PDF.
Undo and redo work inside the viewer with Ctrl/Cmd+Z and Ctrl/Cmd+Y. To throw away all unsaved edits, run File: Revert File.
The unsaved-changes dot clears when you save or revert. Undoing edits inside the viewer reverts the content, but the dot stays until you save or revert, so you never lose track of whether what's on disk matches what you see.
Keeping the PDF engine up to date
PDF Phoenix always ships with a bundled, tested version of pdf.js. On top of that, it can use a newer one you download at runtime:
- Automatic checks. About once a day, PDF Phoenix checks Mozilla's releases for a newer version within the same major version and asks before downloading. It never jumps to a new major version on its own, because a major release could change internals that annotation-saving and the shortcut handling rely on. Turn this off with the
pdfPhoenix.pdfjs.autoCheckForUpdates setting.
- Commands (open the Command Palette and type "PDF Phoenix"):
- PDF Phoenix: Check for pdf.js Updates checks now for the latest release in the current major version.
- PDF Phoenix: Choose pdf.js Version... lets you pick any release from Mozilla's history, or return to the built-in version. Choosing a different major version asks for confirmation first.
- PDF Phoenix: Use Built-in pdf.js Version goes back to the version that shipped with the extension.
Downloaded versions are stored per-user and survive extension updates. A downloaded copy is only used if it passes validation; anything that fails to download or verify leaves your current engine untouched. Switching versions applies to PDFs you open afterward. Already-open tabs keep their current engine until you close and reopen them.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
pdfPhoenix.defaultZoom |
page-fit |
Zoom a PDF opens at: auto, page-fit, page-width, or page-actual. |
pdfPhoenix.defaultSidebar |
outline |
Sidebar panel a PDF opens with: none, thumbnails, or outline. (Outline falls back to thumbnails when a PDF has no bookmarks.) |
pdfPhoenix.pdfjs.autoCheckForUpdates |
true |
Check about once a day for a newer pdf.js within the current major version and ask before downloading. Major-version upgrades are never automatic. |
Zoom and sidebar changes take effect on PDFs you open after changing them.
Requirements
VS Code 1.90.0 or newer.
Building from source
The bundled pdf.js viewer is downloaded from Mozilla's releases at build time (it isn't published on npm), so a fetch step runs before compilation.
npm install
npm run fetch-assets # downloads Mozilla's prebuilt pdf.js viewer into media/pdfjs/
npm run compile
Press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host, then open a .pdf.
Packaging
npm run package # produces pdf-phoenix-<version>.vsix
Install it with code --install-extension pdf-phoenix-<version>.vsix.
Updating the bundled pdf.js version
Bump VERSION in scripts/fetch-pdfjs.mjs, delete media/pdfjs/, and re-run npm run fetch-assets. Keep the PRUNE_PATHS/PATCHES constants there in sync with src/pdfjs.ts, which applies the identical preparation to versions downloaded at runtime.
Note for WSL-mounted checkouts
If this project lives on a WSL drive accessed from Windows (a \\wsl.localhost\... path), run npm install, code --install-extension, and similar commands from a shell whose current directory is a native path (inside WSL, or a Windows-native directory), not the UNC path. Some of these tools spawn cmd.exe, which fails on a UNC working directory and can silently no-op (for example, code --install-extension reports nothing and the extension simply doesn't appear).
Credits
Built on pdf.js by Mozilla (Apache-2.0). PDF Phoenix itself is MIT-licensed. See the LICENSE file.
