PDFs have long been the preferred way to format documents, especially those containing multiple images combined with text. PDFs in particular are common in the corporate world, and for good reason: PDF readers have a clean interface, documents themselves are digitally friendly and not easy to edit. PDFs are also widely used by media, education professionals, e-book publishers, and many other businesses and service providers.
You can host any type of file, including PDF, on your WordPress website, but you cannot show them to your visitors by default like you would with an image or video. You will need a plugin to do this, and we have a full list to choose from.
But would your website really benefit from a WordPress PDF viewer? Before we get into the list, let’s discuss some examples that warrant the use of a PDF viewing plugin.
Why Should You Use a WordPress PDF Viewer?
First of all, you can have a preformatted document, possibly a very large document. Why go to the trouble of reformatting your website if you can? show only on one page so your visitors can view it there? An overly long document may also look bad as a blog post, but it works fine if embedded.
Moreover, PDF is a secure format. It is much more difficult to regulate and can be made even more secure using passwords and other protections. Like this, if you don’t want your visitors to edit a document If you want to share with them, PDF is the way to go and a plugin is how you hand them over for easy viewing.
Tampering with a PDF is not only difficult – its content often invisible to search engines. So, if you run a WordPress website and want more control over how you distribute your content and prevent crawling and indexingWhile making it accessible to regular website users, you can’t do better than using a WordPress PDF viewer plugin.
With that in mind, the plugins we will be discussing are:
A free plugin you can use Integrate Mozilla’s open source PDF.js viewer, PDF.js Viewer The plugin is a great solution for Gutenberg users. It offers a very easy to use Gutenberg block that you can use to embed your PDF wherever you want. If you’re not a Gutenberg user though, that doesn’t mean you should still allow this plugin: it provides you with some really simple shortcodes that do the same thing. you get A fully functional PDF viewer in your own layoutComplete with easy page navigation, search, zoom and even a password protection for your PDFs.
PDF Embedder one free plugin does exactly what its name promises: it embeds PDFs on your pages. It uses Javascript instead of an iframe or third-party service so Lots of flexibility in sizing your PDF “window”. It is easy to set up and intuitive to use. However, while he does what he decides to do, he does nothing else. You do get some view options, but your website visitors will only have zoom controls and previous/next page controls, and hyperlinks in your PDFs won’t work. Fully functional with hyperlinks premium version Like the download button of the plugin, jump to page, download and view tracking and other useful options.
flow paper it is a free plugin Lets you embed your PDFs as flipbooks. It is easy to set up and use and comes with a few customization options that require some work on document shortcodes. You can change the upload title, switch between light and dark themes, Open your PDFs in a lightbox overlay, show only a single page of a document, change the way your documents’ title is displayed, and some other options. Although the plugin has one serious drawback: only supports PDFs up to 15 megabytes in size.
one bare bones attachment which will let you embed PDFs Embed PDF Viewer, especially if you are using the Gutenberg block editor. Simply install this free plugin, add a PDF block to your website and feed it to a PDF with a valid URL wherever it is online. it includes a download and a print buttonand does not require any settings on the admin side.
Real3D FlipBook one premium plugin this allows you to place and view your PDFs as an animated flipbook. It comes with tons of customization options, from theme (light or dark) and background options to UI colors, animation speed and sound options. add-on sport one Responsive design optimized for mobile devices, this is a great choice for you if most of your visitors are mobile users. The plugin supports page navigation, zooming, searching, working links and all the other functions you would expect from a premium PDF viewer.
A premium plugin, PDF Viewer for WordPress provides you a comprehensive solution for all your PDF embedding needs. You can set it for scrolling or as a flipbook and it sports. a wide range of controls Depending on the context you may want to enable for your visitors: zoom, navigate to page, find, rotate, share on social media, download, print… The plugin works by itself without the need for any third party software or service. . Fully responsive and tested Compatible with the latest versions of the most popular internet browsersprovide a good user experience for your visitors.
WordPress PDF Viewer and Embed Plugin one premium plugin it comes with all the features you would expect from an embed plugin. Tested to be compatible with all the most popular browsers, comes with size controls, is fully responsive and Allows a lot of control over the behavior of your visitors Regarding your PDFs. You can choose the start page, view the PDF in full screen, let your visitors share your PDFs on social media, download or print them whenever they want.
As a result
Now, all the plugins on this list have been tested to work with the latest versions of WordPress and they all embed PDFs, but which one is right for you? Here’s our take: If you’re on a tight budget and embedding PDFs isn’t your main concern, try a free plugin for size. If you like animations and don’t use documents larger than 15 megabytes, you can go as simple as possible with Embed PDF Viewer or Flowpaper. If you’re not afraid to use Mozilla’s technology to present your visitors with the documents they want, and there’s no pressing reason to do so, we’ve found PDF.js Viewer is packed with useful functions. If you’re more concerned with the number and type of features you get and can splurge for a premium add-on (which we recommend only if PDFs are an essential part of your content), we recommend giving Real3D FlipBook a try if you’d like. PDF Viewer for WordPress for animated features or the widest range of features.
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