Question

I have a very simple pure html file in which I have many PDF files. I have link it like this:

<a href="pdffile.pdf"> PDF 1 here </a>

When I click the link, the PDF file is downaloaded and viewed in the native Reader program. I want it to open in another window of the browser, and read it there, rather then saving a copy manually to my computer and opening it.

Answer 1

2018 Update

Almost all modern browsers have built-in PDF viewers. You can directly link to the PDF file and the browser will view it. You can also use an <iframe> if you want to view it inside an HTML page (e.g. with your website headers, etc.).

Another approach, but more complicated and not necessary except for very special circumstances, is to convert the PDF files to HTML (as described in #1 of the 2012 answer below).

Original Answer (Outdated, from 2012)

Viewing the PDF file in the browser (without download) requires an add-on to the client’s browser. Google Chrome, for example, has a built-in PDF viewer and can open files directly, while IE and Firefox require that you install a plug-in (the one that comes with Adobe Reader).

There are two other approaches:

1. Convert the file to HTML, image, or any other format that can be directly viewed in the browser. This conversion can be on-the-fly using a server-side (written in PHP, Python, ASP, whatever language), or you can just pre-convert all files to a readable one.

2. The other approach, which is the best, is to use a Flash-based PDF viewer (such as http://flexpaper.devaldi.com/). This is easy, flexible and doesn’t require writing server-side code. This approach is used by many Document-sharing sites (e.g. http://www.scribd.com/, http://www.slideshare.net/, http://www.docstoc.com/)