Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

support.mozilla.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 384 posts

Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#2

Post by PaulHoule »

I find the built-in PDF reader in Firefox to be bloat. It's OK, it works 95% of the time, but really I want to use a native PDF viewer.

Is there a version of Firefox that removes this bloat?

Given that Mozilla is very resource constrained, why are they working on features that aren't necessary?

Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#4

Post by danso »

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I find the built-in PDF reader in Firefox to be bloat. It's OK, it works 95% of the time, but really I want to use a native PDF viewer. Is there a version of Firefox that removes this bloat? Given that Mozilla is very resource constrained, why are they working on features that aren't necessary?

A lot of everyday users likely benefit from being able to fill out PDFs in the browser.

Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#5

Post by snovv_crash »

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I find the built-in PDF reader in Firefox to be bloat. It's OK, it works 95% of the time, but really I want to use a native PDF viewer. Is there a version of Firefox that removes this bloat? Given that Mozilla is very resource constrained, why are they working on features that aren't necessary?

I find it extremely convenient. Also I know a lot of security issues in PDF viewers are effectively solved by running it in the browser's JS sandbox.

Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#7

Post by Keycap »

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I find the built-in PDF reader in Firefox to be bloat. It's OK, it works 95% of the time, but really I want to use a native PDF viewer. Is there a version of Firefox that removes this bloat? Given that Mozilla is very resource constrained, why are they working on features that aren't necessary?

I hope no one is listing to you.

I don't want to start explaining to my mother, over the phone, how to install and use the pdf viewer anymore :|

Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#8

Post by anonymousab »

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I find the built-in PDF reader in Firefox to be bloat. It's OK, it works 95% of the time, but really I want to use a native PDF viewer. Is there a version of Firefox that removes this bloat? Given that Mozilla is very resource constrained, why are they working on features that aren't necessary?

And here I found it much less bloated than the other free desktop PDF viewers.

I think Mozilla's line of thought here is that PDF documents are widespread in the web, to the point where they are a de facto web document type. So it makes sense for a web browser to support them rather than calling out to a user's desktop program (though I assume you can configure it to do so instead).

There's probably a bit of "our competitors do it, so we have to too" in there as well.

Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#10

Post by ocdtrekkie »

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I find the built-in PDF reader in Firefox to be bloat. It's OK, it works 95% of the time, but really I want to use a native PDF viewer. Is there a version of Firefox that removes this bloat? Given that Mozilla is very resource constrained, why are they working on features that aren't necessary?

Given that Chrome/Edge also just added the feature, I would point out: All web browsers are using the same library for PDF handling, a feature in pdf.js ends up benefiting a lot of people.

And the reasons for not requiring an outside PDF reader are major: It's yet another likely-to-have-vulnerabilities program people need to install, then update. In most cases, avoiding Adobe programs on your PC is a good way to avoid a lot of vulnerabilities.

Post reply on HN