4 ms·

You can deeplink to a specific PDF page

89 points by marban 2y ago

bradrn 2y ago
This isn’t restricted to ‘page’: there’s a whole set of PDF fragment identifiers [0,1]. Most notably ‘zoom’, ‘view’ and named destinations, but there are others. [0] https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8118.html#section-3 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8118.html#section-3 [1] https://pdfa.org/pdf-fragment-identifiers/ https://pdfa.org/pdf-fragment-identifiers/
- pimlottc 2y ago
  Interesting! And it seems like they are fairly well-supported among major browsers, with the exception of Safari [0]. Writing links by hand is rather cumbersome, though, they ought to be better exposed in PDF viewers. It certainly doesn't help adoption when the list of allowed parameter values is locked in a proprietary spec! view=<keyword>,<position> The arguments correspond to those found in [ISOPDF2] 12.3.2.2 "Explicit destinations". <keyword> is one of the keywords defined in [ISOPDF2] "Table 149: Destination syntax" with appropriate position values. [ISOPDF2] ISO, "Document management -- Portable document format -- Part 2: PDF 2.0", ISO 32000-2:2017, 2017. 0: https://pdfa.org/pdf-fragment-identifiers/#Browser_support_for_basic_PDF_navigation_features https://pdfa.org/pdf-fragment-identifiers/#Browser_support_f...
  - ikari_pl 2y ago
    > a proprietary spec PDF is open since 1993, if that's the spec you mean
    - pimlottc 2y ago
      Is there a freely available copy of the document referenced earlier? I couldn’t find one with some brief googling.
      - poizan42 2y ago
        Straight from Adobe's website: https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/assets/5b15559b96303194340b99820d3a70fa/PDF_ISO_32000-2.pdf https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/assets/5b... EDIT: If it's important that it's the actual standardized version rather than the final draft then you can get it for free here: https://www.pdfa-inc.org/product/iso-32000-2-pdf-2-0-bundle-sponsored-access/ https://www.pdfa-inc.org/product/iso-32000-2-pdf-2-0-bundle-... (Strictly speaking it's the 2020 revision which incorporates some errata. I don't know if the final standardized 2017 version was made freely available)
clbrmbr 2y ago
Unsurprisingly, I find also unsupported on Firefox for iOS.
- kome 2y ago
  well... firefox on ios is still safari
  - cl3misch 2y ago
    *Webkit
- moffkalast 2y ago
  iOS doesn't allow 3rd parties to run language interpreters, all browsers on it are just reskinned Safari.
arendtio 2y ago
My Firefox downloads the PDF, so it does not work. I am not sure, but it is possible that I changed the default behavior for PDF files because I didn't like the integrated PDF viewer. Nevertheless, I think this is a valid use case that should be considered when using this feature.
- oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
  It's a shame that Firefox doesn't pass on the parameter(s) to your external PDF viewer.
elric 2y ago
Similarly, in Obsidian, you can embed specific PDF pages using the following syntax: ![[foo.pdf#page=666]]
sntran 2y ago
Chrome on Android does not work either.
thesebas 2y ago
In chrome I can even link to https://labs.pdfa.org/FragmentTest.pdf#Back%20to%20lower%20level%20heading https://labs.pdfa.org/FragmentTest.pdf#Back%20to%20lower%20l... but can't see where spec allows for that.
- bradrn 2y ago
  It’s not part of the spec, apparently, but Adobe discusses it at https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/link-html-pdf-page-acrobat.html https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/link-html-pdf-page-acroba....
woodglyst 2y ago
[dead]
- LucCogZest 2y ago
  A few other PDF readers are supported per https://hookproductivity.com/help/more/deep-pdf-links/ https://hookproductivity.com/help/more/deep-pdf-links/
helb 2y ago
Looks like the pages are zero indexed? That sample link with page=70 got me to page 69 (in both Firefox and Chrome on Linux)
- chefandy 2y ago
  It's probably linking to the 'sequence number' rather than the page number. The cover is the first sequence number but doesn't have a page number. So if there was a few blank pages before the numbered pages started, it would probably be off by that many. I'll bet there are ways to mitigate that— PDF usually seems pretty good about dealing with the discrepancies between print and digital document structures.
- Tomte 2y ago
  No. it's page 70 in the PDF. But the title page is visibly numbered "i" and only the following page is numbered "1". That offsets everything by one.
  - helb 2y ago
    Ah, i kinda expected the UI (https://i.vgy.me/beZtWa.png https://i.vgy.me/beZtWa.png) to show the actual PDF page number, never noticed the "i" thing. Thanks.
- pimlottc 2y ago
  It's one-indexed, counting that actual pages in the PDF. The nominal page numbers (as seen on the header/footer) are often different since you don't typically number title pages and the like, which is called "front matter". [0] 0: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GDDYZG2C7RVF5N9J#frontmatter https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GDDYZG2C7RVF5N9J#fro...
noname120 2y ago
See the standard: ISO/DIS 32000-2 (Annex O: “Fragment identifiers”, page 942) https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/assets/5b15559b96303194340b99820d3a70fa/PDF_ISO_32000-2.pdf#page=942 https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/assets/5b...
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
cimbal 2y ago
A quick check on iOS 17.5 gives me working links when omitting the equals symbol, like #page70 instead of #page=70 Now, this is very much against the spec [0]. At first glance, the doubled functionality of encoding parameters is irritating, there are query parameters already, so ?page=70 would seem more consistent. But then, this has been worked on for a long and it makes sense to add a whole set of functions for certain mime-types. [0] https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8118#page-3 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8118#page-3

