Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2013/01/11/firefox_beta_shows_pdfs_without_plugin/

Mozilla to Adobe: PDFs don't need no more steenking plugins

Firefox beta renders PDFs with HTML 5

By Simon Sharwood

Posted in Software, 11th January 2013 04:15 GMT

Mozilla's come right out and said what plenty of people think about PDF-reading browser plugins: they're often woefully insecure, generally replicate things browsers can already do and rely on proprietary technology.

Mozilla's answer is HTML 5 allied with the pdf.js project, which together allow a newly-released beta of Firefox to display PDFs without a plugin.

The results, displayed below, aren't a radical variation from the interface presented by PDF plugins.

Mozilla's latest Firefox beta can display PDFs without a plugin

Look Ma: no plugins!

But as Mozilla points out in this blog post, “the PDF viewer is capable of running on many platforms (PC’s, tablet, mobile) and even different browsers.” The organisation is hopeful things will only get better as browsers' JavaScript-crunching prowess improves. ®