Available for beta testing: Reading Mode for PDFs

dstillman Zotero Team
edited 23 days ago
The latest Zotero beta adds Reading Mode for PDFs: a clean, reflowable view of the document, with adjustable font, size, and line spacing, and without the headers, footers, and multi-column layouts of the original. If an area of the PDF page can't be represented as text (images, tables, figures), it'll be rendered as shown in the original PDF, so you won't miss any content.

Most reading modes — in the apps that offer one for PDFs at all — are read-only. In Zotero's, you can keep annotating: you can highlight and underline text and add notes directly in Reading Mode, and those annotations show up in the normal PDF view as well. (Annotations made with the other tools — text, image, and ink — are shown only in the PDF view, though we may show them in the sidebar in a future version.) Your reading position carries over when you switch, too.

To turn it on, click the Reading Mode button in the reader toolbar.

Reading Mode is powered by the same custom document-analysis system behind the Read Aloud improvements in the latest beta, and we're still refining it. If a document doesn't look right in Reading Mode — missing text, mangled tables, etc. — let us know in a new thread.
  • metaxasoessle
    This already looks amazing on PC, when will this system be ported to the zotero ios/android app?
  • lyndajgibson
    Hi. I cannot seem to find this beta feature. No icon or offer in the update feature. What to do?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    @lyndajgibson: It's in the Zotero beta, linked above, and is a button in the reader toolbar. If you're not comfortable running beta software, you should wait for Zotero 10.
  • davidvontamar
    I've noticed on my Mac that words with "fi" in them have those characters appear in a mismatched font, as if the ligature is not working or missing. I've tested several fonts and all of them had this issue. In addition, the font setting was suddenly reset when I left reading mode. Finally, a feature request to set: paragraph alignment to either left or justified, font size (without using zoom), adjust the width and the margins of the reader more accurately. Currently 75% is more like 50% and 100% is literally 100% without any margin at all, and there's nothing in between those two (the slider jumps).
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    font size (without using zoom)
    @davidvontamar: To be clear, in Reading Mode, the -/+ magnifying-glass buttons in the toolbar, and Cmd/Ctrl-+/-, control text size. There's no such thing as "zoom" — it's reflowed text.
  • rmnhsn
    edited 1 hour ago
    I have to say, as a trackpad user, Zoom (without reflow) would be an amazing addition. Though that would mean there also needs to be a way to set text size independently. There is just something about getting the text as it is a little closer to you.

    Another comment on the current way Zoom works. Once you're on e.g. page 50 of a document and zoom just slightly, the text really flies away, and you need to scroll a lot to find it again. While zooming, the currently displayed text (line at top/center of display) should be anchored to its current position.

    Either way, love the new feature. The last updates were honestly amazing.
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