Web PDF reader annotations support

Merlin04 · August 29, 2022

Hello Zotero team!

It would be great if the web PDF reader had annotation capabilities similar to the desktop app - I like using the web version of Zotero when I can since the desktop app doesn't work correctly with Wayland scaling so it looks very blurry. Among other usages, I use Zotero as a way to organize and annotate PDFs of textbooks, and being able to annotate those textbooks with crisp text would be incredible.

Thanks so much!

dstillman · August 29, 2022

We added the PDF reader to the web library a few days ago, but it's read-only for now. It will be possible create annotations in the web library in a future update.

ace.erickson · September 3, 2022

that's great! Any timeline on that? I want to get my team using Zotero online but this limitation is pushing me towards Mendeley online (I work for government and not allowed to download the desktop versions),
thanks!

wcnngt · October 27, 2022

I would love to see that feature!

dmadisetti · November 3, 2022

Echoing that I really like the application case, but would really prefer it on web. Thanks for all your work!

Jungal · April 5, 2023

any updates on this? It would be perfect!

gmitchell_bvblaw · April 14, 2023

This would be great. Any updates?

spinningsnow · April 18, 2023

Also interested in this feature! Would be great to annotate on web app when using public computers.

MeganZ · April 19, 2023

Chiming in that this feature would be fantastic!

gerhard1979 · May 9, 2023

I agree, this would be fantastic, and one could finally use zotero properly on android devices! Thanks for all the work.

mengxiayu · June 6, 2023

I would love to make annotations online, too!

cenewman · June 21, 2023

I also need this feature.

Banamah · July 2, 2023

I would love to see this feature

glowacki.jan · July 2, 2023

Me too... Can you make it work please?

dmadisetti · July 13, 2023

I created a github issue here since we have had no updates for a year: https://github.com/zotero/web-library/issues/517

I don't think it's super trivial, there's an annotation database they need to communicate with- but I think there's enough crossover with the application reader that it wouldn't be too bad. I was able to flip a flag in a local developer build to get annotations in web but without persistence (they wouldn't save).

I wouldn't even mind if there was a plugin instead of native capabilities

dstillman · December 21, 2023

We've added support for annotating PDFs (and EPUBs/snapshots) in the web library:

https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/110329/new-annotation-editing-and-epub-snapshot-support-in-the-web-library