How to Get Chrome’s PDF Viewer in SRWare Iron

If you are a fan of the Iron web browser and Chrome’s built in pdf viewer, you are in luck. For a while, I assumed there was no way to get Chrome’s pdf viewer to work in Iron. Turns out I was dead wrong. According to a commenter from my SRWare Iron post, it is as simple as copying and pasting a single file into Iron’s directory.

1. Since we need the pdf.dll file from Chrome, head on over to portableapps.com and download Google Chrome portable. (This is assuming you do not already have Chrome installed, if you do, then search for pdf.dll in Chrome’s installation directory)

2. Once it is installed/extracted, navigate into the Chrome portable folder and look for the pdf.dll file that we need. It should be under App > Chrome-bin > 19.0.1084.52 (or current version number).

3. Copy the pdf.dll and paste it into Iron’s main installation directory (which should be under Program Files > SRWare Iron, if you are using Windows).

4. Fire up Iron and navigate to chrome://plugins/ in the address bar.


5. Here you need to enable Chrome PDF Viewer, and disable any other pdf plugins you may have.

I have uploaded the pdf.dll file here, for Chrome version 19.0.1084.52. However, I highly recommend you get the latest version once this one becomes outdated, for security reasons. Now you can enjoy Chrome’s PDF Viewer alongside Iron – the best of both worlds.

Thanks Morrison!

Update: If you also want Chrome’s pdf print preview, then in addition to everything above, you also need to right click on the Iron program shortcut and go to Properties. In the Target field, append the following: --enable-print-preview. So it should end up looking something like this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\SRWare Iron\iron.exe" --enable-print-preview (NOTE the extra space right after the second quote).

19 comments

19 Comments


  1. PCbasics

    I have never heard of SRWare Iron... is that good?

  2. Really? It's been out for a while and it was even mentioned on dotTech. Check out my post then; there's a link above =)

  3. I did it and worked... But now is not working again... Shut down... Now working... 5 minutes later, not working... wtf?

  4. @Thiago: Did you try using the latest version of the pdf.dll? It's possible Google changed something in the code that rendered the old version useless.

  5. Sebastian

    Thanks a lot,

    I was searching exactly for this, I already searched for this in the past, but didn´t found the solution. Works fine now... Another step for more security at the client site...And it´s also pretty fast.

  6. @Sebastian: Glad you found it useful.

  7. Anonymous

    Thanks, I using version 21.0.12 and it enable antomaticly when I pasted pdf.dll :)

  8. Anonymous

    Hi, I'm using Iron 23.0.1300.0 (1700) and I copied pdf.dll from Chrome 23.0.1271.97 but it doesn't work...
    I verified that in chrome://plugins/ Chrome pdf Viewer is enabled...
    I cannot find in chrome://flags/ how to enable "Print Preview" ...

    when I try to print always comes out the printer standard menu and not the chrome one...
    thank you for support... :)

  9. Hi,
    same problem with Iron Version 24.0.1350.0 (176001)
    (the pdf.dll is the Chrome PDF Viewer v 1.0.0.1)...
    any help will be appreciated :)

  10. Hi,
    I solved launching Iron by this command line
    "C:\Program Files (x86)\SRWare Iron\iron.exe" --enable-print-preview

    It would be nice to have a way to enable print preview by default...
    (e.g. .ini or flag or whatever)
    it seems that in latest Chrome chrome://flags Print Preview has disappeared
    :)

  11. @maui: Thanks for your input. I did some research myself and it seems Google decided to remove the "Print Preview" option in chrome://flags/ since version 20.

    Edit: I have updated the post to include maui's suggestion.

  12. Anonymous

    Je cherchais depuis longtemps comment faire et tous les forums consultés, y compris celui de SRware n'apportaient aucune réponse. Je viens d'installer la dernière version de Iron ( 27, de juin 2013 ) ai suivi vos indications et ça fonctionne parfaitement.
    Bravo !

  13. Anonymous

    How to get pdfs to work as above for Mac OS 10.8.5?

  14. Thanks for the instructions! I have made instructions how to do it on Mac OSX:

    http://www.jonijunni.fi/2013/10/installing-pdf-support-to-srware-iron-on-mac/

  15. Anonymous

    Thanks for the instructions! I used it for Comodo Dragon and it works.

  16. I'm using Iron Portable 35. I followed the instructions and it seems to be working correctly.

    I'm very glad to get rid of the "Outdated Adobe Reader Plugin" warning every time I try to view a PDF.

    Thanks

  17. Appending things like --incognito and --enable-print-preview seems to work for everyone except me no matter how many times i re-install.

  18. Anonymous

    I have been using this workaround for years now, but for some reason, it has not been working with the last few versions of SRWare Iron. When I add the --enable-print-preview to the shortcut, Iron won't open anymore. I click and nothing happens. As soon as I remove the --enable-print-preview command, I click again and it opens perfectly... except that the print preview is still not working! Any thoughts on how to fix this? I tried with a few computers and different Windows versions (7, 8, 8.1, etc.). Thanks!

  19. Anonymous

    PS: It actually works if I add --enable-print-preview to the shortcut for chrome.exe in the srware iron folder instead of the shortcut for iron.exe...

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