Works perfectly fine for me in Firefox (I'm on 3.0.4 on Ubuntu).
Liza
· 12 months ago
This is just fantastic! Gmail wows me all the time
Tom
· 12 months ago
Works fine using Firefox here too.
Hans Peter
· 12 months ago
Foxit Reader is a must for handling PDF files on Windows. The speed, memory and disk usage of Acrobat Reader is a joke in comparison to Foxit (and the integrated pdf viewer in MacOS).
Chris
· 12 months ago
Wow, it works great and downloads faster and it is much better than any PDF viewer in Firefox or in Adobe.
glmaranto
· 12 months ago
Awesomely fast on Firefox for me, too. No more trying to figure out useful activities to do (12 tweets later) while adobe loads...and loads...and loads.
Arsen Yeremin
· 12 months ago
Now if I can only type over it and insert an image signature I would rest. To put it simply I want to edit the PDF online.
JP McGrail
· 12 months ago
Just a question here - why do you say that PDFs "eat up a lot of disk space when saved"? I mean, excluding purely photographic PDFs, which I suppose might run to 10 or 20 Mb, most textual PDFs are between 200k and 2.5 Mb. That's much smaller than the average MP3. Besides, average hard drives are now half a terabyte. I'm a researcher, and ALL of the PDFs I have run to less than 1 Gb, which is 1/500th of that average hard drive. I think what we're really talking about is that so-called "broadband" is not very broad. Download speeds suck in the US, especially compared with Finland or South Korea. You're probably tired of tapping your foot waiting for a PDF download, and want to see it right away. But it really isn't that large, in the grand scheme of things.
JP McGrail
Fernando
· 12 months ago
PDFs consume a lot disk space . . .They slow you machine down to a crawl? Wow, what exaggeration. That bit of flagrant use of poetic license aside, this product serves a good purpose.
abiola
· 12 months ago
[viddler_video=abb740]
Annet
· 12 months ago
TNX * Extensive collection of clean humor, funny pictures, movies and flash Videos http://funnyflux.com/
DanS
· 12 months ago
Nice indeed. Gmail rules
fragileheart
· 12 months ago
Haven't had a chance to try it myself, but its great news even if it only works sometimes
Michael jahn
· 12 months ago
It does indeed enable you to view a PDF file - but the color preview is a horrible 8 bit color image (like an ugly pict file or a indexed color gif, with all that dithering) - and worse, it does not honor transparency properly or effects that one might use in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop or Illustrator - it does not render the effects properly - so, thank, but no thanks - if I want to view a PDF, I still need Adobe Acrobat Reader
Ian
· 12 months ago
Maybe it leverages Google Gears and that's why some can get it to work and some not. Chrome has gears by default.
jimcarter
· 12 months ago
right on google. make things super convenient when people are using http://eco-safe.com and I can email pdf's to myself for searchable copies of blog posts. nice addition, indeed.
Cowicide
· 12 months ago
Yawn... been doing this for many years with Apple Mac OS X and the Apple Mail app. When I get PDF's I see them inline right in the email. When I drag and drop a pdf into an email I'm going to send, I also see the rendered PDF right in the email I'm composing. And, yes.. this has been working with gmail as well, since for years I've been using gmail with my Mail app (and without ads as well).
I'm glad you Windows people are so excited... but, I guess... Macs still suck, right??? Hahaha...
Michael jahn
· 12 months ago
Well, while I happen to agree that Quartz - the technology that is "display PDF" - is nice and convenient - there are several things I use with PDF files daily that Apples preview tool fails to display/render properly - if at all.
It is great that Google has enabled any gMail user on any platform to display a PDF - so, if I visit anyone, i do not need to bring my own laptop, i can just use anyones computer and log-in - and now, preview "most" of the PDF - and for that I am thankful !
Cowicide
· 11 months ago
> there are several things I use with PDF files daily that Apples > preview tool fails to display/render properly - if at all.
Like what? It never gives me any issues... at all. PDFs show right up for me and everyone else except you. Actually, Apple is the fastest PDF renderer on the planet as well. But.. once again, no matter what... Mac's suck. Hahaha...
