Question

Right, thanks for the Reply. But that does not address the issue really. Will the firefox PDF viewer support fillable fields, etc. in the future? Or is this a bug?

This is under development.

See:

• bug 739043 - Can't fill fillable PDF forms with PDF Viewer

(please do not comment in bug reports: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html)

This new viewer was an ugly surprise. I DO NOT want pdfs to open in Firefox. I want FIrefox to give me the option to open or download. If I select open, I want it to open in my copy of Acrobat (not the Reader), and certainly not inside Firefox. Can anybody help me?

Additionally, there are a lot PDFs which do not show included images correctly when opened with the build-in viewer or can't display effects like shadows or gradients (for example: http://www.peginc.com/freebies/Rippers/RippersHeroes.pdf), some fonts aren't displayed right and accents (you know, umlaute and such things) are missing in many cases. Anti-aliasing for fonts isn't working either. Any chance to change that fast? Or deactivate the build-in viewer until it works properly?

Another issue with the built-in pdf viewer is the lack of a search function to look for words in the displayed pdf file. Maybe I overlooked something, but could not find a button for it.

hello drmarkweber, the normal search tools in firefox that work in websites will also work in the built-in pdf viewer: How to search the contents of the current page for text or links

nobler: you can use cor-el's method to disable the firefox's PDF viewer.

I am in the same boat as webphenom. We are in the business of fillable PDF forms. Is it possible to make the firefox's PDF viewer can load a filled pdf forms? Now I have this pop-up bar "This PDF document might not be displayed correctly ...." from PDF viewer when I load a filled pdf form.

The default pdf viewer in FF 19 is simply not fit for purpose. It displays/prints wrong typefaces with bad character spacing, sometimes displays pages as completely blank, prints some colours and not others, ... I could go on. It is easy to change back to having Foxit (or any other) as the default viewer, but I am concerned that other users of Firefox who do not know how to do that will see pdf files of mine very badly reproduced and naturally will think it is my fault. Please stop making the built-in pdf viewer the default until it works properly.

Beloved Firefox developers, please do as Kdiment says, disable the built-in PDF viewer until it works. We just have an eventful demonstration of our next BIG thing this morning (the pdf forms are not fillable, filled PDF forms display as unfilled pdf...), and our boss thinks we xxxx the bed. In addition, where is pdf.js? NoScript blocks this item (another item that our boss thinks it is our fault) when the built-in pdf viewer is enable.

I have found that all one needs to do is to go into tools/options/applications and change "Preview in Firefox" to "Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox") and you can easily change back to the previous mode.

I also actually love the Preview in Firefox, it allows you to open links in a Adobe document in a new tab and other sweet things.

I agree, the default setting should be a normal download for PDFs. After installing v19.0, I immediately ran into a website where a PDF wouldn't load within the browser, I discovered this default setting and changed the action to "Always ask" so that I could get a proper version of the PDF file.

hello, Axis

I understand the steps to rollback to the previous mode. Can you imagine 100s users calling our tech support line and asking why our app does not work suddenly? Having said that, may be this is our fault that we do not read the release notes carefully. Anyway, I need to find a way to read Firefox's pdf option in via JavaScript.

TL

Rather than be repetitive my comments in a similar thread are here (about half way down the sreen):

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/950939

• /questions/950939#answer-410247 _{edit, direct link added -J99}

Regards, Axis

I agree, this was indeed an ugly surprise! Default behavior should never automatically change; any new features should only be enabled by consenting, deliberate opt-in. In my case, Acrobat suddenly stopped working after Firefox did an automatic update, and I had to search for this answer in the middle of an urgent project before I could continue working.

Good point richpasco
but you would do better adding such a comment to feedback. developers may review digests of feedback information, but will not see comments in this forum.

• http://input.mozilla.org/en-US/feedback

john99, can you be more specific on where to add my comment: where is this "feedback" you mention, and how does one access it?

It is available by default as an icon or option top right on your Firefox toolbar, or by clicking/double clicking the blue link

• http://input.mozilla.org/en-US/feedback <--- clickable link

Theoretically you could file a bug yourself for such a request, but it would have little chance of success, unless you are able to get support and interest for the idea in advance.

