Can we code html so a PDF link shows on the screen instead of downloading it?

HTML & CSS
1

I have a link to a PDF file hard-coded on an HTML page, but it downloads the PDF on smartphones rather than displaying it. How can I make it to display on screen instead?

2

Many major browsers do not support that. I think none of the major browsers do. PDF was not designed for use in the internet.

I think that what you need to do is to convert the PDF to HTML, outside of the website, then upload the HTML file into your website.

3

All of my desktop browsers show PDFs.

1 Like
4

It’s usually up to the website visitor to say whether PDFs should be downloaded or viewed in the browser.

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5

To display a PDF on your web page instead of having it download, you can use the <object> tag with an <iframe> as a fallback. Here’s a simplified example you can embed in your HTML:

<object data="your-pdf-url.pdf" type="application/pdf" style="height: 800px; width: 100%;">
  <iframe src="https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=your-encoded-pdf-url&embedded=true" style="height: 800px; width: 100%;" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</object>

Replace your-pdf-url.pdf with the actual URL of your PDF. Make sure the URL in the iframe src is URL-encoded.