Drop a PDF viewer into your React app and let people highlight text, leave notes with replies and review redactions. @inkbar/react gives you components and hooks to build your own toolbars, plus note and suggestion popovers, all styled by @inkbar/theme.

Annotations are plain typed objects. Control them from your own state, or let Inkbar hold them with undo and redo.

Install

pnpm add @inkbar/react @inkbar/core @inkbar/theme

React 19 is a peer dependency. Add the Vite plugin from @inkbar/core/vite so the PDF engine can load its worker and fonts; the @inkbar/core README covers it. The package is marked 'use client', so a React Server Components app can import it from a server component.

Usage

import { useState } from 'react'
import {
  InkRoot,
  InkViewport,
  InkToolbar,
  InkToolButton,
  InkToolbarSeparator,
  InkUndo,
  InkRedo,
  InkPrevPage,
  InkPageInput,
  InkPageCount,
  InkNextPage,
  InkZoomSelect,
  InkNotePopover,
  InkSuggestionCard,
} from '@inkbar/react'
import type { Annotation } from '@inkbar/core'
import { assets } from 'virtual:inkbar-assets'
import '@inkbar/theme/theme.css'

export function Review({
  signedUrl,
  documentId,
}: {
  signedUrl: string
  documentId: string
}) {
  const [annotations, setAnnotations] = useState<Annotation[]>([])
  return (
    <InkRoot
      src={{ url: signedUrl, key: documentId }}
      assets={assets}
      annotations={annotations}
      onAnnotationsChange={setAnnotations}
    >
      <InkToolbar>
        <InkToolButton tool="select" />
        <InkToolButton tool="highlight" />
        <InkToolButton tool="redact-area" />
        <InkToolButton tool="note" />
        <InkToolbarSeparator />
        <InkUndo />
        <InkRedo />
      </InkToolbar>
      <InkViewport />
      <InkToolbar label="Page and zoom">
        <InkPrevPage />
        <InkPageInput />
        <InkPageCount />
        <InkNextPage />
        <InkZoomSelect />
      </InkToolbar>
      <InkNotePopover />
      <InkSuggestionCard />
    </InkRoot>
  )
}

Each control is a separate component, so put them in any order or leave some out. Buttons show icons from @inkbar/icons. Pass your own as children to replace one, and use InkIcon to put the same icons on your own buttons.

annotations with onAnnotationsChange makes your list the source of truth. Leave them off and Inkbar keeps the state itself, with undo and redo.

Controlled mode

With annotations and onAnnotationsChange, Inkbar proposes each change through onAnnotationsChange and shows whatever list you pass back. To change annotations yourself, set a new array: setAnnotations([...annotations, next]). In-place mutation (push, splice, editing an item) is not observed, so the viewer never sees it.

Undo and redo are off in controlled mode unless you pass history. Inkbar then keeps a stack of your list's past values and applies undo and redo through onAnnotationsChange. Every change to the list is a step, including the list you load from your server when the document opens. Clear the history once that load has rendered, so the first undo does not empty the list:

import { useEffect, useRef, useState } from 'react'
import type { InkRootHandle } from '@inkbar/react'
import type { InkDocument } from '@inkbar/core'

const root = useRef<InkRootHandle>(null)
const [loaded, setLoaded] = useState<string | null>(null)

async function onReady(doc: InkDocument) {
  setAnnotations(await loadAnnotations(doc.key))
  setLoaded(doc.key)
}

// Runs after InkRoot has seen the loaded list.
useEffect(() => {
  if (loaded) root.current?.history.clear()
}, [loaded])

<InkRoot
  src={{ url: signedUrl, key: documentId }}
  assets={assets}
  annotations={annotations}
  onAnnotationsChange={setAnnotations}
  history
  onReady={onReady}
  ref={root}
>
  …
</InkRoot>

Inside InkRoot, useHistory() returns the same object. Its batch(fn) runs fn and records what it changes as one undo step. With history on a controlled list, you still get one onAnnotationsChange call per add. The step lands when the current task ends, and canUndo updates then. Any other change you apply to the list in that window joins the step. In both modes, fn must be synchronous.

key identifies the document. Reuse the same key when only the signed URL changes and the document is not reloaded.

Note popover

InkNotePopover opens the thread of the activated note. A new note has no text yet, so the form first writes the note's own text (labelled "Comment"); after that it adds replies.

A root note with no text and no replies is removed when its popover closes, or when activation moves to another annotation, so abandoned notes do not stay on the page. Locked notes are never removed. If you add notes yourself (add({ type: 'note', ... })), give them contents, or they will be removed the first time someone opens and closes them.

Custom rendering

Slots are render props. InkViewport takes loading, empty, error, renderAnnotation and renderPageError; InkNotePopover and InkSuggestionCard take a function as children; InkToolButton takes a node or a function of { active, label }. The props each receives are typed as AnnotationSlotProps, NotePopoverSlotProps and SuggestionCardSlotProps, the same types the Vue package exports.

Keyboard

The scroll element takes focus. With the highlight or redact tool active, Enter turns the text selection into a mark; with the note tool, Enter places a note in the middle of the current page and opens it. On a focused annotation, Enter or Space selects and activates it (a note opens its thread and a suggested redaction its card; other types are only selected), ArrowUp and ArrowDown move between annotations, Shift + arrow moves it by 1 pt (add Alt for 10 pt), Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + arrow resizes an area mark, and Delete removes it. The full table is in the @inkbar/core README.

Styling

Components carry state on data attributes, for example [data-annotation][data-state="selected"] and [data-tool="highlight"][data-state="on"]. @inkbar/theme gives a default look. Your own CSS overrides it without !important. InkRoot, InkViewport, InkToolbar and the toolbar controls accept className.

Hooks

useDocument, useAnnotations, useTool, useSelection, useZoom, usePage, useHistory and useEmbedded read the state of the nearest InkRoot. Build your own toolbar or side panel from them.

Licence

MIT. From the team behind Redactr.