The core Cards layout can't draw a PDF page, as of October 2026. Its help page lists a link to a local attachment, an external URL and a hex color as cover values. A forum poster reported in July 2025 that only PNG and JPG scans show as covers.
The request "Allow PDFs as card image in Base" was opened on 2025-06-27. It has 19 likes and 6 posts, and the latest post is from September 2026. The first post asks for the first page of the PDF named in a property, with a page number as an option.
One poster keeps a note for each library book under review, and most notes link to a scan of the book. A formula finds the scan for each note. Only the scans that happen to be PNG or JPG files show as covers.
Save page 1 of each PDF as a PNG or JPG in your vault. Put a link to that image in a property, then choose that property as the Image property of a Cards view.
The help page for Cards says the property can be a link to a local attachment, an external URL or a hex color. Image fit and aspect ratio are view settings.
Notebook Navigator is a community plugin with its own notes browser. Its README lists auto-generated thumbnails for PDF, SVG and drawing files in its file display.
So you can see a picture for each PDF while you browse folders and tags there, with nothing to set up for each file.
PDF Cover Cards adds a Bases layout named PDF covers. Choose a property that links to the PDF. Each card then shows page 1 of that file, the note name and the page count.
Add #page=N to a link to show another page. A note with no such property gets the first PDF that it links to or embeds. A base can also select the PDF files themselves, and then each PDF is a card.
MIT · no telemetry · core features free
Install PDF Cover Cards from Community plugins and enable it. Check that the core plugin Bases is on.
Create a base, or open one. Set its filters so that it selects your document notes, for example a folder or a tag.
Select the view menu in the base toolbar and add a view of the type PDF covers.
Open the view options. In PDF property, choose the property that holds the link to the PDF.
Use Properties in the base toolbar to choose what shows under the title.
A view with more than 30 cards that have a PDF draws the first 30 covers. Drawing all of them needs Pro.
The thread says no. In July 2025 a poster's formula linked each note to its scan, and only PNG and JPG scans showed as covers. People there still asked for PDF covers in September 2026. The help page describes the image function as one that renders an image.
Its README lists image covers, YouTube thumbnails and text previews, and it doesn't mention PDF pages. An issue that asks for a PDF preview image has been open in its tracker since November 2025. Check that issue before you decide, because this can change.
A forum poster asked for this in March 2026, since some covers don't fill the whole page. PDF Cover Cards can show the whole page, the top half or the top third. Those are the only choices, and the crop needs Pro.
The README says the plugin works on desktop and on mobile. It suggests that you set PDFs drawn at the same time to 1 on a phone. The default is 2.
Your base of book and paper notes looks like a shelf, with page 1 of each PDF as the cover.
