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PDF.js
Original author(s)Andreas Gal
Developer(s)Mozilla
Initial release2 July 2011 (2011-07-02)[1]
Stable release
4.7.76[2] Edit this on Wikidata / October 6, 2024; 17 days ago (October 6, 2024)
Repository
Written inJavaScript, CSS, HTML
PlatformJavaScript engine, web browser
Size3.94 MB[1]
TypePDF viewer
LicenseApache License 2.0[3]
Websitemozilla.github.io/pdf.js/

PDF.js is a JavaScript library that renders Portable Document Format (PDF) files using the web standards-compliant HTML5 Canvas. The project is led by the Mozilla Corporation after Andreas Gal launched it (initially as an experiment) in 2011.

History and application

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PDF.js was originally created as an extension for Firefox[4] and is included in Firefox since 2012 (version 15),[5][6] and enabled by default since 2013 (version 19).[7][8] It was added to Firefox for Android in 2023 (version 111).[9]

The project was created to provide a way for viewing PDF documents natively in the web browser, which prevents potential security risks when opening PDF documents outside a browser, as the code for displaying the document is sandboxed in a browser.[10] Its implementation uses the Canvas element from HTML5, which allows for fast rendering speeds.[10]

PDF.js is also used in Thunderbird,[11] ownCloud,[12] Nextcloud,[13][14] and is available as a browser extension for Google Chrome/Chromium,[15] Pale Moon[16][17] and SeaMonkey.[17][18]

It can be integrated or embedded in a web or native application to enable PDF rendering and viewing, and allows advanced usages such as Server-side rendering.

Many web applications, including Dropbox,[19] Slack,[20] and LinkedIn Learning[21] integrate PDF.js to enable previewing PDF documents.

Behavior

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According to a benchmark by Mozilla, PDF.js is performant for viewing most common PDF files, while it may have some issues with large or 'graphics-heavy' documents.[22]

PDF.js supports most of the PDF specifications (including form support or XFA[23]), but some features have not been implemented yet, which may impact rendering behavior depending on the features the document uses.[24]

Several PDF/X or optional PDF features that are not supported in PDF.js include:

The PDF.js contributor community also notes that the browser behavior of PDF.js varies with browser support for PDF.js's required features.[28] Performance and reliability will be the best on Chrome and Firefox, which are fully supported and subject to automated testing.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Releases · mozilla/pdf.js". GitHub. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  2. ^ "Release 4.7.76". 6 October 2024. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  3. ^ "pdf.js/LICENSE at master · mozilla/pdf.js". GitHub. 17 February 2022.
  4. ^ "PDF Viewer(discontinued)". addons.mozilla.org. Archived from the original on 5 December 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  5. ^ Parfeni, Lucian (30 April 2012). "PDF.JS and Download Manager Panel Pushed to Firefox 15". Softpedia. SoftNews.
  6. ^ Blagoveschenskiy, Anton (29 August 2012). "Вышла новая версия браузера Firefox 15" [New version 15 of the Firefox browser released]. Rossiyskaya Gazeta (in Russian). Retrieved 9 September 2012.
  7. ^ "Bug 773397 – Disable pdf.js prior to FF15 beta 5". bugzilla.mozilla.org.
  8. ^ "Firefox 19.0 Release Notes". mozilla.org. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  9. ^ "Firefox for Android 111.0, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes". www.mozilla.org. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  10. ^ a b Shankland, Stephen (24 June 2011). "Mozilla eyes hassle-free PDFs on the Web". CNET. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  11. ^ "810815 - Integrate pdf.js to Thunderbird". bugzilla.mozilla.org. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  12. ^ owncloud/files_pdfviewer, ownCloud, 8 February 2020, retrieved 28 March 2020
  13. ^ nextcloud/files_pdfviewer, Nextcloud, 18 March 2020, retrieved 28 March 2020
  14. ^ "PDF viewer - Apps - App Store - Nextcloud". apps.nextcloud.com. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  15. ^ "PDF Viewer". Chrome Web Store.
  16. ^ "Add-ons - Moon PDF Viewer". Pale Moon - Add-ons. Archived from the original on 3 January 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  17. ^ a b "IsaacSchemm/pdf.js-seamonkey: SeaMonkey fork of pdf.js". GitHub. Archived from the original on 6 December 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  18. ^ "PDF Viewer for SeaMonkey". Add-ons for SeaMonkey. 25 April 2020.
  19. ^ Lauraharrisneal. "Annotations on Document Previews". dropbox.tech. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  20. ^ "What matters to you, matters to us. - Slack Engineering". Slack Engineering. 16 November 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  21. ^ "Under the hood: Learning with documents". engineering.linkedin.com. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  22. ^ "How fast is PDF.js? – Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog".
  23. ^ "1706133 - (pdf-xfa) [meta] XFA support". bugzilla.mozilla.org. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  24. ^ "Guide to Evaluating PDF.js Rendering". PDFTron. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  25. ^ "ICC profiles support for images · Issue #2856 · mozilla/pdf.js". GitHub. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  26. ^ "Overprint Support · Issue #7360 · mozilla/pdf.js". GitHub. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  27. ^ "Issue about knockout groups. · Issue #3136 · mozilla/pdf.js". GitHub. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  28. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions · mozilla/pdf.js Wiki". GitHub. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
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