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Getting started

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Valerio edited this page Oct 10, 2026 · 2 revisions

Getting started

Install

  • In VS Code: open the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X), search for PDF Tools by Ryadel and click Install.
  • From a terminal: code --install-extension Ryadel.pdf-tools.

Requires VS Code 1.125 or later.

Open a PDF

Open any .pdf file from the Explorer: PDF Tools is the default editor for PDFs. To use another editor for one file, right-click it and choose Open With….

If another PDF extension is installed (for example vscode-pdf), VS Code asks once which editor to use. Choose PDF Viewer (from PDF Tools) and confirm it as the default — see Troubleshooting and FAQ.

The editor at a glance

Toolbar, first row (always the same): sidebar, View/Fill mode switch (only for PDFs with a form), page navigation (the page box also accepts page labels such as iv), zoom, find, Save (enabled when there are unsaved changes), print, and the … menu.

Toolbar, second row: the tools of the current mode.

  • View: fit to width, fit page, rotate, text selection or hand tool, scrolling (vertical, horizontal, wrapped, one page at a time) and spreads (none, odd, even).
  • Fill: highlight fields, previous/next field, next required empty field, clear form. See Filling and saving forms.

The … menu

The … menu collects every action in two columns: File, Go to, Page, Document on the left; View and Form on the right.

Sidebar (activity strip on the left): Pages (thumbnails), Outline (bookmarks, with a filter and Find Current Item), Search (every result with its context), Form Fields, Attachments (open in VS Code or save), Layers, Document Properties (including encryption, permissions and fonts).

Document Properties with the fonts of the document

Status bar: current page (click: Go to Page), zoom (click: zoom presets) and, for forms, the mode and the number of changed and required fields.

Every action is also in the Command Palette, under PDF Tools: ….

Reading

  • Find (Ctrl+F) works like VS Code's: match case, whole word, highlight all, result count. It ignores accents unless you turn on Match Diacritics: onesta also finds onestà.

The find widget: match count and highlighted results

  • All results (Ctrl+Shift+F) lists every match with the surrounding text, grouped by page.

All search results with their context, grouped by page

  • Back/Forward (Alt+←/→) returns to where you were before following a link or an outline item.
  • PDF Tools remembers where you left each PDF: page, zoom, rotation, scrolling, spreads, sidebar and mode.

Reading modes

  • Match Theme Colors (… menu): pages drawn with your color theme's background and text colors — dark pages in a dark theme, with the hues of images and colored text preserved. Printing and exports are not affected.

Outline panel and Match Theme Colors in a dark theme

  • Focus mode (… menu): the page gets the whole editor; one floating toolbar appears at the bottom when you move the mouse and hides when it is still.

Focus mode: the floating toolbar at the bottom of the page

  • Presentation mode (Ctrl+Alt+P): one page at a time, full screen through VS Code's Zen mode. Arrow keys, Space, the mouse wheel or a click change page; Esc ends it and restores your view.

Presentation mode: one fitted page, no interface

To make Focus mode or theme colors the default, see Settings.

Languages

PDF Tools follows VS Code's display language: English, Italian, French and German.

PDF Tools

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