ngx-file-peek

March 30, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

npm version license

Peek at any file without opening it. An Angular standalone component library that renders real file content as thumbnails from any URL, any storage.

Pass a file URL (S3, MinIO, Azure Blob, Firebase, Google Cloud, or any HTTP link) and ngx-file-peek renders an actual preview of the content. No file opening, no downloads, no iframes.


Supported File Types

File TypeWhat You See
Images (.jpg, .png, .gif, .webp, .svg)The actual image, lazy-loaded
PDF (.pdf)First page rendered on canvas via PDF.js
Word (.doc, .docx)Document content parsed via mammoth.js
Excel (.xls, .xlsx)Spreadsheet table rendered via ExcelJS
OtherClean file-type icon with label

Quick Start

1. Install

npm install ngx-file-peek @angular/cdk pdfjs-dist mammoth exceljs

2. Configure

// app.config.ts
import { provideFilePreview } from 'ngx-file-peek';

export const appConfig: ApplicationConfig = {
  providers: [
    provideFilePreview({
      pdfWorkerUrl: 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/pdfjs-dist@5/build/pdf.worker.min.mjs',
      tooltipDelay: 300,
    }),
  ],
};

3. Use

import { FileThumbnailComponent } from 'ngx-file-peek';

@Component({
  standalone: true,
  imports: [FileThumbnailComponent],
  template: `<fp-file-thumbnail [url]="fileUrl" size="md" />`,
})
export class MyComponent {
  fileUrl = 'https://my-storage.com/files/report.pdf';
}

Usage Examples

Grid View -- Thumbnails showing file content

import { FileThumbnailComponent } from 'ngx-file-peek';

@Component({
  standalone: true,
  imports: [FileThumbnailComponent],
  template: `
    <div style="display: grid; grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr); gap: 16px;">
      @for (file of files; track file.url) {
        <fp-file-thumbnail [url]="file.url" size="md" />
      }
    </div>
  `,
})
export class FileGridComponent {
  files = [
    { url: 'https://minio.myapp.com/bucket/photo.jpg' },
    { url: 'https://s3.amazonaws.com/docs/report.pdf' },
    { url: 'https://storage.example.com/proposal.docx' },
    { url: 'https://api.example.com/files/data.xlsx?token=abc' },
  ];
}

List View -- Hover to preview

import { FilePreviewTooltipDirective } from 'ngx-file-peek';

@Component({
  standalone: true,
  imports: [FilePreviewTooltipDirective],
  template: `
    @for (file of files; track file.url) {
      <div [filePreviewTooltip]="file.url" style="padding: 8px; cursor: pointer;">
        {{ file.name }}
      </div>
    }
  `,
})
export class FileListComponent {
  files = [
    { name: 'invoice.pdf',   url: 'https://api.myapp.com/files/invoice.pdf' },
    { name: 'contract.docx', url: 'https://api.myapp.com/files/contract.docx' },
    { name: 'sales.xlsx',    url: 'https://api.myapp.com/files/sales.xlsx' },
  ];
}

Hovering a file shows a floating preview with:

  • File name and type badge
  • Full content preview (320px)
  • Pin -- keep the tooltip open
  • Maximize -- open in a full-screen lightbox
  • Download -- save the file
  • Open in new tab -- view in browser

Grid + Tooltip combined

import { FileThumbnailComponent, FilePreviewTooltipDirective } from 'ngx-file-peek';

@Component({
  standalone: true,
  imports: [FileThumbnailComponent, FilePreviewTooltipDirective],
  template: `
    @for (file of files; track file.url) {
      <div [filePreviewTooltip]="file.url">
        <fp-file-thumbnail [url]="file.url" size="sm" />
        <span>{{ file.name }}</span>
      </div>
    }
  `,
})

Works With Any Storage

Just pass the URL:

// Amazon S3
'https://my-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/report.pdf'

// MinIO
'https://minio.myapp.com/bucket/image.png'

// Azure Blob Storage
'https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/container/file.docx'

// Google Cloud Storage
'https://storage.googleapis.com/my-bucket/spreadsheet.xlsx'

// Firebase Storage
'https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/my-app/o/photo.jpg?alt=media'

// Presigned URLs with auth tokens
'https://api.myapp.com/files/doc.pdf?token=eyJhbGciOi...'

File type is detected from the URL extension. Query strings and tokens are stripped before detection.


API Reference

<fp-file-thumbnail>

InputTypeDefaultDescription
urlstringrequiredFile URL from any storage
size'sm' | 'md' | 'lg''md'Thumbnail size
tooltipbooleanfalseShow preview tooltip on hover

Sizes: sm = 80px, md = 120px, lg = 200px

[filePreviewTooltip]

InputTypeDescription
filePreviewTooltipstringFile URL to preview on hover

The tooltip includes an action bar with pin, maximize, download, and open-in-new-tab buttons. Mouse can move into the tooltip to interact with these buttons.

provideFilePreview(config)

OptionTypeDefaultDescription
pdfWorkerUrlstring--URL to PDF.js worker (required for PDFs)
tooltipDelaynumber300Delay in ms before tooltip appears
placeholderTheme'minimal' | 'branded''minimal'Placeholder style for unknown types

Exported Types

import { FileType, ThumbnailSize, FilePreviewConfig } from 'ngx-file-peek';

Theming

:root {
  --ngx-fp-border-radius: 8px;
  --ngx-fp-bg: #ffffff;
  --ngx-fp-placeholder-bg: #f5f5f5;
}

/* Dark mode */
.dark {
  --ngx-fp-bg: #1e1e1e;
  --ngx-fp-placeholder-bg: #2d2d2d;
}

Requirements

  • Angular 17+ (standalone components, signal inputs)
  • @angular/cdk -- overlay positioning
  • pdfjs-dist -- PDF rendering
  • mammoth -- Word document parsing
  • exceljs -- Excel spreadsheet parsing

License

MIT -- Valton Gara