HN Explorer

Ask HN: SaaS solution to provide easy and nice PDF embedding in a web page?

6 points by andrea_s ↗ HN
I'm somewhat disappointed by the ways I've found to embed a PDF in a web page for user interaction... My main gripe at the moment is with Chrome, as it appears the Chrome PDF reader does not correctly implement the PDF Open parameters (https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=64309).

So, my question: is there any friendly, use-and-forget service out there where I can just upload the PDF, easily embed it into my website and have the same interface cross-browser for interacting with the PDF, as well as the possibility to open it with "fit width"?

6 comments

[ 2.0 ms ] story [ 20.8 ms ] thread
aidos
pdf.js is where all the work goes these days - http://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/

I haven't used it for a couple of years but is was pretty good back then and playing with the demo now it seems very slick. I'd start there if I were you (maybe there's a hosted service using it).

logn
The Firefox PDF viewer (pdf.js) can be used in any browser from any website. https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js

See a demo: http://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/web/viewer.html

andrea_s
Wouldn't I need a node.js server to run that? It's listed as a prerequisite in the GitHub page...
logn
I've not worked with it except as an end user. But my understanding is that you only need node.js if you're trying to test this locally, because browsers treat file:/// URLs differently than http://localhost
andrea_s
You are right, actually, as long as it's coming from a webserver (IIS here) I'm able to run the demo. Thanks!
groupdocs2
Shameless plug, GroupDocs Cloud Viewer API should support what you require, there's a 14 day trial to allow you to try it out, I work for GroupDocs.