clipboard_file 0.1.2

Read and copy files from the system clipboard on iOS and Android, including images, PDFs, Office documents, and CSV.

clipboard_file

A Flutter plugin to read and copy files from the system clipboard on iOS and Android.

Use it when your app needs to accept pasted files — images, PDFs, Office documents, CSV, and other common types — while still allowing plain-text clipboard content to fall through to normal text paste.

Features

• Read files and images from the clipboard with a single API
• Copy PNG/JPEG image bytes to the clipboard
• Preserve original filenames when the platform provides them
• Return null for plain text so you can combine file paste with standard text paste

Supported file types

Type	Extensions
Images	png, jpg, jpeg, heic (iOS)
Documents	pdf, doc, docx, ppt, pptx, xls, xlsx
Text files	csv, txt

Detection uses MIME types, file extensions, and magic-byte signatures where available.

Installation

Add clipboard_file to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  clipboard_file: ^0.1.2

Then run:

flutter pub get

Usage

Import the package:

import 'package:clipboard_file/clipboard_file.dart';

Read a file from the clipboard

final file = await ClipboardFileReader.readFile();

if (file != null) {
  print('Name: ${file.fileName ?? 'unnamed.${file.extension}'}');
  print('Extension: ${file.extension}');
  print('Size: ${file.bytes.length} bytes');

  // Save, upload, or process file.bytes
} else {
  // No file on the clipboard — fall back to text paste if needed
}

Copy an image to the clipboard

await ClipboardFileReader.copyImage(pngOrJpegBytes);

On Android, bytes must decode as a valid PNG or JPEG image.

API reference

ClipboardFileReader.readFile()

Returns Future<ClipboardFileData?>.

• Returns file data when the clipboard contains a supported file or image
• Returns null when the clipboard is empty, contains plain text, or the platform cannot read the content
• Never throws — platform errors are handled and surfaced as null

ClipboardFileReader.copyImage(Uint8List bytes)

Copies image bytes to the system clipboard as a PNG image.

ClipboardFileData

Field	Type	Description
bytes	Uint8List	Raw file contents
extension	String	Lowercase extension without a dot (e.g. pdf)
fileName	String?	Original filename when available

Platform behavior

iOS

• Uses UIPasteboard, NSItemProvider, and suggestedName for filenames
• Supports file URLs, images, PDFs, Office Open XML documents, and CSV
• Minimum deployment target: iOS 13.0

Android

• Reads content:// URIs from the clipboard
• CSV copied as a file is read as file data; copied cell content still pastes as plain text
• copyImage uses a FileProvider merged automatically from the plugin manifest — no extra Android setup is required in your app

Example

See the example/ app for a minimal demo:

cd example
flutter run

Copy a file or screenshot to your device clipboard, then tap Read clipboard file in the example app.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue or pull request on GitHub.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.