posit-dev / posit-dev/positron

Quarto presentation: embedded PDFs do not appear in viewer pane

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area: quarto area: viewer enhancement
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Description

System details:

Positron and OS details:
Positron Version: 2025.04.0 (Universal) build 64
Code - OSS Version: 1.96.0
Commit: b25e18713d464fb01352d31f7a165f1fb79d42c4
Date: 2025-03-10T02:32:22.057Z
Electron: 32.2.6
Chromium: 128.0.6613.186
Node.js: 20.18.1
V8: 12.8.374.38-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.1.0
Interpreter details:

R version 4.4.2

Describe the issue:

When rendering a Quarto presentation in Positron, embedded PDF do not appear in viewer pane, like they do in the presentation pane in RStudio.

Steps to reproduce the issue:

  1. embed the following linked PDF in your quarto presentation in both RStudio and Positron
{{< pdf https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/sites/default/files/2020-06/SGA_8631772.pdf width=400 height=600 >}}
  1. Observe difference in behavior

Expected or desired behavior:

For the embedded PDF viewed to display interactively similarly to how RStudios shows this in the presentation pane

Were there any error messages in the UI, Output panel, or Developer Tools console?

NA

Additional Context

Currently in Positron, I have a presentation that has a PDF embedded within the quarto doc that exists on the web like so:

Image

In R Studios this PDF that is embedded in the Quarto document displays interactively in the presentation like so:

Image

this difference in behavior when rendering a Quarto presentation document is not limiting because if you were to pop this open to the browser the embedded PDF works as intended like so:

Image

I am curious if there is any way that the same behavior that is displayed in RStudios, in that, you're able to interact (e.g., scroll) with the embedded PDF can be implemented in Quarto presentation. Additionally, please let me know if this just may be a limitation of quarto extension or if there is a more relevant issue page this might better belong in.

Thank you all so much for a wonderful IDE!!

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No repository file, test, or entry point is named. Reproduce the Quarto presentation in Positron using the linked PDF, compare the viewer pane with RStudio and browser behavior, and define done as interactive PDF display in the viewer pane or clear documentation of the limitation.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
desktop-dev, frontend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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