Chrome and pdf viewing

Opened PDFs might have odd-looking text, missing images, or even laggy scrolling. These problems might be caused by an outdated Chrome version. While Chrome updates itself automatically, you can start an update manually. Follow these steps to do so:. If the opened PDFs are still looking odd, you might have to clear the browser's cached data and cookies.

Your web cache might be the reason Chrome has difficulties rendering PDFs, especially if the cache is corrupted. Note : This will delete all browser cookies. Make sure you know the login credentials for all the sites you are using. While hardware acceleration is a default feature for Chrome, stopping it might fix the rendering issues. While turning off hardware acceleration fixes the rendering problems, it might slow down performance when viewing web content.

It's a good idea to turn it back on after you complete your task involving the PDF. This might be the most common issue with Chrome's PDF viewer. And it's definitely the most annoying when you want to preview the PDF's content before downloading it.

Chrome comes with a built-in setting that will download PDFs instead of previewing them. This setting is generally disabled by default, but there is a chance you have unknowingly enabled it or a third-party app changed its status. To fix this, you need to disable PDF downloads. Here is how you can do it:. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods.

Related Articles. Method 1. Open Google Chrome on your computer. It's near the top-right corner of Chrome. Click Settings. Scroll down and click Advanced. It's at the bottom of the page. Scroll down and click Content settings. Scroll down and click PDF documents. It's near the bottom of the list. Method 2. Method 3. Click Apps. Click Default apps. It's in the left column.

Scroll down and click Choose default apps by file type. A list of file types will appear along the left side of the window, with each associated app on the right. Click the default PDF reader. For example, if it's currently set to Google Chrome, click Google Chrome. A list of apps that can read PDFs will appear. FYI, if you need a free data recovery program to recover lost or deleted files from computer and other storage devices, you can try MiniTool Power Data Recovery. Check them below.

This tutorial also offers some troubleshooting tips to help you troubleshoot Google Chrome PDF viewer not working issue. You can also use it to open PDF files in Firefox browser. Adobe Acrobat Reader, developed by Adobe Inc.