# Make PDF previews actually readable
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-pdf-previews-actually-readable/407601
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** pdf-previews
**Created:** [July 14, 2026, 4:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-pdf-previews-actually-readable/407601 "2026-07-14T16:36:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2026, 4:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-pdf-previews-actually-readable/407601/1 "2026-07-14T16:36:05Z")
Hi! :blob-wave-reverse:
I use this neat component quite often, at least once a week.
The main issue is that the embedded PDFs are most of the time unreadable by defaut because the preview size is so small.
Default:
After toggling off the page previews and clicking twice the “fit” button (that’s a lot of clicks):
Sure, it’s better, but still hardly readable. The height is so small (hardcoded at 500px but overridable), and the width isn’t the best too.
I get the component is called “PDF **Previews** ” yet, I’d like to be quickly able to actually read the PDF in good conditions.
I can click the link, but it will download the PDF, so it’s not what I’m looking for.
Currently the only way to quickly display the PDF in a readable state is clicking the print icon, which is not really intuitive:
Is it possible to simply have a “fullscreen” toggle to display the PDF preview in a larger popup, the same way it exists for tables and codeblocks?
I’d be so happy to see such a QoL change in this component. 🤗
---
### Author:  [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2026, 4:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-pdf-previews-actually-readable/407601/2 "2026-07-14T16:42:04Z")
> [@Canapin](#):
>
> I can click the link, but it will download the PDF, so it’s not what I’m looking for.
Uh. After searching for a bit on meta, I notice it shouldn’t:
> [@Make PDFs open directly (not via download) by default](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-pdfs-open-directly-not-via-download-by-default/388190/1):
>
> [allaboutcats.pdf](https://meta.discourse.org/uploads/short-url/kc7PBLn0YWV50qV2erkiGh7Frkb.pdf) (42.2 KB)
Clicking the link opens the PDF but on my instance, it downloads them. I don’t know why.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2026, 4:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-pdf-previews-actually-readable/407601/3 "2026-07-14T16:53:27Z")
I think there was a fix recently
> [@Regression - PDFs download initiated on click (should be open in new tab)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/regression-pdfs-download-initiated-on-click-should-be-open-in-new-tab/404910):
>
> Currently, I’m finding that clicking on the PDF link when a PDF preview is active currently attempts to download the PDF (undesired) instead of opening it in a new tab. This is with simple self-hosting (single container, no CDN, no S3, horizon theme). This whole thing was addressed back here: The reason why this is a problem is that a common user desire is to read an inline PDF in the entire window, as the iframe is quite restrictive. Download adds an unecessarily annoying step. And there is…
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### Author:  [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2026, 5:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-pdf-previews-actually-readable/407601/4 "2026-07-14T17:11:48Z")
Thank you for this information, I wasn’t aware of it. I updated, but my PDFs are still forcibly downloaded on click. 🤷
Whether they are opened or downloaded on click, the requested feature stays anyway: I’d like to be able to properly preview my PDFs in the context of a Discourse post. 😄
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### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2026, 5:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-pdf-previews-actually-readable/407601/5 "2026-07-14T17:16:41Z")
> [@Canapin](#):
>
> I updated, but my PDFs are still forcibly downloaded on click. 🤷
The fix in that other topic isn’t merged yet, so that’ll be why 😅
I reopened it for clarity
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2026, 6:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-pdf-previews-actually-readable/407601/6 "2026-07-14T18:20:16Z")
My expectation that the PR had been merged and this was fixed was based on the #fixed tag, not the fact that the topic was closed. I think the topic was also closed again before the fix was merged 🤷♀️
@Canapin it’s merged, so you might want to try.
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### Author:  [@Heliosurge](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Heliosurge)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2026, 7:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-pdf-previews-actually-readable/407601/7 "2026-07-14T19:49:32Z")
> [@Canapin](#):
>
> Thank you for this information, I wasn’t aware of it. I updated, but my PDFs are still forcibly downloaded on click
I switched to the plugin version
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### Author:  [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2026, 10:56pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-pdf-previews-actually-readable/407601/8 "2026-07-14T22:56:49Z")
> [@Moin](#):
>
> My expectation that the PR had been merged and this was fixed was based on the #fixed tag, not the fact that the topic was closed.
Yeah, I think that was my bad - I tagged it #fixed before it was merged (assuming it would be shortly). Sorry!
Delighted that it is sorted now.