89 points by marban 2y ago

This isn’t restricted to ‘page’: there’s a whole set of PDF fragment identifiers [0,1]. Most notably ‘zoom’, ‘view’ and named destinations, but there are others. [0] https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8118.html#section-3 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8118.html#section-3 [1] https://pdfa.org/pdf-fragment-identifiers/ https://pdfa.org/pdf-fragment-identifiers/

pimlottc 2y ago
Interesting! And it seems like they are fairly well-supported among major browsers, with the exception of Safari [0]. Writing links by hand is rather cumbersome, though, they ought to be better exposed in PDF viewers. It certainly doesn't help adoption when the list of allowed parameter values is locked in a proprietary spec! view=<keyword>,<position> The arguments correspond to those found in [ISOPDF2] 12.3.2.2 "Explicit destinations". <keyword> is one of the keywords defined in [ISOPDF2] "Table 149: Destination syntax" with appropriate position values. [ISOPDF2] ISO, "Document management -- Portable document format -- Part 2: PDF 2.0", ISO 32000-2:2017, 2017. 0: https://pdfa.org/pdf-fragment-identifiers/#Browser_support_for_basic_PDF_navigation_features https://pdfa.org/pdf-fragment-identifiers/#Browser_support_f...
- ikari_pl 2y ago
  > a proprietary spec PDF is open since 1993, if that's the spec you mean
  - pimlottc 2y ago
    Is there a freely available copy of the document referenced earlier? I couldn’t find one with some brief googling.
    - poizan42 2y ago
      Straight from Adobe's website: https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/assets/5b15559b96303194340b99820d3a70fa/PDF_ISO_32000-2.pdf https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/assets/5b... EDIT: If it's important that it's the actual standardized version rather than the final draft then you can get it for free here: https://www.pdfa-inc.org/product/iso-32000-2-pdf-2-0-bundle-sponsored-access/ https://www.pdfa-inc.org/product/iso-32000-2-pdf-2-0-bundle-... (Strictly speaking it's the 2020 revision which incorporates some errata. I don't know if the final standardized 2017 version was made freely available)

clbrmbr 2y ago

Unsurprisingly, I find also unsupported on Firefox for iOS.

kome 2y ago
well... firefox on ios is still safari
- cl3misch 2y ago
  *Webkit
moffkalast 2y ago
iOS doesn't allow 3rd parties to run language interpreters, all browsers on it are just reskinned Safari.

arendtio 2y ago

My Firefox downloads the PDF, so it does not work. I am not sure, but it is possible that I changed the default behavior for PDF files because I didn't like the integrated PDF viewer. Nevertheless, I think this is a valid use case that should be considered when using this feature.

oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
It's a shame that Firefox doesn't pass on the parameter(s) to your external PDF viewer.

elric 2y ago

Similarly, in Obsidian, you can embed specific PDF pages using the following syntax: ![[foo.pdf#page=666]]

sntran 2y ago

Chrome on Android does not work either.

thesebas 2y ago

In chrome I can even link to https://labs.pdfa.org/FragmentTest.pdf#Back%20to%20lower%20level%20heading https://labs.pdfa.org/FragmentTest.pdf#Back%20to%20lower%20l... but can't see where spec allows for that.

bradrn 2y ago
It’s not part of the spec, apparently, but Adobe discusses it at https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/link-html-pdf-page-acrobat.html https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/link-html-pdf-page-acroba....

woodglyst 2y ago

[dead]

LucCogZest 2y ago
A few other PDF readers are supported per https://hookproductivity.com/help/more/deep-pdf-links/ https://hookproductivity.com/help/more/deep-pdf-links/

helb 2y ago

Looks like the pages are zero indexed? That sample link with page=70 got me to page 69 (in both Firefox and Chrome on Linux)

chefandy 2y ago
It's probably linking to the 'sequence number' rather than the page number. The cover is the first sequence number but doesn't have a page number. So if there was a few blank pages before the numbered pages started, it would probably be off by that many. I'll bet there are ways to mitigate that— PDF usually seems pretty good about dealing with the discrepancies between print and digital document structures.
Tomte 2y ago
No. it's page 70 in the PDF. But the title page is visibly numbered "i" and only the following page is numbered "1". That offsets everything by one.
- helb 2y ago
  Ah, i kinda expected the UI (https://i.vgy.me/beZtWa.png https://i.vgy.me/beZtWa.png) to show the actual PDF page number, never noticed the "i" thing. Thanks.
pimlottc 2y ago
It's one-indexed, counting that actual pages in the PDF. The nominal page numbers (as seen on the header/footer) are often different since you don't typically number title pages and the like, which is called "front matter". [0] 0: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GDDYZG2C7RVF5N9J#frontmatter https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GDDYZG2C7RVF5N9J#fro...

noname120 2y ago

See the standard: ISO/DIS 32000-2 (Annex O: “Fragment identifiers”, page 942) https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/assets/5b15559b96303194340b99820d3a70fa/PDF_ISO_32000-2.pdf#page=942 https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/assets/5b...

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

cimbal 2y ago

A quick check on iOS 17.5 gives me working links when omitting the equals symbol, like #page70 instead of #page=70 Now, this is very much against the spec [0]. At first glance, the doubled functionality of encoding parameters is irritating, there are query parameters already, so ?page=70 would seem more consistent. But then, this has been worked on for a long and it makes sense to add a whole set of functions for certain mime-types. [0] https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8118#page-3 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8118#page-3