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Hyperlinked PDF planners explained: links, testing and layouts

By Graphite Planner · Last updated 8 October 2026

A hyperlinked planner is an ordinary PDF with invisible buttons on its pages. Tap a month and you land on that month. On a good file it is that simple. This article explains what those links are, how they go wrong, how to test a sample in under a minute, and why your screen shape and writing hand matter.

What a link in a PDF actually is

A link in a PDF is a rectangle on the page with a destination attached. The rectangle is invisible. What you see is the printed word or box beneath it, such as OCT on a month tab. The destination is a page in the same file. When your finger lands inside the rectangle, the reader jumps to that page.

Three details decide whether it works on a tablet:

• The rectangle must sit exactly over the printed button. If it is a few millimetres off, a tap on the word misses it.
• It must be big enough for a finger. In Graphite files no link is smaller than 3.5 mm, and navigation buttons are at least 6 mm.
• The destination should be an explicit page, which e-ink readers handle best.

Your handwriting never touches the links. They are part of the file, and your ink is saved on top of the page.

Why every link verified matters

A dated planner has a lot of links. The Graphite planner has about 25 per page and around 640 pages per file: 290,884 links across its 18 files. Nobody can tap that many by hand. The typical faults are quiet ones: a calendar square that opens the day before, a week button that lands on the following week, a tab that skips a month. You tend to find them in March, long after you have started writing.

So the checking has to be done by script. Before release, every Graphite file is opened by three independent PDF readers, pikepdf, PyMuPDF and Mozilla pdf.js, and a script checks that:

• every link lands on its intended page, and each calendar square opens its own date;
• every page can be reached from the cover and links back to the Index, at most 2 taps away;
• day squares sit under the right weekday and in the right week row;
• no two links overlap, and nothing tappable sits on the toolbar side.

When a planner says its links are tested, it is fair to ask how. A number and a method are a better answer than a promise.

Test a sample in three taps

Before you buy any hyperlinked planner, copy a sample to your tablet and try this. The Graphite tiny samples are 3 pages: the Index, October 2026 and Thursday 15 October.

1. On the Index, tap Oct 2026. The month page should open and fill the screen.
2. On the month, tap 15. The page for Thursday 15 October should open.
3. On the day page, tap Index in the top bar. You should be back where you started.

Use a finger, not the pen: on almost every e-ink tablet the pen writes and the finger navigates. If a tap does nothing, try once more, a little slower, before you blame the file. Then check three things: the page fills the screen with no white bars, the tabs are not under your hand, and nothing you need is hidden by the toolbar.

Left-handed layouts

Most planners put the month tabs on the right edge. For a right-handed writer that is convenient. A left-handed writer rests the hand on those tabs, and on some tablets a palm can trigger them. A left-handed version mirrors the page: tabs on the left edge, the free margin on the right.

It matters for the toolbar too. reMarkable, Supernote and Boox all place a toolbar along one side of the screen. A careful layout keeps that side free of links, so opening the toolbar never covers a button. In Graphite files the side opposite the tabs never has anything to tap, and the right- and left-handed files swap sides.

3:4 or 9:16: match the screen

Most e-ink tablets have a 3:4 screen. The reMarkable Paper Pro Move is the exception: a tall 9:16 screen of 7.3 inches. A page drawn for one shape, shown on a screen of the other, is either shrunk with white bars around it or cut off.

Size matters as well as shape. A 3:4 page drawn for a 10.3 inch screen still fits a 7.8 inch one, but every line and button comes out about a quarter smaller, which is a real problem for tap targets. That is why the Graphite files come in a Compact 3:4 layout with bigger text and wider rows, and a Move 9:16 layout with no text below 8 pt.