How to open and read a PDF without Adobe Reader
Last updated 27 September 2026
A work computer where you cannot install anything, a borrowed laptop, a Chromebook: you still need to read that PDF. Your browser can do it, and more than you might expect.
Open it
- Open Open a PDF and drop the file, or click the box to choose it.
- If it is locked, type its password. It is used on your computer only.
- Scroll through the pages, or click a small page picture on the left to jump to it.
What you can do while reading
Search with Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac): every match is marked. Show two pages side by side, like a book. Switch to night reading for a dark room. Have the text read aloud. Show slides on the whole screen. Print, copy the words of a page, or save a page as a picture from the More menu. The page you were on is remembered for next time.
Is the PDF safe to open?
The details panel lists what the file carries besides its pages: attached files, links to websites, forms and scripts. Links are never followed without asking you first, which protects you from a PDF that tries to send you to a fake login page.
A PDF with a video in it
The PDF readers built into Chrome, Edge and Firefox, and Preview on a Mac, cannot play a video inside a PDF. Open a PDF can: the video plays on its page, and a Download video button saves it. See How to keep the videos when you turn PowerPoint into a PDF.
Arabic text that copies backwards
If you copy Arabic from a PDF and the words come out backwards or broken, the file stored its letters in drawing order. Fix copied Arabic text gives you the text the right way round.