Google Chrome does present a thumbnail view, alongside standard zoom and layout options. This is probably because Apple encourages you to use Preview, and Safari provides a shortcut to open the current PDF with it. In particular, Safari does not show page thumbnails. However, there’s very little beyond this. Basic zoom functionality is also included. As with all the PDF readers presented, Safari offers single-page or dual-page views. They don’t even offer the most basic commenting or note-taking tools.Īs a Mac user, you’ll already have Safari installed, so it’s a reasonable default. The big difference you’ll notice between them is that, understandably, web browsers focus on viewing.
The main three macOS browsers all offer built-in PDF viewing and can open PDFs hosted online or from your local machine. Web browsers have advanced over the years, expanding on their remit. Our final recommendation is a little different.