Michael jahn
· 11 months ago
I would be happy to send you a PDF file that uses transparency and effects that Apple Preview and GMails viewer will not render properly - These effects are routinely used in Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop and Adone Illustrator by artist, photographers and designers to build the many Print ads you see in Magazines - as I work with software developers - who sell XTentions, Plug-ins applications, RIPs, image processing systems and workflow production solutions - for Mac and Wintel - this is a big problem, but honestly, for a very small group of people - MOST of which are on Macintosh.
So - send me a private email if you wish to mjahn@iqcolour.com, and I will send you a small PDF that contains a screen capture of how it "should" appear on the right and the PDF with transparency and effects on the left so you can test this for yourself. This is a known issue with Apples Quartz and Apple Preview - it is not a proper PDF viewer, nor is the technology used to view PDF files by Google - for people who need to see exactly how an ad will print with no surprises - people who work in Advertising adgencies, Design firms and for Magazine publishers, this is a critical flaw that would create a "what you see is NOT what you get" senario.
hope this helps, and yes, Mac are great, and if they made an 800 dollar laptop, everyone in my family would have one.
Michael Jahn IQColour PDF Color Conversion Specialist 1824 North Garvin Avenue Simi Valley California 93065 Office: (805) 527 8130 Cell: (805) 217 6741 Email: mjahn@iqcolour.com Skype: michaelejahn Twitter: http://twitter.com/michaelejahn
Cowicide
· 11 months ago
> this is a big problem, but honestly, for a very small group of people
This sentence is the key to what I'm saying. This affects very few people and any serious designer is already going to have Adobe Acrobat Professional or at least Adobe Acrobat Reader in those cases. Anyway, my point was that for most purposes Mac OS X with the Mail app has been doing this (showing inline PDFs) for many years. Out of curiosity, I sent you an email for the PDFs to see what you're talking about and I'll report back my results here.
Cowicide
· 11 months ago
I got your email and I got the same results. But, once again, I think we can agree those type of effects are not something your average person finds in an email and, in cases that they do, they are sure to have Adobe pro apps to deal with PDFs of this nature. But, I am glad that you are showing this to Apple, since it would be better for it to render it better! I was surprised to see your Gmail example was looking quite a bit more off than the Apple version, hopefully Google will get on that as well. I have a feeling the underlying problem is Adobe's proprietary source code.
I am very much looking forward to the day when open source apps completely take over everything.
Thank you for sending that email!
michael jahn
· 11 months ago
How Cowicide,
you wrote - "...I have a feeling the underlying problem is Adobe’s proprietary source code."
Not sure I know where to start...
1. PDF/X-4 is an ISO (International Standards Organization) file format. This is a publicly published specification. You can look this up by searching Google for "ISO 32000" - so, nothing "proprietary" about PDF files that contain these "effects" - and no licensing requirements to create one or process on (view or print) - the 'effects' that i used in the example PDF I sent you are simply operators, as common and renderable as "30% Cyan" color or "Times Roman 36 point" type.
2. File formats (like TIFF, JPEG, XPS or PDF) do not contain "source code". Like an HTML file, there are lines of code i guess, and like a browser can interpret them and display "source" - I guess you could call that source code, but - like HTML, PDF is a published specification.
3. Any third party (Apple, Google, Microsoft etc) can choose to interpret/parce/display a PDF properly - or not. I will describe 'properly' as following the ISO approved standard (version 1.7 of the PDF specification) - clearly - the Apple Preview application, and the technology Google is using to display PDF files in a window - well, they do not.
4. "Open Source" has little to do with any of this - any developer can choose to build an application on any platform to render a PDF file properly - many have using licensed Adoble technology - or using their own (Like Enfocus PitStop Extreme and many others) - any developer can use tools in the Mac or windows OS, or they can choose to ignore them and build their own.
I am not expert - nor claim to be, but I know that many claim to be able to display, import or print a PDF properly, but very few get it right - and this often causes frustration.
I do not work for Adobe - but hope Apple - where most of these high end PDF files are create - does step up and do a better job with Preview - Google, well, I really do not think anyone will be using an email application viewer (or expecting to) to approve a $120,000.00 ad for Time Warners Sport Illustrated.
