Zotero PDF Preview

Preview PDF attachments in the library view.

Fast & easy. Do not require any third-party softwares.

Quick Start Guide

Install

• Download the latest release (.xpi file) from the Releases PageNote If you're using Firefox as your browser, right-click the .xpi and select "Save As.."
• In Zotero click Tools in the top menu bar and then click Addons
• Go to the Extensions page and then click the gear icon in the top right.
• Select Install Add-on from file.
• Browse to where you downloaded the .xpi file and select it.
• Restart Zotero, by clicking restart now in the extensions list where the Zotero PDF Preview plugin is now listed.

Usage

Preview can be found in the right side panel of Zotero's main window. You can preview items in either the top/bottom of the info pane or the preview pane. See Settings to customize your preview position.

Shortcuts

To show/hide the preview in info pane, use shortcut P or drag/click the toggel bar.

To zoom in or zoom out, hold ctrl/cmd and scroll, or ctrl/cmd and +/-;

To reset zoom, use ctrl/cmd + 0.

Settings

Find settings here: Menubar -> Edit -> Preferences -> Preview

Setting	Details	Default Value
Enable Preview	Enable to allow the preview behavior.	true
Preview in Info Tab	Enable to show the preview in a split view under 'info' tab.	true
Preview Position	Preview position in the Info Tab	bottom
Preview in 'Preview' Tab	Enable show the preview in a new tab of right sidebar.	true
Show Toolbar in Info Tab/Preview Tab	Enable show the toolbar there.	true
Auto Focus Preview Tab	Enable to focus the preview tab automatically when you select a valid preview item.	false
Show Annotations	Enable to show annotations of the PDF files. May slow down the preview speed.	false
Show Hovered Page Style	Enable extra style of the hovered page: box shadow and hand cursor.	true
Double-click Preview Page to Open/Jump PDF	Enable double-click to open/jump to the selected page of PDF.	true
Dark Mode	Enable to preview PDF files in dark mode. This is a naive dark mode and images color may not be displayed correctly.	false
Preview First N Pages	See below	10
Preview Tab Name	Set the tab label.	preview

Advanced Usage of Preview Page Index

A python-style slice command is supported.

Syntax: Click to expand

command1,command2,...
Supported Commands:

• Number
  Number from 1 to last page

  Example:
  1
  preview page 1

  ---

  Example:
  10
  preview page 10

• Slice
  startIndex:stopIndex.
  The startIndex page is included while the stopIndex page is excluded.

  startIndex or stopIndex may be a negative number, which means it counts from the end of the file instead of the beginning.

  The startIndex or stopIndex may be missing to indicate that starts from the first page or ends at the last page.

  Example:
  1:11
  preview page 1-10

  ---

  Example:
  :11
  preview page first page(1)-10

  ---

  Example:
  10:
  preview page 10-last page

  ---

  Example:
  -3:
  preview last 3 pages

  ---

  Example:
  :-3
  preview page first page(1)-last 3rd page(excluded)

  ---

  Example:
  :
  preview every page

Development & Contributing

This add-on is built on the zotero-addon-template.

Build

# A release-it command: version increase, npm run build, git push, and GitHub release
# You need to set the environment variable GITHUB_TOKEN https://github.com/settings/tokens
# release-it: https://github.com/release-it/release-it
npm run release

Alternatively, build it directly using build.js: npm run build

Build Steps

1. Clean ./builds
2. Copy ./addon to ./builds
3. Esbuild to ./builds/addon/chrome/content/scripts
4. Replace __buildVersion__ and __buildTime__ in ./builds/addon
5. Zip the ./builds/addon to ./builds/*.xpi

Debug

1. Copy zotero command line config file. Modify the commands.

cp zotero-cmd-default.json zotero-cmd.json

2. Setup addon development environment following this link.

3. Build addon and restart Zotero with this npm command.

npm run restart

You can also debug code in these ways:

• Test code segments in Tools->Developer->Run Javascript;
• Debug output with Zotero.debug(). Find the outputs in Help->Debug Output Logging->View Output;
• UI debug. Zotero is built on the Firefox XUL framework. Debug XUL UI with software like XUL Explorer.

  XUL Documents:
  https://www.xul.fr/tutorial/
  http://www.xulplanet.com/

Disclaimer

Use this code under AGPL (open source required). No warranties are provided. Keep the laws of your locality in mind!

Part of the code of this repo refers to other open-source projects within the allowed scope.

• zotero-pdf-translate

My Other Zotero Addons

• zotero-better-notes Note enhancements for Zotero
• zotero-pdf-translate PDF translation for Zotero 6
• zotero-tag Automatically tag items/Batch tagging

Sponsor Me

I'm windingwind, an active Zotero(https://www.zotero.org) plugin developer. Devoting to making reading papers easier.

Sponsor me to buy a cup of coffee. I spend more than 24 hours every week coding, debugging, and replying to issues in my plugin repositories. The plugins are open-source and totally free.

If you sponsor more than $10 a month, you can list your name/logo here and have priority for feature requests/bug fixes!