pdf-viewer

View PDF files directly in Pulsar. Based on Mozilla's PDF.js with theme integration, SyncTeX support, and document outline.

Features

• PDF.js integration: Full-featured PDF viewing in editor panes.
• Theme support: Adapts to Pulsar UI and syntax themes.
• Auto-reload: Watches for file changes and refreshes automatically.
• Color inversion: Dark mode for PDFs toggle or via invert-colors.
• LaTeX integration: Compile .tex files and SyncTeX support via latex-tools.
• Typst integration: Compile .typ files via typst-tools.
• Build coordination: Pauses auto-refresh during builds and reloads on completion.
• Document outline: Navigate via navigation-panel.
• Scrollmap: Shows outline markers via scrollmap-pdf-viewer.
• SOFiSTiK help: Search keywords at current scope via sofistik-tools.

Installation

To install pdf-viewer search for pdf-viewer in the Install pane of the Pulsar settings or run ppm install pdf-viewer. Alternatively, you can run ppm install asiloisad/pulsar-pdf-viewer to install a package directly from the GitHub repository.

Commands

Commands available in atom-workspace:

• pdf-viewer:reload-all: reload all open PDF viewers,
• pdf-viewer:invert-mode: F8 toggle color inversion for all viewers.

Commands available in .pdf-viewer:

• pdf-viewer:compile: F12 compile the source .typ or .tex file,
• pdf-viewer:open-tex: open the corresponding .typ or .tex source file.

Keyboard shortcuts

The keyboard shortcuts within the PDF.js viewer remain unchanged and cannot be modified from within Pulsar. For more information, refer to the default keymap:

• The Home, End, PageUp, PageDown, and arrow keys can be used to navigate the document.
• Next page: N, J, Space (presentation mode only), Enter (presentation mode only), or LeftClick (presentation mode only).
• Previous page: P, K, Shift+Space (presentation mode only), Shift+Enter (presentation mode only) or Shift+LeftClick (presentation mode only).
• User interface buttons or Ctrl+MouseWheel can be used to change the zoom level.
• Zoom in: Ctrl++, Ctrl+=.
• Zoom out: Ctrl+-.
• Restore normal zoom: Ctrl+0.
• Rotate the document clockwise: R.
• Rotate the document counterclockwise: Shift+R.
• Activate presentation mode: Ctrl+Alt+P.
• Enable the hand tool: H.
• Enable the text selection tool: S.
• Move focus to the 'go to page' box: Ctrl+Alt+G.
• Find text in the document: Ctrl+F.
• Find the next occurrence of text in the document: Ctrl+G.
• Find the previous occurrence of text in the document: Ctrl+Shift+G.
• Print the document: unset.
• Download the document: Ctrl+S.
• Open a file: Ctrl+O.
• Use F4 to toggle the visibility of the sidebar.

After showing the sidebar, click on the "Show document outline" button to display the document outline (if the PDF file has one). Nested outline items can be expanded/collapsed by clicking on the triangles to the left of an item. To expand/collapse all items under the selected item, press Shift while clicking on the triangle. Double-click on the "Show document outline" button to expand/collapse all outline items.

Additional keyboard shortcuts have been introduced:

• Open command palette: F1.
• Refresh content for the current viewer: F5.
• Toggle auto-refresh for the current viewer: Ctrl+F5.
• Invert colors for the current viewer: F8.
• Compile source file: F12.
• Focus pane on left: Alt+Left
• Focus pane above: Alt+Up
• Focus pane on right: Alt+Right
• Focus pane below: Alt+Down

Some keymap of external packages have been implemented:

• [latex-tools] Backward SyncTeX (go to .tex source): RightClick.
• [navigation-panel] Toggle panel: Alt+N
• [open-external] Open external: Alt+F12
• [open-external] Show in folder: Ctrl+F12
• [project-list] Toggle recent list: Alt+F10
• [project-list] Toggle project list: F10
• [fuzzy-files] Toggle file list: Ctrl+P
• [fuzzy-explorer] Toggle explorer: Alt+P

Style

The style of the documents has been adapted to match the theme in Pulsar. As the style changes, you may notice the menu colors change. An additional option has been introduced to invert the colors of the document itself. To invert the document colors, change the options in the package settings, use pdf-viewer:invert-mode from the command palette, or press keybind while viewing an active file.

Document outline

The viewer supports the navigation-panel package. You can search through the document using the all-in outline tree instead of the PDFjs outline.

URI options

The package supports additional options when opening a PDF. These options allow you to open a PDF on a specific page, set the initial zoom level, open the file to a named destination, or select a sidebar state. For more information, see pdf.js viewer options.

LaTeX

This package integrates with latex-tools for compilation and SyncTeX support:

• Compile: Use directly from the PDF viewer to compile the corresponding .tex file.
• Forward SyncTeX (source → PDF): Use synctex trigger from the editor.
• Backward SyncTeX (PDF → source): Right-click on a location in the PDF.
• Build coordination: Auto-refresh pauses during compilation and resumes when the build finishes.

For PDF files created by TeX using the --synctex=1 option, clicking on the PDF will take you to the corresponding source code. The synctex binary path can be configured in the latex-tools package settings.

Typst

This package integrates with typst-tools for compilation:

• Compile: Use directly from the PDF viewer to compile the corresponding .typ file.
• Open source: Use pdf-viewer:open-tex to open the .typ source file.
• Build coordination: Auto-refresh pauses during compilation and resumes when the build finishes.

When both .typ and .tex source files exist, the Typst source takes priority.

SOFiSTiK

This package is adapted to support sofistik-tools for help functions using search keywords at the current scope. For more information, see the sofistik-tools package.

Provided Service pdf-viewer

Allows other packages to manage PDF viewers programmatically. Open PDFs, observe viewer instances, scroll to destinations, and update viewer files.

In your package.json:

{
  "consumedServices": {
    "pdf-viewer": {
      "versions": {
        "1.0.0": "consumePdfViewer"
      }
    }
  }
}

In your main module:

consumePdfViewer(service) {
  // Observe all viewers (existing and new)
  this.subscriptions.add(
    service.observeViewers((viewer) => {
      console.log(`Viewer opened: ${viewer.filePath}`);
    })
  );

  // Open a PDF in a split pane
  service.open('/path/to/file.pdf', {
    split: 'right',
    dest: 'chapter1',
    activatePane: false,
  });

  // Find a viewer by file path
  const viewer = service.getViewerByPath('/path/to/file.pdf');

  // Scroll to a named destination
  service.scrollToDestination(viewer, 'section2');
}

Methods

Method	Description
getViewers()	Returns the Set of all active viewer instances.
observeViewers(callback)	Calls callback for existing and future viewers. Returns a Disposable.
getViewerByPath(filePath)	Finds a viewer by PDF file path. Returns Viewer or null.
getViewerByTag(tag)	Finds a viewer whose hash contains the given tag. Returns Viewer or null.
open(filePath, options?)	Opens a PDF. Options: split, dest, tag, activatePane. Returns Promise<Viewer>.
scrollToDestination(viewer, dest)	Scrolls an existing viewer to a named destination.
setFile(viewer, filePath, dest?, tag?)	Updates a viewer to show a different PDF file.

Contributing

Got ideas to make this package better, found a bug, or want to help add new features? Just drop your thoughts on GitHub. Any feedback is welcome!