Imagine you are a scriptwriter. You have your WordPress site. You are excited about your next project and want to promote your new story or make it visible for potential buyers via your website. As expected your whole film script is in PDF format. Isn’t it? Making it not so reader or printer-friendly.
Are you wondering why doesn’t WordPress have a PDF viewer?
Right!
Well, you are in luck because all you got to do is download a PDF viewer plugin and Voila. Your website is now ready to support PDF files.
What’s a PDF Viewer Plugin?
What PDF viewer does is it embeds a full WordPress PDF viewer into a WordPress page. Unlocking downloading, zooming, notes taking, reading and printing abilities of PDF files on your WordPress website.
This way your readers, visitors or potential customers can flip through the pages of your PDF file like a real document.
The Best WordPress PDF Viewers
PDF Viewer for WordPress
For just a one time payment of $17, you can access the majority of features offered by this WordPress PDF viewer. It is one of the most powerful and feature-rich viewer plugin on the market. Your PDF files will get displayed very nicely on each divide because it is fully responsive. Its quick embed function supports unlimited PDF files and sizes so no worries for even a newbie.
What we Love
- Can be translated into 100 languages.
- Tracking how many people read and download your PDFs is possible because it connects with Google Analytics.
- Supports Bookmarks and Links in the documents.
- Some of the best support and documentation in this niche.
What we don’t
- No tools for securing your PDFs.
- Expensive if you wanna buy the full functionality offered by this PDF Viewer plugin.
PDF Embedder
This free plugin has been around for some time now and is one of the cleanest ways to present PDFs on your website. The free version has enough features that you’ll need, like a quick upload button, PDF embed function and your regular navigation buttons. And when you decide that you need features like mobile-friendliness, a fullscreen button and page jump technology you can get the premium version of PDF Embedder.
What we Love
- Uploading PDF takes one click.
- PDF takes the size of the screen.
- PDF screen dimensions are manually adjustable.
- Premium version has only one small-time payment.
What we don’t
- The free version doesn’t secure any of your content. You can upgrade to the premium version and solve this problem.
- Page flip buttons are oddly located and small in size.
PDF.js Viewer Shortcode
While the name of this plugin could have been better. The user side displaying your PDF is beautiful and certainly one of the best. It has an elegant gray theme frame with a document outline which allows you to jump between pages. All this and it’s still free.
What we Love
- Users can easily scan through content on each page.
- One of the few Free PDF viewers with customizable buttons.
- PDFs can be password protected.
- A large document doesn’t completely show up until specific pages are navigated to. This keeps your site loading speed fast.
What we Don’t
- Internet Explorer users have reported issues when viewing PDFs.
- Problems with conflicting security and caching plugins.
Flowpaper
This free WordPress PDF viewer looks nice on the outside but with complicated back-end controls. If you are an advanced developer who wants a beautiful and Free PDF viewer plugin, this one is for you. While beginners might get tripped by the code customizations and storage limits of this plugin.
What we Love
- Has three modes of uploading PDFs online. One is hosting pdf somewhere else and pasting the link. Another lets you upload directly to WordPress. Third, you can upload the PDF to the Flowpaper cloud.
What we Don’t
- 15MB limit if not hosting on Flowpaper cloud.
- Doesn’t support all browsers and devices. There are simple ways of fixing this.
- All customization must be done via editing the code.
Know more
WP Booklet
WP Booklet uses flip animations and page pop-ups to mimic the reading experience of a magazine in real life. The plugin focuses on refined magazine-styled display. It is free and feels like a lite version of Real 3D FlipBook. It also supports images, hence making a photo flipbook is possible. To get you started the plugin comes with some pre-designed templates.
What we Love
- Templates are a handy tool for beginners.
- You can upload both PDFs and images in bulk.
- Page thumbnails provide better navigation around the document.
What we Don’t
- Changing style of your flipbook is a pain. Requiring site files access.
- Some users reported that Upload PDF doesn’t show up for them.
- Not the prettiest display.
Final Words
Remember your WordPress PDF viewer plugin decision depends entirely on what your situation is. The list has a lot of free plugins and a few inexpensive premium ones. We recommend you give them a try to see which one works the best for you. If you still have any queries, get in touch with us or leave a commend. And we will make sure to help you further.
