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

Pdf.js: PDF Reader in JavaScript

mozilla.github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 94 posts

Re: Pdf.js: PDF Reader in JavaScript

#42

Post by thomasfrank09 »

fafner wrote: post #35
jowiar wrote: post #3

1) From a technical perspective, this is damn cool - exceedingly well done. Color me very impressed. 2) I hope I never actually see anyone using this on a website, attempting to make things "easier." Between Scribd and Slideshare, and Adobe trying to force its hideous crash-prone plugins into my browser, there are already enough people making a mess out of what is one of the more well-thought-out aspects of OS X. Giv…

I found Preview.app always annoying. E.g., the maximize windows button not maximizing the window. Sure it is better than Adobe Reader. But there are quite a few very nice alternative PDF viewers better than it. And pdf.js is great as a browser plugin because opening PDFs won't disturb your browsing any more.

I agree about Preview - but mainly I just hate having to download PDFs to read them. Most of the time I don't need them long-term.

Re: Pdf.js: PDF Reader in JavaScript

#43

Post by crisnoble »

jowiar wrote: post #3

1) From a technical perspective, this is damn cool - exceedingly well done. Color me very impressed. 2) I hope I never actually see anyone using this on a website, attempting to make things "easier." Between Scribd and Slideshare, and Adobe trying to force its hideous crash-prone plugins into my browser, there are already enough people making a mess out of what is one of the more well-thought-out aspects of OS X. Giv…

Personally I wish all sites used this instead of scribd/slideshare or opening up external programs.

This will just work on different browsers, different OS etc.

Plus you can send links like this: http://mozilla.github.com/pdf.js/web/viewer.html#page=6&... To send a user to s specific part of the page. Right now usually you just send the pdf link and have to say, "check out the image on page 6".

Keeping the pdf in the browser and accessible to and from javascript opens up a world of possibilities.

Re: Pdf.js: PDF Reader in JavaScript

#45

Post by IanDrake »

ianb wrote: post #7

I use this a lot, and it really does work. It renders everything, and renders it well. The one thing that doesn't work is maps – just too many vectors, and Javascript/Canvas/etc just can't keep up. Otherwise I'm very happy and don't feel nearly as much resentment towards PDFs as I used to.

Another Ian here, also using pdf.js. Been working on a paperless office app that allows contracts to be signed on an iPad. It works surprisingly well.

Re: Pdf.js: PDF Reader in JavaScript

#49

Post by emillon »

crisnoble wrote: post #48
wheaties wrote: post #47

Now if someone would just do this for .docx, .xlsx, and such I'd be set.

Is there a way you could tell your browser to open those links in google docs by default?

Proxying all your documents to Google is something that should be avoidable.

Re: Pdf.js: PDF Reader in JavaScript

#50

Post by alter8 »

Argorak wrote: post #24
RandallBrown wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Firefox has been shipping with this for awhile to view PDFs. It may be an about:config value you have to turn on though.

It is included, but off in release versions at the moment. In about:config : name: pdfjs.disabled status: default type: boolean value: false

Does that mean I can just remove the Firefox extension installed from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pdfjs/ and then turn on this setting will enable a built-in PDF viewer?
Post reply on HN