i prefer to let it download and just use a dedicated viewer, cuts down on the sluggishness as well.

Just amusing that after all these decades this is still not a solved problem. Why can’t the browser just translate the PDF into HTML and display it normally in a “virtual” webpage? Make it pdf:// or whatever.

Isn't that exactly what browser PDF viewers (e.g. PDF.js [0]) already do?

[0] https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/

iOS solved this in like version 3 (well more specifically, safari did). For all the bitching HN does about safari at least they managed to get pdf viewing right on mobile.

On android I have to use a firefox fork called iceraven to be able to install pdf.js extension to use mozilla's own pdf.js to load pdf's in my tabs. Afaik, there's no other way to do it.

I thought of making something like this once. Then I started to look into the PDF standards and realized it's one of those things that you're thinking, why has nobody done this? Then you start looking into it and you realize why nobody's done it. The task would be monstrously difficult if you want to cover all the things that can be in a PDF.

PDF is a beast. It's a ridiculous file format. There's a reason why even after all these years, reading PDFs still kinda sucks.

I mean, that sounds basically like what PDF.js is. It’s not static, though.