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View GitHub PDFs in the browser, the easy way

View GitHub PDFs in the browser, the easy way

by bogdannbv·Aug 4, 2026·2 points·0 comments
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AI Analysis

●MidCozySolve My Problem

Simple domain hack for inline PDFs, but browser extensions already do this better.

Strengths
  • •Zero-config workflow: just edit the URL to switch from download to view mode.
  • •Solves a specific friction point for researchers reading GitHub-hosted specs.
Weaknesses
  • •GitHub already supports inline viewing via the 'Raw' button or '?raw=true' parameter.
  • •Browser extensions like 'Open in Browser' offer this functionality globally, not just for GitHub.
Target Audience

Developers reading documentation or specs hosted on GitHub

Similar To

GitHub Raw URLs · Open in Browser extension

Post Description

Recently I've had to find and read specs for some obscure protocols and found quite a few PDFs on GitHub scattered across multiple repos. The only problem was that in order to view and search them I had to download and re-open them in the browser's PDF viewer.

After a dozen or so PDFs it got really old so I decided to make this tool.

How it works is you prefix any GitHub URL that points to a PDF file with "pdf" so instead of:

"github.com/bogdannbv/pdfgithub.com/blob/main/example/file.pdf"

It becomes

"pdfgithub.com/bogdannbv/pdfgithub.com/blob/main/example/file.pdf"

Now you'll be able to view the PDF directly in your browser, no downloads, no extra steps.

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