August 21, 2010

Google Chrome's PDF Plugin Uses Foxit Software

Google Chrome's built-in PDF plugin uses Foxit PDF SDK. As you can see from this page, there are many references to Foxit's SDK, which is a proprietary set of tools that allow applications to read or modify PDF files.


"With the incredible small size (less than 2MB) and amazingly fast speed, Foxit PDF SDK (DLL) 2.0 is your absolute choice to develop your own PDF applications," suggests Foxit.

Google decided to include two of the most popular plugins (Flash and PDF) in Google Chrome to make the browser more secure. The PDF plugin runs inside Chrome's sandbox so that vulnerabilities can no longer install malware on your computer. The Flash plugin is automatically updated by Google and it's likely that it will run inside Chrome's sandbox in the future. Google Chrome 5 already includes the Flash plugin, while the PDF plugin is available in Google Chrome 6 (dev, beta and soon in the stable channel).


{ Thanks, Tulchin. }

14 comments:

  1. the plugin is disable by default in chrome 6. chrome 7 will have it enable by default

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  2. i was looking for someone to confirm if the latest dev build pdf viewer is allowing zoom in/out. it does not allow at my end and has become a headache!

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  3. Will this mean the highlighting features of Foxit will come to chrome?

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  4. @Sushubh:

    Use keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl-/Ctrl+) or the small toolbar displayed at the bottom of the window.

    @David:

    Just because Google uses a software developed by Foxit doesn't mean that the plugin will have all the features from Foxit Reader. Most likely, it will only have basic features.

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  5. Glad to hear. I was feeling kind of silly using IE to read PDFs that I'd come across in Chrome. :(

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  6. But based on my experience, why the Built-in PDF Reader (Chrome PDF Viewer) is slower than Adobe PDF Reader Plug-in? Still in experimental phase, maybe

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  7. so in the nearest future stable version of Google Chrome will include the support of the both things developed by Adobe Systems which are Flash and PDF. but as to PDF Google decided to use alternative Foxit Software variant. its very interesting and i think good choice cause Foxit Reader is really better than Adobe Reader: more fast, more useful... and the most important reason is the security, isnt it?

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  8. Try out the pdf-xchange plugin. Awesome. http://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer

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  9. I tried to print a PDF that opened in this new plug in and got nothing. Had to resort to IE8 to open the document and print it. Is there some trick to getting things to print in this new iteration?

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  10. Use Ctrl+P to print. I just figured that out.

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  11. can someone verify:

    I can not view signed versions of pdfs with this.

    I was able to view signatures before.

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  12. For an engineer who uses 3D PDF's Chrome's reader sucks. It does not render the 3D models.

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