View PDFs in Chrome Web Browser

Overview

Google Chrome settings can allow PDF downloads or open in the browser. 

Getting Started

When Google Chrome is set to only download PDFs you may see the following error message when a webpage tries to show a PDF in the browser: "If you are unable to view file, you can download from here or download Adobe PDF reader to view the file". 

Set Chrome to Show PDFs

To enable Chrome's built-in PDF viewer, allowing you to view PDF files directly in the browser without downloading them, follow these instructions. 

1. Open Google Chrome on your computer.
2. Click on the three vertical dots (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser window.
3. Select "Settings" from the dropdown menu.
4. Select "Privacy and security" in the left-hand menu.
5. Select "Site settings".
6. Scroll down and Select "Additional content settings".
7. Select "PDF documents".
8. Select the option to "Open PDFs in Chrome".