Support adding comments/annotations (highlight)

[marco-c]

We are experimenting with basic PDF editing features.
This issue tracks implementing support for highlighting text and adding comments/annotations.

[Stamo-Gochev]

@marco-c Can you share more information about when the feature will be available? I see that no milestone has been defined and the issue is in the "to do" section, so I guess it is hard to tell, but I am working on a prototype project that will benefit from the functionality and as specifying a concrete release might not be possible, do you have plans to have this by the end of the year (2022)?

[marco-c]

@Stamo-Gochev I hope we will be able to get to this soon, but unfortunately we can't make any promises regarding the timeline.

[qwer1304]

How to activate in Chrome? (I built it from sources).
I tried modifying annotationEditorEnabled in pdf.js\extensions\chromium to true and rebuilding, but PDFViewerApplicationOptions.get("annotationEditorEnabled") in console still gives false and there're no new options in viewer.

[xerz-one]

Is a preview available with build flags or in another repository? What is the intended UX workflow like?

[SuperPat45]

Please add ability to cross out text in addition to the highlight

[marco-c]

Highlighting is not available yet, but you can draw or add text on PDFs with the latest version of Firefox.

[rubenkleiman]

Hi marco-c. Have you determined by now whether the pdf.js codebase is tractable for implementing annotations? If so, I might help on the coding end. API features I need: (1) highlight a text selection, (2) extract its PDF doc location and the text itself, and (3) edit or delete the highlighted text. The highlighted text has, of course, to be permanently embedded in the PDF. Thanks.

[marco-c]

@rubenkleiman this issue is tracking implementing those features. It is feasible, but some work is required.

[avishaan]

@rubenkleiman we had a similar issue and solved it by forking pdf highlighter repo which builds on top of this. Check it out here https://github.com/credolabs/react-pdf-highlighter we would love to hear your ideas as well

[marco-c]

There is now a meta bug on Bugzilla to track this work: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1846098.

[marco-c]

And https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1863905 about the commenting.

We will close this issue, you can follow along on Bugzilla.

[shivaprsd]

As basic annotation features are now available, the wiki should be updated.

/cc @timvandermeij

[timvandermeij]

Thanks; I have updated the wiki now.