There may be developer's forums or mailing lists where you may be able to discuss this matter, but I would not know which ones may be applicable.

• listing http://www.mozilla.org/about/forums/#general-development

We use embedded JavaScript in our PDFs enabling the customer to automatically print the PDF when it is opened.

It works in every other browser. It does not work in FF19 with pdfjs.

We're getting grief from our customers over this unannounced introduction.

Please explain this behaviour which is not consistent with other web browsers. I thought that was the job of IE???

Sorry TicketSource,
The purpose of this forum is answering simple support questions involving a user fix to Firefox.

We do not deal with requests for enhancement to Firefox software, or explaining the mysterious decisions made by developers. You will need to look elsewhere for an answer to that, as explained in my last post.

I realise this is not the answer you hoped for but not much I can do to help.

"I am concerned that other users of Firefox who do not know how to do that will see pdf files of mine very badly reproduced and naturally will think it is my fault."

Exactly! Colors are lost. It is so compressed that things are illegible. My PDFs are accessible, but if you copy from the PDF to Notepad, each word, or part of word, is put on its own line.

I'm going to turn it off, but most important to me is for people see my PDFs as I created them. This isn't it.

TicketSource, (and others)

You may be interested in a related thread

• How to disable PDF.js built in viewer for my site/questions/951638

John99,

Not helpful, I'm afraid. Like donwiss, we have no control over which members of the general public choose to use our web site.

TicketSource,

.... Not helpful, .... we have no control over which members of the general public choose to use our web site. 

But you should be able to detect which browser is being used to view your site.

You could post your own advice and/or links to our documentation if you detect a user is viewing with Firefox.

If this is causing big problems, and/or the Firefox pdf.js viewer appears to be broken you could review the bugs list for changes and fixes, or even post a bug yourself.

John99, yes, you r correct. We are able to detect which browser & version are being used to view our sites. With that, we can show a message to ask our users turn off the ff's pdf viewer / disable pdf.js. However, the message means nothing here. The pdf viewer or pdf.js can be disabled already. We want to be able to read Firefox's pdf option in via JavaScript so that we can act accordingly at least (think 'noscript' tag).

TicketSource, as long as the "Portable Document Format" Content Type and other acrobat documents Content Type at 'applications' tab is not "Preview in Firefox", the pdf.js will not run.

Disable it please !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"But you should be able to detect which browser is being used to view your site."

My sites are simple static HTML code. I have no inclination to figure out to detect which browser is being used.

"You could post your own advice and/or links to our documentation if you detect a user is viewing with Firefox."

Where? People find my site via searches and enter directly to the various pages and PDFs.

This should never have been released the way it is.

The PDF viewer should be able to view pdf s that is what it is designed for. Please post a link to your sites and say what the problem is.

Consider filing a bug @ http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ if the viewer is not working and you are sure the pdf s are ok.

For those reading this and wanting guidence on disabling the built in PDF viewer:

In order to change the default reader for PDF files (to not open PDF files with Firefox's internal PDF reader), follow these steps:

1. Go to Tools > Options (or Firefox > Options).
2. In the Options window, select the Applications tab.
3. In the Search field, type PDF. You should find Portable Document Format (PDF).
4. On the right handside you should find an Action column. Use that to select your favorite PDF reader. In order to view PDF files in Firefox, choose Preview in Firefox.

John99, thanks you for your comments and its really appreciated. However, we are, in this post, at least until now, all aware that the ff's PDF viewer can be disabled manually. However, we are looking a method to detect the ff's "Portable Document File (PDF)" option setting programmatically. With that, please stop Let them eat cake. In fact, your " In order to view PDF files in Firefox, choose Preview in Firefox. ...." step will open the pdf with ff's build-in pdf viewer. If users want to view PDF files in Firefox properly, users need to select "user Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox)" instead. Most of us, in here, are really frustrated with the new ff's build-in pdf viewer already :)

This thread may well be viewed by users looking for assistance with disabling the built in viewer; that is why I thought it worthwhile to post the instructions.

