PDF Viewer & PDF Reader with Dark Mode
For developers who read specs and papers next to their code, this PDF viewer and PDF reader shows PDFs in VS Code with dark pages that keep photos and charts in their real colors.
A real VS Code 1.142 window running this extension on test/fixtures/earthquakes-october-2026.pdf, a 3 page report generated from the USGS earthquake catalog for October 2026.
- Dark pages that are easy on the eyes at night. Text, lines and backgrounds go dark. Photos keep their colors.
- Find in PDF highlights every match and jumps between them with Enter. The outline and page thumbnails sit in one sidebar.
- It runs offline. pdf.js is bundled inside the extension, and it makes no network calls and sends no telemetry.
Quick start
- Install the extension.
- Click any
.pdf file in the Explorer. Press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on macOS) to search, and click the moon button to switch dark pages on or off.
Recorded in the same window. The white arrow is drawn in to show where each click lands.
Run "Get Started with PDF Reader" from the Welcome page for a short tour.
Dark mode that leaves images alone
Most dark PDF modes invert the whole page, so a photo of a blue sky turns orange. PDF Reader inverts the page, then paints the original pixels of each raster image back on top.
By default the pages follow your VS Code theme. Dark and high contrast dark themes get dark pages, light themes get the page as printed. The moon button in the toolbar, or "PDF: Toggle Dark Pages" in the Command Palette, switches it for the open file. Set pdfViewer.darkMode to on or off to stop following the theme.
Charts drawn as vector lines are inverted like text, because to the PDF they are lines, not pictures. A chart embedded as an image keeps its colors.
Search, outline and pages
Type in "Find in PDF". Matches light up on every page as the search runs, and the counter shows "3 of 23". Press Enter for the next match and Shift+Enter for the previous one. "Aa" turns on match case.
The sidebar has two tabs. Outline shows the PDF's bookmarks as a tree, and a click jumps to the exact spot. Pages shows a thumbnail of each page, with the current one marked.
The sidebar stays closed until you open it, also for LaTeX PDFs with bookmarks. To change that, set pdfViewer.sidebar to open (open it for every PDF) or remember (keep it the way you left it in the last PDF).
Zoom and position
Pick Fit width, Fit page, or 50% to 400% from the toolbar. Ctrl plus the mouse wheel, Ctrl+= and Ctrl+- also zoom (Cmd on macOS). They zoom the PDF, not the VS Code window.
Each PDF reopens at the page and zoom where you left it. When the file changes on disk, for example after a LaTeX build, the viewer reloads it and stays on the same page.
Go to a page, and link to it from your notes
Press Ctrl+G in a PDF, type a page number and press Enter.
Links in Markdown can open a PDF at a page, the same way they work in a browser. Write [paper](https://github.com/theluckystrike/pdf-viewer-vscode/blob/HEAD/docs/paper.pdf#page=12) in a .md file, then click it in the Markdown preview. #nameddest=results opens a named destination of the PDF, and &zoom=150 sets the zoom.
You don't have to type the links. "PDF: Copy Link to This Page" copies a link to the page you are reading, ready to paste into your notes.
Keys
| Key |
Action |
Ctrl+F / Cmd+F |
Find in PDF |
Enter, Shift+Enter, F3 |
Next or previous match |
Esc in the search box |
Clear the search |
← → |
Previous or next page |
Home, End |
First or last page |
Ctrl+=, Ctrl+- |
Zoom in, zoom out |
Ctrl+G |
Go to page |
The viewer leaves other VS Code keys alone. Ctrl+P opens Quick Open and Ctrl+Shift+P opens the Command Palette, as in any other editor.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
What it does |
pdfViewer.darkMode |
auto |
auto follows the theme, on always dark, off never dark |
pdfViewer.keepImagesInDarkMode |
true |
Keep raster images in their colors in dark mode |
pdfViewer.defaultZoom |
page-width |
Zoom for a PDF you open for the first time |
pdfViewer.rememberLastPage |
true |
Reopen each PDF at the last page and zoom (up to 500 files) |
pdfViewer.sidebar |
closed |
closed keeps the sidebar closed, open opens it for every PDF, remember keeps your last choice |
pdfViewer.maxFileSizeMB |
200 |
Ask before opening larger PDFs |
pdfViewer.askForRating |
true |
Ask one time for a Marketplace rating, after 5 files and 2 days. Turn it off with false |
More screenshots
| Dark pages, search and outline |
Light theme |
 |
 |
| Page thumbnails, dark |
Outline jump, light |
 |
 |
Real output, light and dark. The extension's own webview code and its bundled pdf.js render test/fixtures/earthquakes-october-2026.pdf, a 3 page report built from the real USGS earthquake catalog for October 2026. scripts/readme-shots has the scripts that build the PDF and capture the shots in headless Chrome.
Privacy and security
The extension reads the PDF with the VS Code file system API and hands the bytes to the viewer. It doesn't upload anything, and it has no telemetry. The viewer runs under a strict Content-Security-Policy that allows only the extension's own scripts. Titles, text and links from the PDF are always inserted as plain text. PDF JavaScript and forms scripting are not run.
A link inside a PDF opens in your browser only when you click it, and only for http, https and mailto links.
Known limits
- It is a viewer. It doesn't fill forms, add annotations or print.
- Big files load fully into memory. Above 200 MB it asks first, and you can change the limit.
- Pages render on demand, so a 1,000 page PDF opens at page 1 at once, but search reads every page and takes longer on very long files.
- A
#page= link opens the page from the Markdown preview. A Ctrl+click on the same link in the text editor opens the PDF at the page you read last, because VS Code drops the part after # there.
- If another PDF extension is installed, VS Code may ask which one to use. Right-click a PDF and pick "Open With..." to switch.
Credits
PDF rendering by pdf.js from Mozilla (Apache-2.0), bundled in media/pdfjs. The extension itself is MIT licensed.
Rate this extension on the Marketplace if it helps you read PDFs. A rating helps other people find it.
Support
Zovo extensions have no ads and no tracking, and sponsors pay for the time that goes into fixes and new viewers. You can sponsor the work on GitHub Sponsors.
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