Thanks for the exchange and keep using the Macintosh.
Hope this helps.
Cowicide
· 11 months ago
Adobe Reader is not an open source application and Adobe does not distribute the source code to it.
You can download, for free, the Acrobat SDK which will allow you to create both plugins for Acrobat and develop applications that will leverage Acrobat's features as long as the system has Acrobat installed on it.
If you want a develop a PDF-based application for systems that will NOT have Acrobat installed, you would need the PDF Library. This product is NOT free and requires a (rather significant) licensing fee paid to Adobe.
michael jahn
· 11 months ago
You do not need Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat Reader or anything from Adobe to generate, display, parse, edit or output PDF files.
You are correct in saying that one can license technology from Adobe, and you are correct in that you can license a PDFLib from Adobe - but many third party developers do not, and some of these solutions are Open Source projects - I have worked with - and currently work with - many developers who develop, market and sell PDF tools that do not license anything from Adobe, nor do they pay any fees to Adobe.
So, I guess I disagree with your last statement. There are many PDFLibs that can be purchase or licensed for reasonable fees - and free ones too.
It has been shared with me that the PDF creation facilities that Google offers in Google Docs (and GCal, etc.) is based on an old version of iText;
Google has not acknowledged nor offered any support to the authors of that library - so, as you can see, you can get PDFLibs for free too - and again - without paying Adobe anything.
Cowicide
· 11 months ago
Ah, I see. Thanks for the info. I stand corrected. Maybe you can answer this... if Google and Apple have full access to the proper code from Adobe, then why the rendering problems between them and Adobe Acrobat? Please explain.
David Russell
· 12 months ago
Would be more useful on my EeePC if it allowed resizing/removing the sidebar. As it stands, this is only usable on screens with enough horizontal real estate that they can probably run the Adobe Reader with no problems.
I'll second cowicide, sometimes I forget how the "other half" lives ;) With Safari, click on a PDF, and *bam* there it is. Or even Firefox, it'll download and open in Preview, *bam*. The problem isn't so much PDFs directly — for a lot of stuff, it's just as quick to load as a web page with the same amount of content — but Acrobat is a bloated POS, so if that's what you're using to view the documents, of course it's going to suck.
adyblain
· 12 months ago
Agree with Ethan TT.
As soon as I started to read your article, I knew you were using Windows. You should get your hands on Preview for a little while to see how quickly PDFs should open and perform. When I use Acrobat Reader at work sometimes, I want to smash the PC in front of me. It bites serious bag. Thank goodness for Firefox.
But either way, if gmail adapts PDF viewing and that makes life easier, great! They can add all the functions they want and I will still use Mail to get my gmails. Although, SMS sounds interesting... when it is available in Canada, that is.
Until then, God Speed to you Windows users. You're going to need it. ;)
Bob
· 12 months ago
What kind of crap computer are you running that a mere PDF slows it "down to a crawl" ?
In this day and age? Seriously?
halo
· 12 months ago
nemeses
Jasper
· 12 months ago
I first tried it with a file of 14MB.. I only could view it as a HTML. Later, I tried it with a 1,5MB file and that worked very well.. Seems like there is a limit of filesize you can open with Google's PDF viewer.
Johan
· 12 months ago
Worked fine for me in FF 2.0.0.18 & Ubuntu 7.10, and was almost as fast as using Evince.
Jack Clarke
· 11 months ago
I use Evince PDF viewer in Xubuntu and it's very fast but I can see why Adobe users might want an alternative. And having the option to view it in Gmail is nice.
Guillaume
· 11 months ago
Gamil rocks! They have added so many features recently, I am wondering why people are still using hotmail or yahoo. Do you any comparison table or anything with the other webmail providers??
