# PDF embedding and reading help
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/pdf-embedding-and-reading-help/184981
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 31, 2021, 3:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/pdf-embedding-and-reading-help/184981 "2021-03-31T15:07:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@c12gene](https://meta.discourse.org/u/c12gene)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2021, 3:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/pdf-embedding-and-reading-help/184981/1 "2021-03-31T15:07:16Z")
Hi Guys, we are having trouble with a wordpress plugin that we use for protecting our premium research reports, which are in pdf format, so our backup plan is to embed them in our forum.
However, when I try adding the pdf file it simply uploads it as an attachment, which is no good.
Is there a way to embed a pdf, like I would an image? I wouldn’t expect people to download and open the pdf, much like I wouldn’t expect them to download and open an image.
Any guidance would be appreciated. This is a big deal for us, so a solution is needed. Happy to pay a developer or buy a plugin if this is not natively supported.
Gene
[forum.georgegammon.com](http://forum.georgegammon.com)
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/pdf-embedding-and-reading-help/184981/2 "2021-03-31T20:13:11Z")
Is the fact that the URL is hard to guess protection enough (you don’t care if someone could possibly share the link with someone and/or access it after their subscription ended?). If that’s important and you don’t want to use S3 and [Secure Media Uploads](https://meta.discourse.org/t/secure-media-uploads/meta/140017) and you’re self-hosted then I have a [$500 solution with some minor caveats](https://meta.discourse.org/t/secure-media-uploads/meta/140017/113).
If you just want the PDF to show up in the post, check out [Inline PDF Previews](https://meta.discourse.org/t/inline-pdf-previews/157649/)
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### Author:  [@c12gene](https://meta.discourse.org/u/c12gene)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2021, 10:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/pdf-embedding-and-reading-help/184981/3 "2021-03-31T22:02:46Z")
Hey @pfaffman , we pay discourse to manage our forum for us, so not self-hosted. Seems like any time I want to solve a problem this limitation rears its ugly head. Why does discourse make this so difficult?
Ideally, 100% secure pdf viewing is what I would strive. We don’t want people accessing our future content once their subscription expires. But content they paid to view is fine.
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2021, 1:01am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/pdf-embedding-and-reading-help/184981/4 "2021-04-01T01:01:13Z")
Unfortunately, secure media uploads is only available on our Enterprise plans due to the associated costs ☹
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2021, 1:29am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/pdf-embedding-and-reading-help/184981/6 "2021-04-01T01:29:13Z")
> [@c12gene](#):
>
> We don’t want people accessing our future content once their subscription expires. But content they paid to view is fine.
Then you don’t need to worry. If it’s in a protected category only those who are logged in can find the url. So just install the theme component and I think you’ll be ok.