{"id":11579,"date":"2018-02-14T12:30:26","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T10:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/?p=11579"},"modified":"2023-03-18T22:38:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-18T20:38:15","slug":"display-pdf-in-wordpress-pdf-viewer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/display-pdf-in-wordpress-pdf-viewer\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Display PDF in WordPress – Your Own WordPress PDF Viewer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A PDF seems like a document format that should have been long gone years ago. Yet that’s not that case. Why? Because PDFs are widely accepted, easy to share, allow for excellent document formatting, and can even be\u00a0password protected<\/a>\u00a0so that no one steals or modifies the document. If you want to take advantage of those features and display PDF in WordPress, a WordPress PDF viewer is going to be your best option.<\/p>\n

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Think about restaurant menus<\/a>, course materials, and eBooks. It would be a nightmare trying to display these items as blog posts, or worse, Microsoft Word documents. There’s also internal corporate documents.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t \t\tHow to display \ud83d\udcbb a #PDF in #WordPress using @Scribd<\/a>\n\t\t \t<\/div>\n\t\t \t
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Many companies hold documents with proprietary information or sensitive customer data. You certainly wouldn’t publish these details in a less secure format like a webpage.<\/p>\n

\"example<\/p>\n

While it’s always possible to upload a PDF to WordPress and link to the file URL<\/a>, a WordPress PDF viewer provides a more user-friendly experience.<\/p>\n

With one, readers can view the PDF documents like they would on a Kindle, where they flip the pages, zoom in\/zoom out, and save the PDF to a computer if the security settings aren’t on.<\/p>\n

The market for WordPress PDF viewers is quite saturated, with many solutions to choose from. I tested the most popular ones and seemed to find a problem with each one. While I’ll still share a few of those plugins at the end, in my opinion, the most effective way to embed a PDF in WordPress is a service called Scribd.
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What’s Scribd and why is it the best WordPress PDF viewer? \ud83e\udd14<\/h2>\n

Scribd is a subscription service. It’s kind of like Netflix, but for books, documents, audiobooks, magazines, news, and sheet music.<\/p>\n

As a publisher, you can upload any content for free, even PDF documents. And you can also control exactly who can view these files.<\/p>\n

To make things easy, the WordPress block editor has a dedicated Scribd block that can support any PDF that you upload. In addition, Scribd itself makes it easy to display a PDF in WordPress, and, if desired, you also gain access to the large community of Scribd members looking for documents like yours.
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How to display PDF in WordPress \ud83d\udcbb<\/h2>\n

As mentioned, we’ll be using Scribd to display a PDF in WordPress. It’s not a WordPress plugin, but my thorough testing shows that it’s the easiest way to get your documents on WordPress, and it supports multiple PDFs on one page–whereas\u00a0most of the plugins failed in that respect.<\/p>\n

Here’s how to use it in four steps:<\/p>\n

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  1. Create a free Scribd account<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Upload a PDF document<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Generate the WordPress embed code<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Publish the WordPress PDF viewer<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    Step 1: Create a free Scribd account<\/h3>\n

    Start by going to the Scribd homepage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    You’ll notice a Read free for 30 days<\/strong> button, but that’s geared towards regular users who want to take full advantage of Scribd. That doesn’t apply to us. We’re here only to use the PDF viewer. So instead, we’ll click Sign in<\/strong> on the top right of the screen.<\/p>\n

    \"start<\/p>\n

    Once you click Sign in<\/strong>, the website will show you a popup to sign into an account. However, since you don’t have an account yet, you can’t actually sign in, so instead you’ll locate the link towards the bottom that reads New to Scribd? Sign Up<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    \"hit<\/p>\n

    Feel free to sign up with Facebook, Google, or with your personal information. You must also create a password for your account. Click on the Sign up<\/strong> button when you’re done.<\/p>\n

    \"sign<\/p>\n

    Your profile is now created without the need for any payment details.<\/strong> You won’t be able to read any books or listen to any audiobooks, but you’ll have the ability to upload documents. The upper right-hand corner of the page has a drop-down menu for your profile.<\/p>\n

    \"view
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    Step 2: Upload a PDF document<\/h3>\n

    To upload your PDF file, click on the Upload<\/strong> button in the top-right corner or find it on the drop down menu.<\/p>\n

    \"upload<\/p>\n

    Click on the Select Documents To Upload<\/strong> button. This brings up your local computer files, where you must select the PDF you’d like to upload.<\/p>\n

    \"select<\/p>\n

    Once the file is uploaded to Scribd, you fill in the document details. Things you’ll need to enter include:<\/p>\n