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Author Topic: Safari does not open .pdf file.  (Read 6783 times)

Offline jb

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« on: April 18, 2012, 04:04:19 PM »
iMac Intel i3 21.5" OS 10.6.8

With Safari 5.1.5, why is it that I get a blank black page when the page is a .pdf file?
Safari used to open .pdf file OK. I don't know why it does'nt anymore.

With Firefox 3.6.8, the .pdf file opens OK.

jb
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2012, 04:20:22 PM »
I believe you need a plugin for that. I think you can access that plugin from Adobe Acrobat or Reader (neither of which I have installed). You can probably also download the plugin from Adobe.
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Offline jchuzi

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2012, 05:19:01 PM »
I don't believe that you should need a plugin, contrary to Jim's advice. Safari (supposedly) has the ability to open PDFs without any extras. Can you post a link so that we can confirm the problem?

Also, you might try PDF Browser Plugin in the (not terribly unlikely) event that I'm wrong. For the record, I used to use that plugin in previous versions of Safari but haven't felt the need because Safari seems to handle PDFs just fine without it.
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Offline jb

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2012, 07:18:15 PM »
PDF Browser Plugin did not help. The link is here
Here is a picture.

[attachment=2553:Safari_pdf_.jpg]

jb
« Last Edit: April 18, 2012, 10:26:40 PM by Paddy »
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2012, 09:12:07 PM »
Well, your screen is the same as mine, but the link doesn't do anything except to open an OpenDNS site allowing one to actually enter a url. I have not used/installed any Adobe Plugin as I don't care to use their Reader nor pay for Acrobat. Many have asked how to get Preview to open a PDF when their version of Safari keeps using Adobe Reader. I don't view a PDF in Safari ever, although I often download them for viewing in Preview. There are other posts, from a couple of years ago complaining about Safari no longer being able to view PDFs as it did when the poster was using Tiger, etc. If Safari is supposed to display PDFs I don't know how to make it do it. dntknw.gif

According to this link, Apple seeded a version of Safari (5.1.2) to developers that was supposed to display PDFs some months ago. I have reinstalled Default Apps and it has both "pdf" and "PDF" shown as opened by Preview. I will change the "pdf" to Safari, quit and restart it and see if that forces it to show a PDF. dntknw.gif
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THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #5 on: April 18, 2012, 09:18:35 PM »
Safari Help claims that when a PDF is displayed in Safari a 'toolbar' will appear near the bottom, center of the window, probably similar to the QuickTime player controls. It does not appear on my black screen, nor did changing the app that handles "pdf" in RCDefaultApp 2.0.1. I had removed that from my System Prefs since it only runs in 32bit mode.

There is a <seven page discussion> on Apple's Forums listing about six ways people have suggested getting PDFs to be viewed in Safari. Works for some, not for others. But the last post is quite old, Dec. 2011. OK, the actual last post is this month, but it doesn't really say anything useful.

According to this <MacWorld article>, Safari 5.1.2 was to have improved PDF viewing.

I guess my point is that this is not an isolated or even recent problem. I just haven't bothered trying to fix it on my machine.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2012, 09:34:41 PM by Xairbusdriver »
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #6 on: April 18, 2012, 09:43:49 PM »
Perhaps you could share a link to a page/site or two that have a PDF available for viewing. The only one I have a recent history on is basically a site that expects you to download the PDFs.

BTW, changing the "defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitOmitPDFSupport -bool false" value from "falls" to "true" made no difference, either. All the changes I have made have included Quitting and Restarting Safari, BTW. dntknw.gif

So, Jon, what, if any files do you have in your ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/? All I have is one for Picasa. However, in Library/Internet Plug-Ins, there are several including one for QuickTime.
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THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
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CAUTION! Childhood vaccinations cause adults! :yes:

Offline Paddy

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #7 on: April 18, 2012, 10:08:39 PM »
Jim, I've never had a problem viewing PDFs in Safari. If you look at Safari->Help->Installed Plug-ins, what do you see?

The last one in my list is WebKit built-in PDF. I didn't put it there - it came with Safari. It's there on both my 10.6 and my 10.7 machines, latest version of Safari on both.

Recently, I decided to add PDF Browser Plugin for Firefox - which, because it installs in the Internet Plug-Ins file, works for all browsers, and overrides the Safari/webkit one. The only annoyance there is that it requires me to click on the screen for it to display in Safari - I'm not sure why. (I may try removing the webkit plugin to see if that solves the problem) It works fine in Firefox, and Chrome, once I disabled Chrome's built-in PDF viewer. PDF Plugin has more options/better display.
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Offline Paddy

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #8 on: April 18, 2012, 10:31:35 PM »
First off, I fixed your link, JB. wink.gif

And I had no issues viewing the PDF in Safari - other than the continuing wacky behaviour where it refuses to show without clicking on the page (which does have "PDF Browser Plugin 2.4.4" in dark gray on a lighter gray background). It seems the built-in Webkit version of the PDF plugin is not something that can be removed - it's not in any of the usual spots (Library->Internet Plugins in either the user or the root level). Oh well.

