Firefox PDF reader passes 'pixel-perfect' test

From CNET News.com: Mozilla programmers have achieved a goal to build a PDF reader out of Web programming technology, the "pixel-perfect" rendering of a particular file.

The file, a research paper on fast execution of JavaScript (PDF), contains formatted text, graphics, tables, and graphical diagrams. With the high-quality rendering, programmers Andreas Gal and Chris Jones declared the pdf.js mature enough to warrant the 0.2 version number yesterday.

The pdf.js project, introduced to the world in June, uses JavaScript and HTML5's Canvas For to process and display the file. Version 0.2 adds a better user interface, support for TrueType fonts, improved graphics abilities, and more. For a look at how the Web-based tool performs, you can read the JavaScript paper with pdf.js online, too. It works with Firefox in my tests, but other browsers aren't supported--yet.

"We intend pdf.js to work in all HTML5-compliant browsers. And that, by definition, means pdf.js should work equally well on all operating systems that those browsers run on," but right now it requires a nightly build of Firefox, the programmers said. "The [PDF research] paper is rendered less well on other platforms and in older Firefoxen, and even worse in other browsers. But such is life on the bleeding edge of the Web platform."

The Mozilla plan is to include the software within Firefox itself. "We would love to see it embedded in other browsers or Web applications; because it's written only in standards-compliant web technologies, the code will run in any compliant browser," the programmers added.

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