The Layers view of the sidebar lists a PDF’s layers (optional content groups) and lets you show or hide each one. Use it for CAD drawings, maps and documents that put alternatives, translations or answers on separate layers.
Available in pre-release 3.7
Open it with
Ctrl + K, then Toggle Layers. At a glance:- Show / hide the view:
Ctrl + K,Toggle Layers, or the Layers icon in the top sidebar panel’s header. - Show or hide a layer: click its row, or select it and press
Space. - Remembered: the layers you changed stay that way the next time you open the document.
The view and the command are only there for a PDF that has layers.
Show the Layers view #
Ctrl + K, thenToggle Layersin the Command Palette. The command isCmdToggleLayers. Bind a shortcut to it as in Customize keyboard shortcuts.- In the top sidebar panel’s header, click the Layers icon (a stack of sheets). The Bookmarks, Thumbnails and Favorites icons switch back.
Note: in SumatraPDF ng the Layers icon is an eye.
The Layers view belongs to the document, so it shows in the top panel. See Sidebar panels.
Show or hide a layer #
Each row is a layer, with a check box that is on while the layer is shown.
- Click the row.
- Or move to it with
Up/Downand pressSpace.
The pages and their thumbnails are redrawn without (or with) what is on that layer.
The PDF decides how the list looks:
- Groups: a name without a check box is a label for the layers indented under it.
- Radio buttons: layers with a round button are alternatives. Showing one hides the others in its group.
- Locked layers: a dimmed row can’t be changed.
A PDF that doesn’t list its layers for the user shows all of them, in a flat list.
Print with layers #
Printing prints the layers that are shown. A layer the PDF marks as print-only (or never printed) follows what the PDF says, as in Acrobat.
Tips #
- Use the Layers view to hide dimensions, annotations or a background layer in a CAD drawing. See CAD / Engineering Drawings.
- Showing or hiding a layer doesn’t modify the file. To get the layers back as the PDF has them, undo your changes in the view.
- Bind
CmdToggleLayersto a key if you switch layers often.
Settings #
The layers you changed are saved for each document in its
FileStates entry as LayerStates: 1 (shown) or 0 (hidden) for each layer. It is empty while the layers are as the PDF has them. See Advanced options settings.See also #
- Thumbnails sidebar: the sidebar’s panels and views
- CAD / Engineering Drawings: drawings, which often have layers
- Command Palette:
Toggle Layers