Free Online PDF Viewer

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It's the only PDF file you'll ever need to open, so why download Adobe's PDF viewer? That's the motto the folks at samurajdata had when creating their online PDF reader.

It's as simple as it gets. Either enter in the web address of the PDF, or upload it to their servers from your computer. Their software will then present your document in a viewable form in your web browser. There are only a few options you have to manipulate the PDF, and those include zoom, tilt, and page next. I said it was simple right?

The best part about the whole thing is it's free. Not only is it free, it's open source. You can visit their main page for the latest version of their source code.

I downloaded the source code for it. It appears to be quite simple, utilizing linux shell scripts to decode the PDF. However, this presents a two downsides. One being the fact that it requires a linux server and the other being it requires a MySql database.

Overall it appears to be a highly useful script. If they actually do some of the things in their To Dos it will have a much greater value. Current it's limited to only 256 colors, and the user interface is extremely basic. A great feature would include the ability to edit the PDFs and download the new version.

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