I doubt it will be possible to detect the status of Firefox, but I do not know. I will ping Tyler by PM and I am sure he will give a definitive answer. (I do note this forum guesses Add-on information but that is from users who are logged in )

You say

 If users want to view PDF files in Firefox properly, users need to select "user Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox)" 

I disagree, the built in viewer should be designed to properly view pdf s and if it is failing a bug should be filed.

TYLER can you please help out with these answers.

John99, yes, you are correct; as you said "....the built in viewer should be designed to properly view pdf s..". Now, It is not. It fails to convert the pdf to html5 properly. In fact, a bug is filed https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=739043 at last year's march.

edit: fix url error

taolo's comment above is useful, but the hyperlink to the bug report doesn't work correctly, it points to http://example.com/

This link does work correctly: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=739043

In fact it has been pointed out to me that this may be a relevant bug that interested individuals may wish to vote for or add yourself to the cc list

• Bug 845740 - The web site should be able to suggest that Firefox not to use the built-in PDF viewer

However unless you are a developer or the bug owner please do not add unnecessary & superfluous me too comments to the bug itself

This is a new feature and there will be quite a few bugs filed relating to it.

Bugs relating to enhancements or changes are likely to have to wait their turn for developer attention but IMHO anything actually broken needs fixing now as a priority.

John99, I think you're still failing to see this from the point of either end users who use PDF documents, or webmaster who publish them. For either of them, what used to work doesn't any more; it fails suddenly and without explanation. Again, migration to any new feature with potential bugs in it should be by conscious opt-in, not imposed by surprise on unsuspecting users.

I set Firefox back to using a helper application to open .pdf files from Preferences > Applications > Portable Document Format menu.

Hi ricpasco,
I do see and understand the problem, however as I repeatedly say this forum is for answering simple user support questions.

Sorry I am unable to give an answer that you consider satisfactory, but this forum is not for discussing developers decisions or feature enhancements you need to discus that elsewhere.

If something such as the current pdf viewer is considered broken file a bug. There is no point in complaining here because nothing can be done other than offering suggestions for users.

As for programmatically detecting what Firefox is doing I have already posted information, and we await any further information that Tyler the user advocacy representative may add.

For the record, when I viewed the pdf file reported by the thread owner, http://www.tmcc.edu/financialaid/downloads/forms/1213/FINAConsortiumAgree1213.pdf ....I got an infobar alert with the message,
This PDF document might not be displayed correctly
and a button, [Open with Different Viewer] that let me open the pdf file with my installed Adobe Reader application.

For anyone else having problems with the built-in PDF viewer, you can set Firefox to take a different action with PDF files (e.g., opening in Adobe Reader or in the Adobe Acrobat plugin) from the Options window - Applications panel drop-down menu for Portable Document Format (PDF):

Ref: How to disable the built-in PDF viewer and use another viewer

I see http://www.tmcc.edu/financialaid/downloads/forms/1213/FINAConsortiumAgree1213.pdf ok with no error message in fx21

However OP was asking:

The problem that I found is that this viewer at its present time does NOT show fillable fields ina PDF, or let the user type into these fillable fields, or show the electronic print and instructions buttons we place at the top of most of our PDF "forms". .

Obviously not something the viewer supports, I guess the clue is in the name it is a viewer, not an editor.

John99, you were asking "when doesn't the built-in PDF viewer not work right? Well, here's one:

When viewing a PDF file in Firefox, "File / Save Page As..." often creates a file with a different name than original PDF. Sometimes it even adds an ".html" extension! In other cases, it picks out the title of an EPS figure embedded in the larger document. For example, when I view and save http://localhost/ban/banewsp2.pdf the file is not named banewsp2.pdf: as I would expect but rather "BANLOGO4.EPS - banewsp2.pdf".

You may want a publicly-accessible example, so I'll try to create one and post back.

Update
Initial target fx 22, but 6th Feb bug 738952 now verified fixed as far as fx20 (Beta3).

Hi richpasco,
The saved file type issue may be fixed in Fx 22 it looks as if it may be addressed in

• Bug 738952 - "Save as..." File menu entry or Ctrl+S produces unexpected results when having a PDF file opened within PDF Viewer

Are you able to try in fx22 Nightly please.

