Upgrade StorageZotero PDF Viewer vs. PDF Expert: Seeking Advice for iPad Workflow
I love the desktop version of Zotero’s native PDF viewer (let’s call it Zot-PDF), especially with plugins like Zotero PDF Background (https://github.com/q77190858/zotero-pdf-background). However, when it comes to my iPad, which I primarily use for reading, I find myself torn between sticking with a third-party app like PDF Expert (my long-time go-to app) or transitioning fully to Zot-PDF.
If I continue with PDF Expert, I’d need to adopt a workaround like the ZotMoov non-standard method. On the other hand, using Zot-PDF would require Zotero’s cloud storage or a WebDAV service, but it would keep me more organized within the Zotero ecosystem. Plus, if I’m not mistaken, Zot-PDF syncs reading positions across devices, allowing for a seamless experience between my laptop and iPad. That said, Zot-PDF on the iPad still lacks certain features, such as customizable background colors, offering only pure dark mode for now. For now, I can tune the iPad settings via Night Shift and Color Temperature, which is not as satisfactory as PDF Expert.
The workflows and philosophies of these two viewers are quite different. PDF Expert automatically updates my files with all annotations and even lets me edit PDF outlines or bookmarks -- a level of flexibility I value. In contrast, Zot-PDF adheres to a philosophy of preserving the original PDF, which is also appealing in its own way. [Update: No, it is kind of misleading to say that its target is about persevering PDF, It's more about extracting and saving the important information from the resource. Read my comment to understand what I mean.]
However, this raises concerns for me, like how much it would function or adapt to updated documents, like lecture notes or arXiv papers. I feel it would be useful when other flexible formats like EPUB, and HTML would be more available. Maybe for now, a workaround is be keep the different versions of attachments separately under the parent item.
So, I’m still confused to decide which option better suits my needs. I’d greatly appreciate insights and advice from experienced users who might have faced a similar dilemma.
If I continue with PDF Expert, I’d need to adopt a workaround like the ZotMoov non-standard method. On the other hand, using Zot-PDF would require Zotero’s cloud storage or a WebDAV service, but it would keep me more organized within the Zotero ecosystem. Plus, if I’m not mistaken, Zot-PDF syncs reading positions across devices, allowing for a seamless experience between my laptop and iPad. That said, Zot-PDF on the iPad still lacks certain features, such as customizable background colors, offering only pure dark mode for now. For now, I can tune the iPad settings via Night Shift and Color Temperature, which is not as satisfactory as PDF Expert.
The workflows and philosophies of these two viewers are quite different. PDF Expert automatically updates my files with all annotations and even lets me edit PDF outlines or bookmarks -- a level of flexibility I value. In contrast, Zot-PDF adheres to a philosophy of preserving the original PDF, which is also appealing in its own way. [Update: No, it is kind of misleading to say that its target is about persevering PDF, It's more about extracting and saving the important information from the resource. Read my comment to understand what I mean.]
However, this raises concerns for me, like how much it would function or adapt to updated documents, like lecture notes or arXiv papers. I feel it would be useful when other flexible formats like EPUB, and HTML would be more available. Maybe for now, a workaround is be keep the different versions of attachments separately under the parent item.
So, I’m still confused to decide which option better suits my needs. I’d greatly appreciate insights and advice from experienced users who might have faced a similar dilemma.
```
I don't see much value in Zotero's approach to keeping PDF annotations in its own proprietary database; what's the point of keeping the original PDF pristine? Usually, they're academic articles that can be re-downloaded.
```
Here's my present take on it, shared there:
----------------------------------------------
Zotero, along with Zot-PDF, embraces a philosophy focused on organizing metadata, notes, and annotations essential for research, rather than prioritizing the management of full resources like PDFs. By default, it doesn’t sync annotations back to the original files, reflecting its original design as an organized research notebook rather than a full-fledged library. The idea seems to be rooted in the traditional academic approach: researchers would engage with a few papers or books at a time (from the library), take notes, learn from them, and then move on -- leaving the resources/books behind. This minimalist approach aligns with Zotero’s basic storage limit of 300 MB. Interestingly, this can actually be beneficial, as it encourages focused engagement with specific resources rather than getting distracted by an overwhelming collection. I’ve often felt that when we know a resource (like a library book) won’t be ours permanently, we spend more meaningful and effective time with it. (One of my professors shared an interesting anecdote about this. Maybe I could share it too.)
However, times have changed. Many of us now prefer to keep digital copies of resources even after finishing with them, partly because many of us feel a mental satisfaction to have the availability of the resources under our direct ownership. We feel safe to keep attached to our attachments. Perhaps the abundance of resources today, combined with the ease of digital access, has made us less intentional about engaging with materials upfront, knowing they’ll always be available. This shift in mindset has led many of us to view Zotero not only as a research notebook but also as an all-encompassing library -- a place to store, organize, and preserve our growing collections.
----------------------------------------------
Kindly let me know if I am thinking something wrong.
As described there, there are three reasons:
1. It avoids annoying file sync conflicts
2. It is much higher performing (if you write annotations to the PDF, you have to upload/download the entire file for every annotation, even if you're just highlighting a sentence; that creates inefficiencies and is also wasteful, both energy & economically).
3. It allows functionality that isn't part of the PDF annotation model as described there.
Zotero has always been oriented towards paper packrats (that's why data storage was local and why it has had an unlimited sync tier for a long time), so those speculations just don't align with its history. And as you noted in your update in reddit, this has nothing to do with keeping 'pristine' PDFs -- it's easy enough to generate a copy of a PDF without annotations from one with (in fact, that's what Zotero does when you import external annotations), so that wouldn't be a valid reason.
https://www.zotero.org/why#free-and-open-source