Chrome PDF Reader sucks, here is how to turn it off

For a while now, Google has included built in PDF rendering capabilities within the Chrome Browser. I never liked this because while it is lightweight, it is missing many features that a real PDF reader should have. E.g.: You can’t rotate PDF files while viewing them, the printing options are far limited compared to Acrobat Reader, etc.

Today after filling in a 6 page PDF form from within Chrome’s PDF viewer, I saved the PDF file to my desktop with the intention of emailing in the completed form. It was then that I found that Chrome’s PDF handling does not save the contents of any editable fields with the saved PDF. LAST STRAW!

Here is how to disable Chrome’s crappy PDF handling:

• Go to your plugins configuration page at chrome://plugins (Copy/paste chrome://plugins into your address bar)
• Scroll down to “Chrome PDF Viewer” and click “Disable”
• Restart Chrome and enjoy PDF files like they are supposed to be

Google has made this terrible PDF solution because they feel that they know best. They think that users should choose a lack of features over having to keep their PDF reader software up to date themselves. I disagree.