Opening a local PDF file in Chrome

Question

Ok I see these 2 questions:

How to open PDF file in Google Chrome in new tab?

But I'm not sure they answer my question. I'm trying not to install any PDF reader (Adobe sucks) and know that Chrome will open PDFs I open from the internet. So my question, is why won't it work if the PDF is local to my machine? Is there a workaround/plugin/other browser I can use to accomplish this?

The argument of security is totally bogus; how would a PDF I'm opening on the internet be any more secure/safe than a PDF I have on my local machine?

Is this a programming related question? It looks more suited to http://superuser.com — Darin Dimitrov, Oct 27 '10 at 17:05

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 28 '10 at 07:10

8

I'm running Chrome 8.0.552.18 on my computer now, under Windows 7, and I just clicked and dragged a PDF onto it, and it loaded it up no problem...

And no, it doesn't look like it's using Acrobat or Foxit, or another PDF reader... it looks like Chrome 8 does have its own PDF renderer.

answered Oct 28 '10 at 07:10

mpen

272,448
266
850
1,236

Wow. Interesting indeed. Seems everyone wants to avoid Adobe software like the plague, first Apple now Google. – Judah Gabriel Himango Nov 11 '10 at 15:48
@SherlockSpreadsheets Yeah.. local files use the `file://` protocol. – mpen Feb 01 '19 at 18:07
Awesome trick! This is the URL in chrome. And FYI... the URL also worked in internet explorer. URL: `file:///C:/Users/bl0040/Dropbox/My%20folder%20Name/File%20Name.pdf` – SherlockSpreadsheets May 02 '19 at 19:04

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 28 '10 at 07:01

I'm assuming you are on Windows. So, if your PDF is c:\some\path\some.pdf, simply use this URI in Chrome's address and search field:

 file:///C:/some/path/some.pdf

On Linux I'd expect this for /some/path/some.pdf to change to

 file:///some/path/some.pdf

(but have no chance to test this).

Judah Gabriel Himango · Answer 3 · 2010-11-11T15:48:40.343

-3

When you say "open a PDF in Chrome", what do you mean, exactly? Are you opening it through Gmail or Google Docs? If so, that's Google doing conversion behind the scenes, converting it to HTML on their servers, with Chrome simply rendering the HTML as usual.

~~As far as I'm aware, Chrome has no built-in PDF viewing capabilities.~~

edit looks like Chrome 8 does have its own PDF viewer built-in. Wowj.

edited Nov 11 '10 at 15:48

answered Oct 27 '10 at 17:24

Judah Gabriel Himango

58,906
38
158
212

Opening a local PDF file in Chrome

3 Answers3