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Google Makes Latest Chrome Build Open PDFs By Default

Posted by timothy on from the open-it-use-dynamite-if-necessary dept.

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."

4 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Sunnary unclear by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 5, Informative
    1. It will NOT change the way the system handles PDF files.
    2. It has NOTHING to do with how the browser views PDF files on the web (the Chrome PDF viewer is already the default).
    3. It only affects how Chrome handles when you choose to open a downloaded PDF file.

    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.

  2. Simple as that by lesincompetent · · Score: 5, Informative

    chrome://plugins/
    Chrome PDF Viewer --> Disable.

  3. Re:Great by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 5, Informative

    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
  4. Re:Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    | 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