I wish they had left this as an addon or behind a pref so that it was off by default until it was much improved. Hopefully Tyler will jump in this week and comment on progress on these issues.

Unlike some subjects there does not seem to be a current meta-bug tracking the pdf-viewer issues.

This lists >100 issues, but not sure it is up-to-date, and may cover mainly legacy edge cases

• Bug 741051 - Tracking bug of PDF broken bugs in Github
  • https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/issues?labels=3-pdf-broken

If you see issues that are not already covered by bugs then try to get a suitable reduced testcase and Steps To Reproduce and file a bug.

Readers of this thread may be interested in looking at a related thread

• Is there an easy way to detect wether the new internal PDF-Viewer of Firefox is the primary PDF-Viewer or not.
  /questions/950082

Note that thread includes comments by Tyler from the Firefox User Advocacy team.

May also be interested in possibly voting on Bug 848690

1. In Firefox, click Tools at the top 2. Select Options 3. From the top icons, select Applications 4. Two columns – under Content Type, select Portable Document Format (PDF) 5. Under Action column, click arrow for drop down options – select Use Adobe Acrobat 7.0 (default) 6. Click OK

For Firefox 19 PDF issues: 1. In Firefox, click Tools at the top 2. Select Options 3. From the top icons, select Applications 4. Two columns – under Content Type, select Portable Document Format (PDF) 5. Under Action column, click arrow for drop down options – select Use Adobe Acrobat 7.0 (default) 6. Click OK

While coding JavaScript in the LiveCyle, I find a way to detect the ff's "Portable Document File (PDF)" option setting (sort of). If an user uses the built in PDF viewer, few js files (10n.js, pdf.js, debugger.js, viewer.js) exit in the ContentDocument's scripts collection (I display the pdf inside an iframe) and PDFView exists in the contentWindow. On the other hand, if an user uses the adobe acrobat plug-in, those js files do not exist in the ContentDocument's scripts collection and PDFView does not exist in the contentWindow. With that, maybe check the Element's ContentDocument scripts collection / PDFVIEW and act accordingly.

Please try it and let me know your result :)

edit: add the PDFVIEW

Update, some progress,

Initial target for this fx 22,
but 6th Feb bug 738952 now verified fixed as far as fx20 (Beta3).

Hi richpasco,

The saved file type issue may be fixed in Fx 22 it looks as if it may be addressed in

   Bug 738952 - "Save as..." File menu entry or Ctrl+S produces unexpected results when having a PDF file opened within PDF Viewer 

Are you able to try in fx22 Nightly please. 

(from above /questions/950946?page=3#answer-413493 )

Also
{and again a comment of more use to ordinary users (who may be averse to testing early versions and unlikly to run multiple versions)}
having said that web may even consider utillising the add-ons; for testing, or as site advice to endusers.

Note:
the reader is available as an add-on, and that the add-on may be more up-to-date than ordinary Firefox releases.

The latest version of the PDF vieawer is available as an extension and does a better job than the 0.6.143 version shipped with Firefox 19 in a lot of cases.

You can find the latest version of the PDF Viewer (pdfjs) extension here:

*   PDF Viewer: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/pdfjs/  

(from /questions/951638#answer-415136 )

I am looking for sites that do NOT trigger a Firefox info bar warning Possibly some of you are able to give a hand in collecting some examples.

If anyone does understand what is going on and may post a reduced test-case or test page that triggers this it would be great.

Those of you having problems with use of the Firefox built-in pdf viewer on your own or other websites

• does Firefox (when using pdf viewer) display a Yellow Infobar at the top of the page suggesting to use an alternative viewer ?
• if not are you able to
  • post the website address and a specific example
  • say whether you are, or are in contact with the siteowner/developer
  • state the OS used, and ideally test each site in Windows, Mac & Linux
    Maybe if you have a suitable OS available you could test untested sites that may be posted in this thread.

You will obviously be interested in your own or your favourite sites, but if you are aware of important heavy use sites having problems that may be interesting to know also.

I understand the IRS site was reported as a problem at one time

• this though works for me
  http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1.pdf
• as does an example from the UK equivalent department (& IIRC that had problems previously)
  http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/worksheets/2010/sa103s-notes.

