# Why the warning about pdf files? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 5, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892 "2007-04-05T20:05:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/1 "2007-04-05T20:05:08Z")
Why do people frequently add a warning when they link to something that’s going to open as a pdf file? Is there something more risky about them? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/2 "2007-04-05T20:07:50Z")
Mostly because PDFs can take a long time to load (a leftover from dialup) and may be an issue to those using screen readers that can’t interpret the files. Also, some people may not have installed Adobe to read them. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/3 "2007-04-05T20:08:35Z")
It’s the size. PDF files can be quite large. If someone clicks on one, and doesn’t have a good internet connection, it can use up a lot of resources opening one PDF file. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/4 "2007-04-05T20:08:48Z")
Because some people use lousy browsers that, in their default configuration, lock up while the PDF file is loading - and don’t know how to change the settings so that is not the case. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/5 "2007-04-05T20:09:06Z")
[QUOTE=cher3] Why do people frequently add a warning when they link to something that’s going to open as a pdf file? Is there something more risky about them? [/QUOTE] I’ve used browsers that didn’t play nicely with Acrobat Reader, sometimes to the extent of locking up or crashing if I clicked a PDF link. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/6 "2007-04-05T20:16:29Z")
In the old days, which is kinda relative in the computer age, PDFs would launch Acrobat Reader which would slow down or crash peoples’ machines. Also, PDFs can sometimes be quite large and it’s nice to know whether you’re about to click on something which is going to download 20MBs to your hardrive. These days, I kinda wish people would also include a clue that their link is a Flash game or a YouTube video or something. I don’t always want to load those things when someone has simply posted, “heh heh, that reminds me of this,” and I end up loading something I didn’t care to. These days on the Mac anyway, PDFs are handled quite nicely by the Preview app, but I’d still like to know if I’m clicking on something large. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/7 "2007-04-05T20:19:12Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] In the old days, which is kinda relative in the computer age, PDFs would launch Acrobat Reader which would slow down or crash peoples’ machines. [/QUOTE] Not so old days. Some things still crash my Firefox, which will close without so much as a warning. I’ve yet to figure out what it is that crashes it since it shuts down before I can see what it didn’t like. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/8 "2007-04-05T20:33:20Z")
In addition to all the comments posted above, i feel obligated to provide a warning whenever i link to anything that is not a fairly basic web page. So, i would provide a warning if i were linking to a video file (avi, mpg, wmv, etc.), an audio file (ogg, mp3, wav, etc.), an office-type document (wpd, doc, xls, mdb, etc.) and a bunch of other files. I would even contemplate a warning if i linked to a large flash-based website that might take a long time to load over a slow connection. While increasing numbers of people have broadband connections, there are still plenty of folks on dial-up, and/or with older, less powerful computers. It’s easy to provide a warning about stuff that might cause these people problems or a long wait, so i think it’s polite to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/9 "2007-04-05T20:51:57Z")
I have a start of the art everything with a very fast cable connections and PDFs can still send things all to hell about once in every three tries. I can get them to load if I really want to but I don’t like them for superfluous reading. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/10 "2007-04-05T21:00:44Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] These days on the Mac anyway, PDFs are handled quite nicely by the Preview app, but I’d still like to know if I’m clicking on something large. [/QUOTE] I’ll have to look up my Safari preferences then. I still have PDF links launching the full Adobe Acrobat Pro software. Annoys me. Been too lazy to look up the preferences. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/11 "2007-04-05T21:12:27Z")
By the way, if anyone wants a PDF reader that is fast and uses far fewer system resources than Acrobat, might i suggest the free [Foxit Reader](http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php). ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/12 "2007-04-05T21:13:45Z")
[QUOTE=Swallowed My Cellphone] I’ll have to look up my Safari preferences then. I still have PDF links launching the full Adobe Acrobat Pro software. Annoys me. Been too lazy to look up the preferences. [/QUOTE] I’m not sure if you can set it via Safari’s preferences, but if you find a pdf on your hard drive do a “get info” or command+I on it and then choose “open with” and select the Preview app, and “use this application to open all documents like this.” No more Acrobat Reader seizing control of your browsing experience. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/13 "2007-04-05T21:27:59Z")
I swear, as I was reading this thread, I just heard my cubicle neighbour say in an exasperated voice, “Oh, it’s a .pdf, you gotta wait for it to load.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/14 "2007-04-05T23:16:48Z")
Another irritating PDF behavior- I swear that every time I open a .pdf file, the damn viewer needs to be updated again. How often does it really need to be updated? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/15 "2007-04-05T23:23:21Z")
[QUOTE=Lightnin’] Another irritating PDF behavior- I swear that every time I open a .pdf file, the damn viewer needs to be updated again. How often does it really need to be updated? [/QUOTE] Not more than about once every 30 minutes if you stay on top of things. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/16 "2007-04-06T00:34:24Z")
[QUOTE=mhendo] By the way, if anyone wants a PDF reader that is fast and uses far fewer system resources than Acrobat, might i suggest the free [Foxit Reader](http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php). [/QUOTE] Awesome. Goodbye Adobe! ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/17 "2007-04-06T00:44:18Z")
[QUOTE=ParentalAdvisory] Awesome. Goodbye Adobe! [/QUOTE] Seconded. I think I have a new hero. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/18 "2007-04-06T01:28:47Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] These days on the Mac anyway, PDFs are handled quite nicely by the Preview app, but I’d still like to know if I’m clicking on something large. [/QUOTE] And even better with [PDF Browser Plugin](http://www.schubert-it.com/pluginpdf/). ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/19 "2007-04-06T02:05:32Z")
[QUOTE=Absolute] Because some people use lousy browsers that, in their default configuration, lock up while the PDF file is loading - and don’t know how to change the settings so that is not the case. [/QUOTE] Or are not allowed to. I can’t even change my taskbar at work, let alone download anthing or change anything! ---
**Author:** ![Chasing\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/258eb7/32.png) [@Chasing\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chasing_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892/20 "2007-04-06T02:50:29Z")
[QUOTE=Pygmy Rugger] Seconded. I think I have a new hero. [/QUOTE] Hold off on the red underwear there. I have been using FoxIt and it has compatibility problems with Firefox. Namely, when you have FoxIt installed and you click on a pdf link in Firefox, all you get is a blank page. I have read about this bug on the FoxIt site, so its not just me. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-warning-about-pdf-files/398892.md?page=2)