Chrome Dev Build supports inline PDF viewing


Marc Pawlinger at the Chromium Blog announced today that the Chrome developer channel now sports the ability to view PDFs inside of Chrome without a third-party addition.

If you’re interested in the details, here is what Marc says the plans are:

• PDF files will render as seamlessly as HTML web pages, and basic interactions will be no different than the same interactions with web pages (for example, zooming and searching will work as users expect). PDF rendering quality is still a work in progress, and we will improve it substantially before releasing it to the beta and stable channels.

• To further protect users, PDF functionality will be contained within the security “sandbox” Chrome uses for web page rendering.

• Users will automatically receive the latest version of Chrome’s PDF support; they won’t have to worry about manually updating any plug-ins or programs.

Safari has had built-in PDF support for a while, so it is good to see Chrome adding this feature as well. I know that I like to accomplish as much as possible without switching applications, so this is a welcome update in my eyes.

What do you think, though? Is this a feature you’ve been longing for, or is this a cramping your style? Let us know in the comments, or you can hit me up on Twitter.

Photo Credit: AnyJazz65

Grant is a writer from Delaware. In his spare time, Grant maintains a personal blog, hosts The Weekly Roar, hosts Quadcast, and writes for video games.