The two above may not be examples of problematic pdf forms of course.

I am finding some sites where pdf failure from Linux is not triggering an infobar, but at least that does not affect the majority of Firefox installs.

I am sure that a pdf with event can trigger the warning bar. Then, I do not know what trigger the warning message. https://support.cdn.mozilla.net/media/uploads/images/2013-03-11-09-41-06-437175.png

Taolo, in my recent experience as a pdf developer, the message you are seeing that starts with "Please wait..." is I believe due to the pdf you are trying to view is an XFA pdf (dynamic pdf) which pdf.js is not capable of rendering. These types of pdfs are different from the standard acroform fill in types of forms in that they are created with LiveCycle Designer or any other software that is capable of creating XFA pdfs.

The bug about the info bar not displaying on Linux has now been re-opened. A small step in the right direction.

So, I seem to have found a workaround for the problem where the new Firefox built-in PDF viewer does not display PDF documents properly, that does not require your end-users to change their Firefox configurations.

NOTE: This workaround does not work with PDFs that are fillable forms. Also, obviously, the right solution is for Firefox to display all PDFs correctly without requiring a workaround. The suggestion below is just a stopgap measure.

I had a PDF file, from one of our contributors, that needed to be posted to our web site. When viewed in Firefox, the PDF file resulted in the dreaded message, "This PDF file might not be displayed correctly." And, indeed, it wasn't.

So, here's my workaround. I'm using Adobe Acrobat XI, but I imagine this trick would work with any version of Adobe Acrobat. I opened the PDF file in Acrobat. I then did a File | Save As to save the PDF file in TIFF format. This created one TIFF file for each one of the pages. Then, I used the feature in Acrobat to combine multiple files into a single PDF, to combine the multiple TIFF files into a single PDF. Finally, I saved that resulting PDF file.

NOTE: Newer versions of Acrobat will ask you, when you combine the TIFF files into a single PDF, if you would like to make the text in the file searchable, even though the pages are in TIFF (image) form. I answered Yes. At that point, Acrobat does an OCR pass (which works reasonably well) to identify the text in the new PDF file and make it searchable.

This resulting PDF file displays fine Firefox. This is kind of cheating, because it's really not a scaleable, full-featured PDF anymore. It's simply a PDF file that happens to consist of TIFF images that match the pages in the original PDF file. But for most users, they won't notice the difference. if you need a workaround in a hurry until this problem gets cleared up in Firefox, this seems to do the trick.

To disable and fully revert back to Adobe Reader you must follow these steps that worked for me and will also, work for you.

1. Go to about:config
2. Search pdf
3. Put pdfjs.disabled to True
4. There will be a file on that list with the string:

application/pdf,application/vnd.fdf,application/vnd.adobe.xdp+xml,application/vnd.adobe.xfdf

Double Click on the file and remove the string; leave it blank and restart firefox. It should now work.

rforgaard,

Thanks for that. I like the fact that you are trying to address the Original Post question, and suggesting a workaround for Websites.

Steve3743

This alternative method:

• How to disable the built-in PDF viewer and use another viewer

does not require the user to play around with about.config so avoids the dragons :-D (or warranty) warning !!

Whilst adding links, and because this is a long thread that many will read, but only partially I will also link:

• Use the Adobe Reader plugin to view or download PDF files
• View PDF files in Firefox without downloading them
• How do I read PDFs saved in Firefox for Android?

john99: Your solution worked great. I followed the instructions in How to disable the built-in PDF viewer and use another viewer that you suggested, and I can now view PDF files (and even fill-in PDF forms) right inside Firefox again. Please disregard my workaround that appears earlier on this thread. Many thanks!

That method failed to work for me, so I had to figure out another way of fixing this problem.

Pdf viewer? is there any differences between the Pdf tool I found online and the one you mentioned?

arronlee, who is the "you" to whom you addressed your question? If you're asking whether there is any difference between the Yiigo .NET PDF Plugin and Adobe Reader, then yes, there is plenty of difference.

Yes, I refered to the nomal one. Recently, I'm studying about the SDKs, and I do think this is a good place.

Regards, Arron