Gadget Sleuth
· 11 months ago
Someone mentioned Foxit...yes! MUCH faster and better than Adobe Reader (especially 9, which is near unusable on one Vista laptop I have). Good news about GMail too, about time.
addictist
· 11 months ago
Foxit sucks. I dont know if you guys have ever tried Sumatra but I have been using it for about 2 weeks and its the lightest most beautifully rendering PDF reader I have found. This sure is a welcome sight though.
ghismo
· 11 months ago
Downloaded and installed Sumatra, not bad, but I'm back to Foxit reader, Foxit rocks ! Foxit can read document but also annotate, edit or create links inside of them.
Some comparison I made on my own PC : * Adobe Reader 8.1.2 : 128 MB * Adobe Reader Japanese Fonts : 20,96 MB
And for the very same purpose (and a little more) : * Foxit Reader : 5,45 MB * Sumatra PDF reader : 1.19 MB
Anyway, it's a good addition to gmail, for sure !
John.BB
· 11 months ago
What kind of crap computer are you running that a mere PDF slows it “down to a crawl†?
In this day and age? Seriously??
Travis McCrea
· 11 months ago
This is a great tool, I will now use this for those pesky pdf emails, luckly I still have http://www.pdfmenot.com for all other files. :)
imodotcom
· 11 months ago
ADOBE has wasted a great opportunity.
Adobe Reader had too big of a foot-print, and I am not a fan of too many Upgrades. Kudos to Google! - - - imoDotcom - - -
Frank
· 11 months ago
PDF files do not slow down your computer. Adobe Acrobat does that.
All Comments
The speed, memory and disk usage of Acrobat Reader is a joke in comparison to Foxit (and the integrated pdf viewer in MacOS).
I think what we're really talking about is that so-called "broadband" is not very broad. Download speeds suck in the US, especially compared with Finland or South Korea. You're probably tired of tapping your foot waiting for a PDF download, and want to see it right away. But it really isn't that large, in the grand scheme of things.
JP McGrail
*
Extensive collection of clean humor, funny pictures, movies and flash Videos
http://funnyflux.com/
I'm glad you Windows people are so excited... but, I guess... Macs still suck, right??? Hahaha...
It is great that Google has enabled any gMail user on any platform to display a PDF - so, if I visit anyone, i do not need to bring my own laptop, i can just use anyones computer and log-in - and now, preview "most" of the PDF - and for that I am thankful !
> preview tool fails to display/render properly - if at all.
Like what? It never gives me any issues... at all. PDFs show right up for me and everyone else except you. Actually, Apple is the fastest PDF renderer on the planet as well. But.. once again, no matter what... Mac's suck. Hahaha...
So - send me a private email if you wish to mjahn@iqcolour.com, and I will send you a small PDF that contains a screen capture of how it "should" appear on the right and the PDF with transparency and effects on the left so you can test this for yourself. This is a known issue with Apples Quartz and Apple Preview - it is not a proper PDF viewer, nor is the technology used to view PDF files by Google - for people who need to see exactly how an ad will print with no surprises - people who work in Advertising adgencies, Design firms and for Magazine publishers, this is a critical flaw that would create a "what you see is NOT what you get" senario.
hope this helps, and yes, Mac are great, and if they made an 800 dollar laptop, everyone in my family would have one.
Michael Jahn
IQColour
PDF Color Conversion Specialist
1824 North Garvin Avenue
Simi Valley
California 93065
Office: (805) 527 8130
Cell: (805) 217 6741
Email: mjahn@iqcolour.com
Skype: michaelejahn
Twitter: http://twitter.com/michaelejahn
This sentence is the key to what I'm saying. This affects very few people and any serious designer is already going to have Adobe Acrobat Professional or at least Adobe Acrobat Reader in those cases. Anyway, my point was that for most purposes Mac OS X with the Mail app has been doing this (showing inline PDFs) for many years. Out of curiosity, I sent you an email for the PDFs to see what you're talking about and I'll report back my results here.
I am very much looking forward to the day when open source apps completely take over everything.
Thank you for sending that email!
you wrote - "...I have a feeling the underlying problem is Adobe’s proprietary source code."
Not sure I know where to start...
