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Google Makes Latest Chrome Build Open PDFs By Default
An anonymous reader writes "Google is changing the way its browser handles PDF files, starting with the Chrome Canary channel. Citing security concerns, the company wants Chrome to open PDF files by default, bypassing any third-party programs such as Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader."
I think it means "third-party" in relation to Chrome, not PDFs
Likely this was done to be consistent. Any security the Chrome PDF viewer could offer could be easily bypassed by an attacker forcing the file to download. If the user clicks it, it opens in the system PDF viewer.
I believe Adobe Reader has its own sandbox so this might seem a bit weird... but at least one thing Chrome has going for it that Reader has not is that Chrome is more likely to be up-to-date (I forget how Reader updates itself, if it does at all) AND it pulls the latest Chrome PDF plugin with it.
I would prefer if the browser stick to rendering only what the standards tell it to: CSS, HTML, PNG, JPEG, GIF... these are all standards. "Adobe PDF" is not.
However ISO 32000-1 is a standard.
Firefox is the emacs of browsers. Chrome is supposed to be the vi. Stop trying to make vi into Emacs!
*backs away slowly*
chrome://plugins/
Chrome PDF Viewer --> Disable.
That's completely opposite of my experience.
On my not-so-hot computer I regularly open very complex, 400+ page PDFs (music scores mostly). We're talking 30MB w/o any imbedded images, just pure intensive processing instructions.
Chrome, from a total standstill (the process not even running yet), takes just slightly longer then it takes me to blink to start, load the PDF, and render. It's an order of magnitude faster in every way then every other PDF viewer I've tried, and I've tried quite a few.
It lacks features (PDF bookmarks, etc), but render speed is fantastic.
My
Why are we even holding onto PDFs, anyways?
I myself tend to like PDFs for print materials because it's pretty much the only format that is guaranteed to scale exactly as shown. When I scan documents, or create documents that are primarily going to be used in print form, it's pretty much a given that they'll always be PDF's.
For anything else though they're annoying.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
Just give me a prompt to save/open/cancel any day. I miss the good old days.
You can disable individual Chrome pug-ins - including the PDF viewer - in Settings -> Content Settings. I'm sure there are other ways to get to that setting.
Agreed, I actually PREFER to have Chrome open a pdf, because its one less virus ridden file I have to deal with.
I'm still given the option of saving it if I want. Chrome itself seems to recognize which PDFs it can't handle, and prompts for download.
(but those are PRECISELY the ones you have to worry about the most. )
I really don't understand why this is news, since Chrome has been doing this for years now.
(At least since 2010 according to TFA).
Maybe they will enhance it enough such that we don't need to run any Adobe software. With Adobe dropping linux support
all together, there are no fully capable alternatives.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
how can a document renderer, basically a postscript web browser with ALL THE FUNCTIONS REMOVED, be bigger than an virtual computer in your computer?
Ah.... what you are missing is clear now. You missed the point that a PDF viewer is a virtual computer in your computer.
Among other things.... PDFs can contain scripts and various executable bits. What do you think the major source of security issues in PDF is?
| Because we love formats which are impossible to convert into any other format; which require complicated, ugly tools to perform even basic formatting,
This is a feature, not a bug. It's not just a feature, it is THE feature
This. I was doing literal rocket science (a project for the ISS) and Solidworks document printing was incessantly moving things around (typically on top of something else, making both notations illegible). I printed always to PDF, fixed the errors in PDF, and then submitted *that* paper to the controlling authority (JAXA, in this case). I couldn't trust Solidworks to print what it said it would. I could trust PDF.
AC