--- title: "Customize thumbnail file viewer on Android | Nutrient SDK" canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/customizing-the-thumbnail-bar/" md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/customizing-the-thumbnail-bar.md" last_updated: "2026-05-15T19:10:04.924Z" description: "The thumbnail bar is the component found on the bottom of our PdfActivity by default, or as a standalone view named PdfThumbnailBar. for Nutrient Android SDK." --- # Customizing the thumbnail file viewer on Android The thumbnail bar is the component found on the bottom of our [`PdfActivity`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-activity/index.html) by default, or as a standalone view named [`PdfThumbnailBar`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-thumbnail-bar/index.html). To set the style of your thumbnail bar inside the [`PdfActivity`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-activity/index.html), you can use [`PdfActivityConfiguration.Builder#setThumbnailBarMode`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration.activity/-pdf-activity-configuration/-builder/set-thumbnail-bar-mode.html) (for custom layout implementation, see the `CustomFragmentActivity` in our Catalog app), which takes the [`ThumbnailBarMode`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration.activity/-thumbnail-bar-mode/index.html) enum as a parameter. These are the possible values: - [`THUMBNAIL_BAR_MODE_NONE`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration.activity/-thumbnail-bar-mode/-t-h-u-m-b-n-a-i-l_-b-a-r_-m-o-d-e_-n-o-n-e/index.html) — Hides the thumbnail bar![](@/assets/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/customizing-the-thumbnail-bar/tb_mode_none.jpg) - [`THUMBNAIL_BAR_MODE_FLOATING`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration.activity/-thumbnail-bar-mode/-t-h-u-m-b-n-a-i-l_-b-a-r_-m-o-d-e_-f-l-o-a-t-i-n-g/index.html) — Shows the floating thumbnail bar![](@/assets/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/customizing-the-thumbnail-bar/tb_mode_floating.jpg) - [`THUMBNAIL_BAR_MODE_PINNED`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration.activity/-thumbnail-bar-mode/-t-h-u-m-b-n-a-i-l_-b-a-r_-m-o-d-e_-p-i-n-n-e-d/index.html) — Shows the thumbnail bar pinned to the bottom of the screen![](@/assets/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/customizing-the-thumbnail-bar/tb_mode_pinned.jpg) - [`THUMBNAIL_BAR_MODE_SCROLLABLE`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration.activity/-thumbnail-bar-mode/-t-h-u-m-b-n-a-i-l_-b-a-r_-m-o-d-e_-s-c-r-o-l-l-a-b-l-e/index.html) — Shows the scrollable thumbnail bar with larger thumbnails and without the border![](@/assets/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/customizing-the-thumbnail-bar/tb_mode_scrollable.jpg) To customize the look of your thumbnail bar (color, thumbnail width, thumbnail height, etc.) see the corresponding section in the [appearance styling](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/appearance-styling.md#thumbnail-bar) guide. ## Persisting the thumbnail bar during annotation editing By default, the thumbnail bar will be replaced by page numbers during annotation editing when the annotation toolbar is present in the left or right position. If you want to persist the thumbnail bar along with the main toolbar at the top, you can do so by setting [`hideUserInterfaceWhenCreatingAnnotations`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration.activity/-pdf-activity-configuration/hide-user-interface-when-creating-annotations.html) to `false` in your `PdfActivityConfiguration`. ## Gestural navigation support (Android Q+) Google has announced [gestural navigation](https://developer.android.com/preview/features/gesturalnav) as part of the Android Q navigation system. This change requires apps to update their bottom views so as not to interfere with the area reserved for gesture detection. Our floating thumbnail bar is designed with this in mind, and it will keep the necessary distance from the bottom of the screen. The other two thumbnail bars (pinned and scrollable) were originally designed to be displayed at the bottom of the screen. They have also been redesigned to work with gestural navigation in fullscreen (immersive) mode by adding the padding on the bottom, so as not to obstruct gestural navigation touches. Android Q introduces an option for fully gestural system navigation. There are two things that app developers should do to prepare for this feature: - Extend app content from edge to edge. - Handle conflicting app gestures. For pinned and scrollable thumbnail bars to work with gestural navigation, you must use the fullscreen mode in your activity. Otherwise, the bars will interfere with the gestural navigation area on the bottom. You can set the [`PdfActivity`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-activity/index.html) to fullscreen/immersive mode via [`PdfActivityConfiguration.Builder#useImmersiveMode(true)`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration.activity/-pdf-activity-configuration/-builder/use-immersive-mode.html). --- ## Related pages - [Customizing PDF viewer styling on Android](/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/appearance-styling.md) - [Customizing the form editing toolbar on Android](/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/using-form-ui-within-fragment.md) - [Customizing our PDF viewer on Android](/guides/android/user-interface.md) - [Localization: Change languages in our Android PDF viewer](/guides/android/features/localization.md) - [Customize toolbar menus on Android](/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/customizing-menus.md) - [Customizing dialog modals on Android](/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/modal-dialogs-styling.md) - [Customizing the note editor on Android](/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/customizing-the-note-editor.md) - [Hide or customize scrollbars in our Android viewer](/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/scrollbars.md) - [Separate the document info view in our Android viewer](/guides/android/user-interface/separate-document-info.md) - [Overlay views on Android](/guides/android/features/overlay-views.md) - [Customizing the electronic signature UI on Android](/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/configuring-the-signaturepickerfragment.md) - [Show or hide the UI in our Android viewer](/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/user-interface-visibility.md)