1. PDF/X-4 is an ISO (International Standards Organization) file format. This is a publicly published specification. You can look this up by searching Google for "ISO 32000" - so, nothing "proprietary" about PDF files that contain these "effects" - and no licensing requirements to create one or process on (view or print) - the 'effects' that i used in the example PDF I sent you are simply operators, as common and renderable as "30% Cyan" color or "Times Roman 36 point" type.
2. File formats (like TIFF, JPEG, XPS or PDF) do not contain "source code". Like an HTML file, there are lines of code i guess, and like a browser can interpret them and display "source" - I guess you could call that source code, but - like HTML, PDF is a published specification.
3. Any third party (Apple, Google, Microsoft etc) can choose to interpret/parce/display a PDF properly - or not. I will describe 'properly' as following the ISO approved standard (version 1.7 of the PDF specification) - clearly - the Apple Preview application, and the technology Google is using to display PDF files in a window - well, they do not.
4. "Open Source" has little to do with any of this - any developer can choose to build an application on any platform to render a PDF file properly - many have using licensed Adoble technology - or using their own (Like Enfocus PitStop Extreme and many others) - any developer can use tools in the Mac or windows OS, or they can choose to ignore them and build their own.
I am not expert - nor claim to be, but I know that many claim to be able to display, import or print a PDF properly, but very few get it right - and this often causes frustration.
I do not work for Adobe - but hope Apple - where most of these high end PDF files are create - does step up and do a better job with Preview - Google, well, I really do not think anyone will be using an email application viewer (or expecting to) to approve a $120,000.00 ad for Time Warners Sport Illustrated.
Thanks for the exchange and keep using the Macintosh.
Hope this helps.
You can download, for free, the Acrobat SDK which will allow you to create both plugins for Acrobat and develop applications that will leverage Acrobat's features as long as the system has Acrobat installed on it.
If you want a develop a PDF-based application for systems that will NOT have Acrobat installed, you would need the PDF Library. This product is NOT free and requires a (rather significant) licensing fee paid to Adobe.
You are correct in saying that one can license technology from Adobe, and you are correct in that you can license a PDFLib from Adobe - but many third party developers do not, and some of these solutions are Open Source projects - I have worked with - and currently work with - many developers who develop, market and sell PDF tools that do not license anything from Adobe, nor do they pay any fees to Adobe.
So, I guess I disagree with your last statement. There are many PDFLibs that can be purchase or licensed for reasonable fees - and free ones too.
It has been shared with me that the PDF creation facilities that Google offers in Google Docs (and GCal, etc.) is based on an old version of iText;
http://www.lowagie.com/iText/
Google has not acknowledged nor offered any support to the authors of that library - so, as you can see, you can get PDFLibs for free too - and again - without paying Adobe anything.
**
Stereogrammes, Cross Eye 3D, Illusions, 3D Illusions, Optical Illusions, Magic Eye
http://stereogrammes.org/
With Safari, click on a PDF, and *bam* there it is. Or even Firefox, it'll download and open in Preview, *bam*.
The problem isn't so much PDFs directly — for a lot of stuff, it's just as quick to load as a web page with the same amount of content — but Acrobat is a bloated POS, so if that's what you're using to view the documents, of course it's going to suck.
As soon as I started to read your article, I knew you were using Windows. You should get your hands on Preview for a little while to see how quickly PDFs should open and perform. When I use Acrobat Reader at work sometimes, I want to smash the PC in front of me. It bites serious bag. Thank goodness for Firefox.
But either way, if gmail adapts PDF viewing and that makes life easier, great! They can add all the functions they want and I will still use Mail to get my gmails. Although, SMS sounds interesting... when it is available in Canada, that is.
Until then, God Speed to you Windows users. You're going to need it. ;)
In this day and age? Seriously?
Some comparison I made on my own PC :
* Adobe Reader 8.1.2 : 128 MB
* Adobe Reader Japanese Fonts : 20,96 MB
And for the very same purpose (and a little more) :
* Foxit Reader : 5,45 MB
* Sumatra PDF reader : 1.19 MB
Anyway, it's a good addition to gmail, for sure !
In this day and age? Seriously??
Adobe Reader had too big of a foot-print, and I am not a fan of too many Upgrades. Kudos to Google! - - - imoDotcom - - -