3 ms·

I used to recommend Foxit too, but all major browsers now ship with good PDF support.

by MaxBarraclough 7y ago

saagarjha 7y ago
Not Safari.
- eric_h 7y ago
  How so? I have no problem opening PDF links directly in Safari.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    Safari "supports PDF", but not well. The PDF viewer is run in an extremely janky view that clearly has not been updated in years. It runs out-of-process, but takes little advantage of the many advances in XPC rendering that have come in recent years; as such it cannot handle looking up services correctly, or vibrancy, or even have Retina support for its UI. And those are just visual: the PDF support itself is shoddy; it's unable to do many things that other browsers can do out-of-the-box (forms?), searching for text has been broken for the better part of a year. It's an obvious rough spot in Safari's otherwise polished interface.
    - eric_h 7y ago
      Fair criticism. I guess my bar for what I define as "good PDF support" is much lower than yours - I only generally read them or plug in a digital signature when signing my lease.
      - saagarjha 7y ago
        Personally, I am loath to download documents. I actually like what iOS Safari does, which is run the generic document previewer on files inside the app itself. I hate clicking on a link on my computer and then getting a PPTX that I have to open in PowerPoint.
TylerE 7y ago
For me, not being in the browser is a feature, not a bug. I often want to be able to open a PDF in a dedicated window I can easily switch to.
- MaxBarraclough 7y ago
  Sure, but you can open a PDF in a new browser window. I'd rather not broaden my trusted codebase by installing another PDF reader.
  - TylerE 7y ago
    OSs have this annoying habit of condensing multiple windows of a single application down to one taskbar item/dock item/whatever.
    - rad_gruchalski 7y ago
      What is the difference between having multiple pdf reader windows vs multiple browser windows then? If you are on a mac: cmd+` is your friend.
      - TylerE 7y ago
        I only have one PDF window open.
    - alpaca128 7y ago
      On Windows this can easily be remedied in the options accessible via the taskbar. I always turn this off and tell it to show the full window titles instead of just the icons. Windows are not browser tabs, I don't ever have enough of them open to need that stacking behaviour.
      - MaxBarraclough 7y ago
        Another option for Chrome/Windows is to open a Guest window or an Incognito window, which is treated as a separate window-group.
rypskar 7y ago
But do they remember your position in the PDF between restarts? I some times read books or lecture notes in PDF format, and dedicated programs works much better for that than the support in browsers

I used to recommend Foxit too, but all major browsers now ship with good PDF support.

saagarjha 7y ago

Not Safari.

eric_h 7y ago
How so? I have no problem opening PDF links directly in Safari.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Safari "supports PDF", but not well. The PDF viewer is run in an extremely janky view that clearly has not been updated in years. It runs out-of-process, but takes little advantage of the many advances in XPC rendering that have come in recent years; as such it cannot handle looking up services correctly, or vibrancy, or even have Retina support for its UI. And those are just visual: the PDF support itself is shoddy; it's unable to do many things that other browsers can do out-of-the-box (forms?), searching for text has been broken for the better part of a year. It's an obvious rough spot in Safari's otherwise polished interface.
  - eric_h 7y ago
    Fair criticism. I guess my bar for what I define as "good PDF support" is much lower than yours - I only generally read them or plug in a digital signature when signing my lease.
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      Personally, I am loath to download documents. I actually like what iOS Safari does, which is run the generic document previewer on files inside the app itself. I hate clicking on a link on my computer and then getting a PPTX that I have to open in PowerPoint.

TylerE 7y ago

For me, not being in the browser is a feature, not a bug. I often want to be able to open a PDF in a dedicated window I can easily switch to.

MaxBarraclough 7y ago
Sure, but you can open a PDF in a new browser window. I'd rather not broaden my trusted codebase by installing another PDF reader.
- TylerE 7y ago
  OSs have this annoying habit of condensing multiple windows of a single application down to one taskbar item/dock item/whatever.
  - rad_gruchalski 7y ago
    What is the difference between having multiple pdf reader windows vs multiple browser windows then? If you are on a mac: cmd+` is your friend.
    - TylerE 7y ago
      I only have one PDF window open.
  - alpaca128 7y ago
    On Windows this can easily be remedied in the options accessible via the taskbar. I always turn this off and tell it to show the full window titles instead of just the icons. Windows are not browser tabs, I don't ever have enough of them open to need that stacking behaviour.
    - MaxBarraclough 7y ago
      Another option for Chrome/Windows is to open a Guest window or an Incognito window, which is treated as a separate window-group.

rypskar 7y ago

But do they remember your position in the PDF between restarts? I some times read books or lecture notes in PDF format, and dedicated programs works much better for that than the support in browsers