pdfNerd icon

pdfNerd

by Khayrul Islam · Tools
Manifest V3 Free
View in Chrome Web Store Data as of 19 Oct 2026

Free PDF viewer with highlight, underline, text and pen annotation. Ctrl+S saves your changes back into the file itself.

Users
93
+48 in 30 days
Rating
5.0 / 5
unchanged in 30 days
Ratings
2
+1 in 30 days
Store rank
#87K
#73K among extensions
Version
1.0.0
updated 13 Jul 2026

Users

monthly, 3 months
04693Jul 2026Sep 2026Oct 2026
Latest, 19 Oct 2026: 93 usersMove the mouse over the chart for any month

Ratings count

monthly, 3 months
012Jul 2026Sep 2026Oct 2026
Latest, 19 Oct 2026: 2 ratingsMove the mouse over the chart for any month

The Chrome Web Store rounds user counts down to the leading digit, so the user line moves in steps. The ratings count is exact and is the better signal of real adoption.

About pdfNerd

pdfNerd replaces the browser's built-in PDF viewer with one you can actually mark up — and it saves your annotations back INTO the file itself. Press Ctrl+S: no more "paper(1).pdf" copies piling up in Downloads. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Highlight in any color — your own palette, any hex you like • Underline and strikethrough — saved as real PDF annotations, visible in any PDF app • Text notes — drop a typed note anywhere on the page • Pen — draw freehand, with thickness and opacity sliders • Save in place — Ctrl+S writes changes into the actual file (one permission dialog the first time ever, silent after) • Recent PDFs — the toolbar icon lists PDFs you've opened; one click reopens them READING-FIRST SHORTCUTS Select text, press Ctrl+H, and the highlight lands while your cursor returns to the page — no switching into a "highlight mode" and back. All shortcuts are remappable in Options: Highlight Ctrl+H · Underline Ctrl+U · Strikethrough Ctrl+Shift+U · Text box Ctrl+B · Pen Ctrl+D · Save Ctrl+S (On macOS, use Cmd in place of Ctrl.) REAL ANNOTATIONS, NOT PICTURES Everything you add becomes a standard PDF annotation baked into the file on save. Reopen the file anywhere — Adobe, Preview, your phone — and your marks are there, still editable and deletable. WHY THE ONE-TIME SAVE PROMPT Browsers forbid any extension from silently overwriting files on disk — that's a browser security rule, not a pdfNerd limitation. So you point at the file once and approve; every save after that is silent. On Chrome/Edge 122+ you can choose "Allow on every visit" and never see a prompt again. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Zero network calls except fetching the PDF you open. No accounts, no ads, no analytics, no tracking — your PDFs and your edits never leave your computer. Full policy: https://github.com/Khayrulbuet13/PdfNerd/blob/main/PRIVACY.md FREE AND OPEN SOURCE Apache 2.0, built on Mozilla's pdf.js: https://github.com/Khayrulbuet13/PdfNerd Tip: to annotate local files, open the extension's details page and enable "Allow access to file URLs".

Growth

WindowUsersChangeRatingsRating
7 days+11+13.4%00.00
30 days+48+106.7%+10.00

Version history

1 versions recorded
1.0.013 Jul 2026

Details

Category
Tools
First seen
13 Jul 2026
Size
3.8 MB
Languages
en-US
Pricing
Free
Privacy policy
github.com
Support
github.com
Extension ID
cmdnjpokjmidoeahloenoblfefhipdob

Permissions and risk

Elevated riskimpact 4, likelihood 2
Permissions
declarativeNetRequestWithHostAccesswebRequesttabswebNavigationstorage
Site access
<all_urls>
Can read and change data on every website you visit.

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