topic Re: Links pdf files and Mozilla Firefox in Discussions

Links pdf files and Mozilla Firefox

PMGrossholz — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 17:06:05 GMT

Dear friends,

it would be great that a pdf file opened within Firefox could be more usable.
For now, for example, if a pdf file is produced with Adobe In Design, I can't click the links. I see them but they are not clickable: why?
If I create a hybrid pdf with Libre Office I have no problems managing that file inside Mozilla Firefox.
Any ideas to solve the problem?
Thanks Paolo

Re: Links pdf files and Mozilla Firefox

marco — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 21:24:21 GMT

Could you share a PDF that shows this problem? This will allow us to debug.

Re: Links pdf files and Mozilla Firefox

PMGrossholz — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 11:28:51 GMT

Here I am 😊
I cannot upload a PDF file
I share it there: https://mega.nz/file/MMNQABwC#Ou_XuF9SZ5ROXpvde5JnMXm6f26ibIDoFSLV8yJt77E

Thanks a lot, Paolo

Re: Links pdf files and Mozilla Firefox

marco — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 12:51:34 GMT

The problem is that the links are not actually marked as links in the PDF, they are just plain text.

Ideally the PDF editor should explicitly mark them as links.

If you're creating these PDFs yourself, you can follow the guide at https://helpx.adobe.com/it/indesign/using/hyperlinks.html.

Anyway, in the future we will try to automatically detect such text that is supposed to be a link and linkify it anyway even if it is not marked as a link.

Re: Links pdf files and Mozilla Firefox

PMGrossholz — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 13:09:13 GMT

Thanks a lot for your timely answer.

You wrote:
" The problem is that the links are not actually marked as links in the PDF, they are just plain text."
Why then if I click on those links in Edge, Chrome, Sumatra pdf and Acrobat Reader (not for all but almost in the latter case) these links work? And why doesn't the same happen with the reader incorporated in Mozilla Firefox? Thanks, just to understand.
If I have to create a pdf with links I use Libre Office and convert an odt file into a hybrid pdf file and everything works wonderfully.
The pdf I shared was created with Adobe In Design by a friend of mine: what he would have to do to have a pdf file with links working within Mozilla Firefox reader too?
Thanks a lot again, Paolo

Re: Links pdf files and Mozilla Firefox

marco — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 13:28:51 GMT

In pratica, il lettore PDF in Firefox si fida dei dati presenti nel PDF. Se nel PDF non è specificato che un testo è un link, allora non crea un link. Invece gli altri hanno deciso di fare diversamente e creano link, anche se in teoria non esistono, quando individuano un testo che sembra un link, per esempio se inizia per "www." o per "http" (e questo a volte può creare problemi per esempio per link che iniziano su una certa linea e finiscono sulla linea successiva).

Dato che è un problema comune, perché molti software generano PDF senza inserire reali link, in una futura versione di Firefox cambieremo questo comportamento per allinearci agli altri lettori.

Per quanto riguarda Adobe In Design, credo possa seguire la guida che ti ho linkato più sopra, https://helpx.adobe.com/it/indesign/using/hyperlinks.html.