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A few months after this was first shown on HN Chrome started shipping with a built-in pdf reader that looks exactly the same on both MacOS and Linux.

I always assumed it was pdf.js



No, Chrome has its own binary plugin. IIRC it is closed source and not available in Chromium.

Pdf.js is developed by Mozilla and now shipped with Firefox and it works quite well so far.


That's correct. I use Chromium on Arch Linux and it doesn't come with the proprietary pdf reader by default.


You said "by default" which is correct but just for the sake of completeness, the built in Chrome PDF reader can easily be added to Chromium on Arch using this package from the AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=44148

I've been using it for almost a year now without issue.


Me too! In fact, that's why I said "by default" :)

Similarly, Pepper Flash Player can also be integrated from AUR.


There is also a Google Chrome/Chromium extension also provided by the pdf.js team. (It's not in the webstore, though.)

I've used it since about half a year and I like it a lot. (Not having to download PDFs all the time and having PDFs in tabs alongside the sites I read.)


I agree. Separate windows for PDFs is terrible.

You can also separately download the proprietary PDF reader of Chrome and use it with Chromium. If you are using Arch Linux, it is available in the repositories.


I believe all the other replies to your comment to be incorrect.

Both Chrome and Android use the skia (http://code.google.com/p/skia/ ) library as far as i am aware (see http://code.google.com/searchframe#OAMlx_jo-ck/src/third_par... )


This is not a PDF reader but a graphics library.



That code is for drawing to a pdf.


I believe Chrome's pdf plugin is based on Foxit




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