Aha...more hunting around and I found a built-in PDF viewer for Firefox ONLY, which leaves my Safari and Chrome built-in PDF viewers alone (which I do prefer, given the nuisance that the PDF Browser Plugin has created in Safari) I'll give up the page numbering and other options for the speed/ease of the built-in versions.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pdfjs/ Works fine - just don't forget to restart FF after you install it (or it may crash, as mine did)

JB, what do you see when you look in Safari->Help->Installed Plugins? Are both the Webkit PDF viewer and the PDF Browser Plugin 2.4.4 there? What other plugins do you have? (Take screen shot and post here - that's the easiest)
« Last Edit: April 18, 2012, 10:44:19 PM by Paddy »
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Offline Paddy

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #9 on: April 18, 2012, 10:50:33 PM »
Ah...went back and read your first post to see if I missed anything. Try removing the Adobe PDF plugin from your Internet Plugins folder in the main Library (stick it in the disabled plugins folder) - then restart Safari and see if PDFs now work. Also move the PDF Browser Plugin AND the QT plugin to that folder. Some posting on Apple's forums found that fixed things. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/319868...45&tstart=0

If it works after doing that, you'll need to find a different solution for Firefox - I'd suggest the add-on I linked to above. smile.gif Then you should have the ability to view PDFs in all 3 major browsers. smile.gif
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Offline jchuzi

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #10 on: April 19, 2012, 05:16:51 AM »
I had no problem opening that link in Safari. As to the black screen, I seem to recall that you must quit Safari before installing PDF Browser Plugin in order to avoid this behavior. If you have already installed the plugin, quit Safari and relaunch it before trying it again (that works also).
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Jon

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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #11 on: April 19, 2012, 07:21:29 AM »
QUOTE
Safari->Help->Installed Plug-ins, what do you see?
Flip4Mac Windows Media Plugin 2.3.8
Java Applet Plug-in
Picasa
QuickTime Plug-in 7.7.1
Shockwave Flash
Speed Download Plugin
None of those indicate any PDF mime-type or file extension capabilities.

First thing this morning, I installed Adobe Reader. Checking its prefs I found a couple of places where it changes the default PDF operations to Reader:
[attachment=2554:Adobe_Re...Snapz002.gif]

As you can see, it is now disabled. It is still inactive, un-clickable, just as it was before I removed the two Adobe Plug-Ins. Removing those plug-Ins was the only way I could find to change the default back to "normal". BTW, I am operating as the Administrator in this account.

I Quit Safari before removing the Plug-Ins and did not check the "Installed Plug-Ins list before doing that. However, before removing them, I was able to view a PDF in Safari. Therefore, I know that plug-in works. After removing them and restarting Safari, I was not able to view that same PDF (just the 'normal' black screen). The list of mime-types and extensions is quite long, perhaps I can get each Plug_in's list in a separate screenshot. dntknw.gif

QUOTE
As to the black screen, I seem to recall that you must quit Safari before installing PDF Browser Plugin in order to avoid this behavior.
Jon, I assume you are talking about the Plug-In that Paddy mentions?
QUOTE
move the PDF Browser Plugin AND the QT plugin to that folder. [Emphasis added]
But I'm confused about even the need to install a PDF Plug-In for Safari, since everyone else claims it can view PDFs without any. dntknw.gif
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #12 on: April 19, 2012, 07:56:47 AM »
Plug Ins listing:
[attachment=2555:Plug_In_...Download.gif]
Speed Download Plugin

[attachment=2556:Plug_Ins_Flip4Mac.gif]
Flip4Mac Windows Media Plugin 2.3.8

[attachment=2557:Plug_Ins_Multiple.gif]
Java Applet Plug-in, Picasa, Shockwave Flash

[attachment=2558:Plug_Ins_QT.gif]
QuickTime Plug-in 7.7.1
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THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system
CAUTION! Childhood vaccinations cause adults! :yes:

Offline Paddy

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #13 on: April 19, 2012, 08:11:16 AM »
Jim, try putting Speed Downloader in the disabled plugins folder. Methinks it's hijacking your PDFs, which is why you don't see them in the browser. It would seem that any plugin overrides the built-in viewer in Safari. (Look at the list of files it handles again - PDF is in there)

BTW - I'm rather confused as to the sequence of events with your Adobe plugin. If it's disabled, it shouldn't be working. If you're using Safari 5.1, it won't work, according to Adobe. http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/multi/s...ble-reader.html
« Last Edit: April 19, 2012, 08:23:51 AM by Paddy »
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Offline jchuzi

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Safari does not open .pdf file.
« Reply #14 on: April 19, 2012, 08:14:43 AM »
QUOTE(Xairbusdriver)
Jon, I assume you are talking about the Plug-In that Paddy mentions?
I specifically meant the PDF Browser Plugin (link provided in my first post in this thread).
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Jon

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