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Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

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Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#12

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.

You could also disable Firefox's built-in PDF viewer and instead use an external PDF viewer that doesn't even support Javascript.

Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#13

Is there something hard about fillable forms on PDF? Why have a PDF viewer at all if it couldn't fill out a form?

While PDF is an open format on paper, in practice it's as proprietary as any ancient format. Supporting it in full is not trivial.

Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#15
I looked into coding PDFs once. Then I closed my MacBook (Pro) and went for a long walk into the ocean. I think I almost got to America, but then I turned and swam back again. Turnd out I had just fallen asleep and had a nightmare. I was actually just working with regular text files, and everything was fine.

Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#17
Why is Firefox spending all their money and goodwill on a piece of technology that should be done away with?

PDF is a dork. It's an accessibility nightmare with no obvious advantage over simple ordinary webpages. Somewhere in the comments below, it is mentioned that supporting PDFs is a non-trivial piece of technology. May be! Even steam engines have non-trivial technology under the hood.

Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#18
post #15

I looked into coding PDFs once. Then I closed my MacBook (Pro) and went for a long walk into the ocean. I think I almost got to America, but then I turned and swam back again. Turnd out I had just fallen asleep and had a nightmare. I was actually just working with regular text files, and everything was fine.

As someone still working with PDF processing, I can confirm that it doesn't get easier.

Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#19

Why is Firefox spending all their money and goodwill on a piece of technology that should be done away with? PDF is a dork. It's an accessibility nightmare with no obvious advantage over simple ordinary webpages. Somewhere in the comments below, it is mentioned that supporting PDFs is a non-trivial piece of technology. May be! Even steam engines have non-trivial technology under the hood.

There are lots of use cases for PDF where a web page is totally unsuitable.

Re: Embedded PDF viewer in Firefox 81 supports filling forms

#20

Why is Firefox spending all their money and goodwill on a piece of technology that should be done away with? PDF is a dork. It's an accessibility nightmare with no obvious advantage over simple ordinary webpages. Somewhere in the comments below, it is mentioned that supporting PDFs is a non-trivial piece of technology. May be! Even steam engines have non-trivial technology under the hood.

PDF is widely used and supported. And FWIW, edge does support it.
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