Powerfull PDF Preview Project
A fast, lightweight PDF reader (read-only) for Visual Studio Code. Features a modern interface with dark/light themes, text search, bookmarks, thumbnails, and full navigation all directly inside your VS Code editor.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| 🔍 Text Search | Search within documents with Highlight All, Match Case, Match Diacritics, and Whole Words options |
| 📑 Sidebar | Page thumbnails, Table of Contents (Outline), and Bookmarks |
| 🔖 Bookmarks | Mark important pages, saved automatically |
| 🌓 Themes | Light / Dark / Auto (follows VS Code theme) |
| 🎨 Invert Colors | Night mode by inverting page colors |
| 🔎 Flexible Zoom | 10%–400%, Fit Width, Fit Page, Actual Size, Ctrl + Scroll |
| 🔄 Auto-Reload | File reloads automatically when changed on disk |
| 📐 Rotation | Rotate pages 90° clockwise/counterclockwise |
| 📖 Spread View | Two-page book-like view (odd/even) |
| 🖱️ Hand Tool | Drag to pan the document like reading a physical book |
| 👁️ Focus Mode | Hide toolbars & status bar for distraction-free reading |
| 📋 Copy Text | Copy selected text or the entire page's text |
| ℹ️ Document Properties | View PDF metadata (title, author, size, etc.) |
| 🌐 Open in Browser | Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, or default application |
| 💾 Save a Copy | Save the PDF to another location |
| 📱 Responsive | Layout adapts to panel/window size |
- Open VS Code → press
Ctrl+Shift+Xto open the Extensions panel. - Click the
...menu at the top right → Install from VSIX... - Select the
.vsixfile of this extension. - Restart VS Code if prompted.
- Open a PDF file — double-click any
.pdffile in the Explorer, or right-click → Open With... → PDF Preview. - Use the top toolbar for page navigation, zoom, rotation, and theme switching.
- Click the ☰ (More options) button at the top right for the full menu.
- Use the bottom status bar for page seeking, zoom slider, and quick-access buttons.
- Press
?at any time to view the keyboard shortcuts list.
- Press
Ctrl+For click the 🔍 icon in the toolbar. - Type your keyword — results appear instantly with yellow highlights (orange = active match).
- Press
Enterfor the next match,Shift+Enterfor the previous one. - Toggle options as needed:
- Highlight All — highlight all matches
- Match Case — case-sensitive search
- Match Diacritics — accent-sensitive search
- Whole Words — match complete words only
- Press
Escto close the search bar.
- Press
Bor click the 🔖 icon to bookmark/unbookmark the current page. - Open the Bookmarks tab in the sidebar to view and jump to bookmarked pages.
- Click the ✕ icon next to a bookmark entry to remove it.
Open the ☰ More options menu:
- Scrolling: Vertical (default) · Horizontal · Wrapped · Page-by-page (snap per page)
- Spread: No spread · Odd spread · Even spread (two-page book view)
- Tools: Text selection or Hand tool (drag to pan)
- Invert page colors — ideal for reading in the dark
The two-page spread can also be toggled quickly using the 📖 button in the bottom status bar.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+F |
Search in document |
Ctrl+G |
Go to page... |
N / J |
Next page |
P / K |
Previous page |
Home / End |
First / last page |
Ctrl + + / - |
Zoom in / out |
Ctrl + 0 |
Automatic zoom |
Ctrl + Mouse Scroll |
Zoom in / out |
W |
Fit to width |
R |
Rotate clockwise |
B |
Bookmark current page |
S |
Toggle sidebar |
H |
Hand tool |
T |
Text selection tool |
F |
Focus mode |
Esc |
Close dialog / menu / search / focus mode |
? |
Shortcuts list |
| Icon | Action |
|---|---|
| ▦ | Toggle sidebar |
| 🔍 | Text search |
| ▲ ▼ | Previous / next page |
[ number ] |
Page number box — type and press Enter to jump |
| − / dropdown / + | Zoom out / select zoom mode / zoom in |
| ↔ / ⛶ | Fit to width / fit single page |
| ↻ | Rotate clockwise |
| 🔖 | Bookmark |
| ✋ | Toggle hand tool / text tool |
| ☀️/🌙 | Switch theme (cycles: auto → light → dark) |
| ☰ | More options menu |
- Thumbnails — click a thumbnail to jump to that page.
- Table of Contents — document outline (if available).
- Bookmarks — list of bookmarked pages.
- Left: file name, file size, selected word count + quick copy button.
- Center: page seek slider + "Page X of Y" indicator.
- Right: zoom buttons, zoom slider, percentage, two-page view toggle, focus mode, reload file, and shortcuts list.
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| PDF fails to load / CDN error | Make sure you have an active internet connection (pdf.js loads from cdnjs.cloudflare.com), then click the Reload button in the status bar. |
| "This PDF is password-protected" | Password-protected PDFs are not supported. Open the file in another PDF reader. |
| File changes not showing | Click the 🔄 Reload button in the bottom status bar. |
| PDF doesn't open with this extension | Right-click the file → Open With... → select PDF Preview → Set as Default. |
- This extension is read-only — it cannot edit PDF contents.
- Password-protected PDFs are not supported.
- An internet connection is required to load the
pdf.jslibrary. - Zoom level, current page, theme, bookmarks, and view mode are saved automatically per tab.
MIT © 2026 By Dwi Bakti N Dev