Images and files.
Drag images and files onto a note, or paste them. Paperkites copies each one into attachments/ in your vault and writes the markdown that links it. Images show in the note; any other file becomes a card that opens with its app.
Adding files
While you drag files over a note, a line shows where they'll land, between two lines of text, and a label under it says what will happen. Drop them there. Paste puts them under the line the caret is on.
- Copied, never moved. The original stays where it was, unchanged.
- Never over a file. If
attachments/already has a file with that name, the copy gets" 2", then" 3", and so on. - Already in the vault? A file that's already inside your vault is linked where it is, not copied.
- A screenshot pasted from the clipboard is saved under the time you pasted it, such as
Pasted image 2026-10-10 at 14.03.22.png. An image dragged out of a browser keeps its own name. - All or nothing. If one file can't be copied, none of them are added.
- Files only. Folders in a drop are left out, and the status pill says so.
- One undo. ⌘Z takes the whole drop out of the note again.
Large files take a moment. While more than 50 MB is copying, the status pill says Copying….
What gets written
The links are plain markdown, relative to the note, so other apps open them too. Images come first, one per line, then each file:
[Tide table.pdf](attachments/Tide%20table.pdf)Spaces and other characters in a name are percent-encoded, as above. From a note in a folder, the link starts ../attachments/.
Images
An image on a line of its own is drawn in place of its line. An image inside a sentence shows below its line. Paperkites shows images from your vault and nothing outside it.
Two or more image lines one after another sit side by side, up to three a row, each with its file name under it. More wrap onto the next row. Click one to open its line's markdown.
Notes show .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp, .svg, .avif, .heic and .heif images. A HEIC photo is shown from a JPEG preview Paperkites makes for it; the file itself is left alone.
Selecting an image
Click an image, or move the caret onto its line, and it's selected: a ring goes round it and a small bar shows over it.
| Bar | Key | Does |
|---|---|---|
| S · M · L · Full | 1 – 4 | size it |
| Caption | c | write a caption |
| Markdown | show its markdown, until the caret leaves the line | |
| Remove | ⌫ | take the image out of the note |
| ⏎ | start a new line under it |
The keys work while you're writing. In vim's NORMAL mode, keys keep their vim meaning, and the bar is how you act on an image. While an image is selected, anything else you type goes nowhere, so you can't write into markup you can't see.
Remove takes the line out of the note. The file stays in attachments/.
Sizes
| Size | Width |
|---|---|
| S | 200 px |
| M | 360 px |
| L | 520 px |
| Full | the width of the text column |
You can also drag the handle on the image's right edge to any width. Dragged to the edge of the column, it's full width again.
The width is written the way Obsidian reads it, after a | in the alt text. Full width takes it out:
Captions
Press c on a selected image, or Caption in its bar, and write. ⏎ or clicking away keeps it, and esc leaves it as it was. An empty caption takes it out. Until an image has a caption, its file name shows faintly under it.
The caption is the image's title in the markdown:
The large view
Double-click an image to see it as large as the window allows. A click, esc or any key closes it.
Other files
A line that's only a link to a file, not a note or a web page, is drawn as a card: an icon, the file's name, its kind and size, and an arrow.
| Action | Does |
|---|---|
| click the card | open the file with the app it belongs to |
| ⌥-click the card | show the file in Finder |
With the caret in its paragraph, a card shows its markdown, like any link.
What opens
A click opens these kinds of file with their app:
- Documents:
.pdf,.txt,.md,.rtf,.csv,.json,.epub,.docx,.xlsx,.pptx,.pages,.numbers,.key,.odt,.ods,.odp,.canvas,.base - Images:
.png,.jpg,.jpeg,.gif,.webp,.avif,.heic,.heif,.tif,.tiff,.bmp - Audio:
.mp3,.wav,.m4a,.ogg,.flac - Video:
.mp4,.mov,.webm,.mkv,.ogv,.3gp
Any other file is shown in Finder instead of opened. That includes anything your Mac would run, such as a script or an app, and a few kinds that can carry something that runs: an .svg, a .zip, and older Office files.
In locked notes
A locked note takes images only. An image dropped or pasted into it is encrypted with the note's key before it's written, as attachments/<id>.age. Other files are refused. See Locked notes.