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Firefox introduces PDF viewer

blog.mozilla.org

151–160 of 200 posts

Re: Firefox introduces PDF viewer

#152
post #9

It's worth pointing out this is done in pure Javascript , and works by compiling PDF functions to equivalent Javascript functions which are then visible to Firefox's JIT. Despite being only around a year old, it still manages to render the majority of PDFs thrown at it (it's been my primary paper reader for the past 6 months or so). As for missing features like some complex gradients, I can't say I've missed them, ex…

While pdf.js is a cool project, the last paragraph sounds too biased. Despite being open source / in native javascript, Firefox is still late to the party in terms of viewing pdf in a browser. Coming up with a better solution TWO YEARS later than the competitor doesn't seem that impressive.

Re: Firefox introduces PDF viewer

#153
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps they had made an offer. We never would know. We don't even know the details of the Mozilla-Google deal. For all the openness that Google and Mozilla appear to proffer, the agreement between them is a secret.

Mozilla has been saying for years that they will use the best engine, and take that engine's money if it's available. If Bing were clearly better than Google, they'd switch and be taking Microsoft's money.

They have said that during the time they are being offered the most money by the best search engine. That's easy. But Google keeps paying more which means Mozilla is after the highest bidder.

Re: Firefox introduces PDF viewer

#154
post #72
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And... ?

... from there comes most infections on windows PCs running chrome.

This is ridiculous. The foxit plugin is fully sandboxed and I have not seen any exploits via any of the netsec lists I subscribe to.

Re: Firefox introduces PDF viewer

#155
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> While Mozilla are pumping out stellar designs like this, Google are pushing crap like Native Client and their proprietary, binary-only Foxit Reader solution instead, complete with the hundreds of thousands of LOC of insecure C this entails. Rock on, Mozilla! Why are you dumping on Google? Their browser has been able to handle PDFs for years (including forms!).

Google's PDF viewer refuses to save PDFs opened via the websites of some scientific journals. I'm not willing to play the proxy game every time I want to read journal papers so I save them locally. I stopped using Google's PDF viewer because of this misfeature.

Can you provide a citation or an example link for me to test? My understanding is that Chrome has the foxit plugin in a fully sandboxed environment. The PDF format nor the foxit system has any kind of DRM and shouldn't support this behavior.

Re: Firefox introduces PDF viewer

#156
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome's PDF plugin is closed source, and written in C. It is very useful, but not free as in FOSS.

Chrome's built-in PDF plugin is actually from a Chinese company called Foxit. http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-chromes-pdf-... Now start China bitching.

I've been using Foxit reader for years without knowing that it was Chinese. Its a great product - fast as hell - beats the pants off Adobe.

Re: Firefox introduces PDF viewer

#157
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> While Mozilla are pumping out stellar designs like this, Google are pushing crap like Native Client and their proprietary, binary-only Foxit Reader solution instead, complete with the hundreds of thousands of LOC of insecure C this entails. Given how well PDF.js runs using Mozilla's JS engine, I have to wonder how well it would perform with V8.

You can try it out for yourself here by loading this URL with Chrome: http://mozilla.github.com/pdf.js/web/viewer.html

That's outstanding, even if the graphical figures still need work.

Re: Firefox introduces PDF viewer

#158
post #27
post #9

It's worth pointing out this is done in pure Javascript , and works by compiling PDF functions to equivalent Javascript functions which are then visible to Firefox's JIT. Despite being only around a year old, it still manages to render the majority of PDFs thrown at it (it's been my primary paper reader for the past 6 months or so). As for missing features like some complex gradients, I can't say I've missed them, ex…

Your comment would've been so much better without its last paragraph.

I don't understand the open source hate. Whether the code is open source or not makes a lot of difference. Not hating on google, but mozilla has this one right.

Re: Firefox introduces PDF viewer

#159
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome's built-in PDF plugin is actually from a Chinese company called Foxit. http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-chromes-pdf-... Now start China bitching.

I've been using Foxit reader for years without knowing that it was Chinese. Its a great product - fast as hell - beats the pants off Adobe.

I'd started using Foxit for the same reason. But the speed advantage is no longer an issue. Adobe had closed the gap and Acrobat reader now loads just as fast as Foxit. Besides, Acrobat's rendering is far superior to Foxit's (not to mention Foxit fails to load some PDF document or displays garbage)

Acrobat is the new Foxit nowadays!

Re: Firefox introduces PDF viewer

#160
post #107

If you want to try PDF.js from your current browser, here's a demo: http://mozilla.github.com/pdf.js/web/viewer.html I wonder what's keeping this so ugly in Chrome. Also, does anyone know if printing is intended to work? It doesn't appear to have the pagination right, again at least on Chrome.

Looks much better than I imagined. Also painfully slow.

I've got an i5 that runs it smooth like butter.
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