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This `disableCreateObjectURL` option was originally introduced all the way back in PR 4103 (eight years ago), in order to work-around `URL.createObjectURL()`-bugs specific to Internet Explorer. In PR 8081 (five years ago) the `disableCreateObjectURL` option was extended to cover Google Chrome on iOS-devices as well, since that configuration apparently also suffered from `URL.createObjectURL()`-bugs.[1] At this point in time, I thus think that it makes sense to re-evaluate if we should still keep the `disableCreateObjectURL` option. - For Internet Explorer, support was explicitly removed in PDF.js version `2.7.570` which was released one year ago and all IE-specific compatibility code (and polyfills) have since been removed. - For Google Chrome on iOS-devices, while we still "support" such configurations, it's *not* the focus of any development and platform-specific bugs are thus often closed as WONTFIX. Note here that at this point in time, the `disableCreateObjectURL` option is *only* being used in the viewer and any `URL.createObjectURL()`-bugs browser/platform bugs will thus not affect the main PDF.js library. Furthermore, given where the `disableCreateObjectURL` option is being used in the viewer the basic functionality should also remain unaffected by these changes.[2] Furthermore, it's also possible that the `URL.createObjectURL()`-bugs have been fixed in *browser* itself since PR 8081 was submitted.[3] Obviously you could argue that this isn't a lot of code, w.r.t. number of lines, and you'd be technically correct. However, it does add additional complexity in a few different viewer components which thus add overhead when reading and working with this code. Finally, assuming the `URL.createObjectURL()`-bugs are still present in Google Chrome on iOS-devices, I think that we should ask ourselves if it's reasonable for the PDF.js project (and its contributors) to keep attempting to support a configuration if the *browser* developers still haven't fixed these kind of bugs!? --- [1] According to https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/chromium-html5/RKQ0ZJIj7c4, which is linked in PR 8081, that bug was mentioned/reported as early as the 2014 (eight years ago). [2] Viewer functionality such as e.g. downloading and printing may be affected. [3] I don't have access to any iOS-devices to test with.
PDF.js 
PDF.js is a Portable Document Format (PDF) viewer that is built with HTML5.
PDF.js is community-driven and supported by Mozilla. Our goal is to create a general-purpose, web standards-based platform for parsing and rendering PDFs.
Contributing
PDF.js is an open source project and always looking for more contributors. To get involved, visit:
- Issue Reporting Guide
- Code Contribution Guide
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Good Beginner Bugs
- Projects
Feel free to stop by our Matrix room for questions or guidance.
Getting Started
Online demo
Please note that the "Modern browsers" version assumes native support for
features such as e.g. async/await, ReadableStream, optional chaining,
nullish coalescing, and private class fields/methods.
-
Modern browsers: https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/web/viewer.html
-
Older browsers: https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/legacy/web/viewer.html
Browser Extensions
Firefox
PDF.js is built into version 19+ of Firefox.
Chrome
- The official extension for Chrome can be installed from the Chrome Web Store. This extension is maintained by @Rob--W.
- Build Your Own - Get the code as explained below and issue
gulp chromium. Then open Chrome, go toTools > Extensionand load the (unpackaged) extension from the directorybuild/chromium.
Getting the Code
To get a local copy of the current code, clone it using git:
$ git clone https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js.git
$ cd pdf.js
Next, install Node.js via the official package or via nvm. You need to install the gulp package globally (see also gulp's getting started):
$ npm install -g gulp-cli
If everything worked out, install all dependencies for PDF.js:
$ npm install
Finally, you need to start a local web server as some browsers do not allow opening
PDF files using a file:// URL. Run:
$ gulp server
and then you can open:
Please keep in mind that this requires a modern and fully up-to-date browser; refer to Building PDF.js for non-development usage of the PDF.js library.
It is also possible to view all test PDF files on the right side by opening:
Building PDF.js
In order to bundle all src/ files into two production scripts and build the generic
viewer, run:
$ gulp generic
If you need to support older browsers, run:
$ gulp generic-legacy
This will generate pdf.js and pdf.worker.js in the build/generic/build/ directory (respectively build/generic-legacy/build/).
Both scripts are needed but only pdf.js needs to be included since pdf.worker.js will
be loaded by pdf.js. The PDF.js files are large and should be minified for production.
Using PDF.js in a web application
To use PDF.js in a web application you can choose to use a pre-built version of the library
or to build it from source. We supply pre-built versions for usage with NPM and Bower under
the pdfjs-dist name. For more information and examples please refer to the
wiki page on this subject.
Including via a CDN
PDF.js is hosted on several free CDNs:
- https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/pdfjs-dist
- https://cdnjs.com/libraries/pdf.js
- https://unpkg.com/pdfjs-dist/
Learning
You can play with the PDF.js API directly from your browser using the live demos below:
More examples can be found in the examples folder. Some of them are using the pdfjs-dist package, which can be built and installed in this repo directory via gulp dist-install command.
For an introduction to the PDF.js code, check out the presentation by our contributor Julian Viereck:
More learning resources can be found at:
The API documentation can be found at:
Questions
Check out our FAQs and get answers to common questions:
Talk to us on Matrix:
File an issue:
Follow us on twitter: @pdfjs