Firefox's integrated PDF viewer

[mikeymikec]

When I first heard of it, I thought it was a good idea because it might help reduce general dependency on Adobe Reader, however I noticed a fair few problems with PDF rendering on customers' computers and ended up setting Firefox to 'always ask' and have a PDF viewer on the computer. My decision to do this was based on Firefox's PDF support within the first year of its introduction.

My question is, do people think that Firefox's PDF support has matured to a point where it's a viable option for most uses? Have people here used it for say form-filling?

I personally don't encounter PDFs much; I generate PDF invoices and receipts through LibreOffice and test them before sending (with SumatraPDF), otherwise it's usually for simple read-only stuff like reading motherboard manuals. However, other people require a lot more PDF-related support such as form-filling etc.

 

[lxskllr]

I found it wonky(quite awhile ago), and in any case, I don't enjoy reading pdfs in the browser. I always use a standalone viewer. Anything that removes need for proprietary software is a net positive, but I don't like cramming un/barely related technologies into a single product.

 

[Berryracer]

I use PDF X-Change Viewer and with that, once installed you can go to Firefox Options, Apps , then change PDF to use the built in PDF X-Change Viewer plugin, much better, it still reads in your browser but is pretty good.

 

[Mem]

I use FF PDF and one built-in on Win8.1,between them never needed another third party option.

 

[ninaholic37]

I found it wonky(quite awhile ago), and in any case, I don't enjoy reading pdfs in the browser. I always use a standalone viewer. Anything that removes need for proprietary software is a net positive, but I don't like cramming un/barely related technologies into a single product.

Same here. I find opening PDFs in an external dedicated program more stable and smoother and a better reading experience. My Linux distros already have a few light PDF readers and editors so it's easy to just save the file and then click on them. This way if something happens (ie. opening a 600 page PDF file with lots of images) it won't crash the entire browser. I remember Firefox adding "white text on white backgrounds" and strange shadowing that make the PDFs unreadable sometimes anyway (which normal PDF readers didn't do).

 

[Ketchup]

For a single page I wiil use FF. Anything larger is a pain and I will just dl it to view with Foxit.