Set PDF Viewer Preferences
Set how a PDF opens — page layout, page mode, initial zoom, window chrome, reading direction — without touching its content. Runs entirely in your browser; your file is never uploaded.
Input
Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
PDF with preferences set
Upload a PDF, choose the settings you want, and press Apply preferences. The updated file is built in your browser — download it when you're ready.
Also available with
Guides
Set PDF Viewer Preferences writes the PDF format's own "how should this open" hints into a file — page layout, page mode, initial zoom, window chrome, and reading direction — right in your browser. No signup, no watermark, and nothing ever leaves your device.
How to use it
- Upload a PDF.
- Pick whichever settings you want to change. Everything defaults to No change, so you only need to touch the ones that matter — applying just "Reading direction: Right to left" leaves the file's existing layout and zoom untouched.
- Press Apply preferences. The updated file downloads automatically as
viewer-preferences.pdf.
What each setting does
- Page layout — how pages are arranged when the document opens: single page, one continuous column, two columns, or a two-page spread.
- Page mode — what's shown alongside the page: nothing, the bookmarks/outline panel, the thumbnails panel, the layers panel, the attachments panel, or full-screen presentation mode.
- Initial zoom — the zoom level on open: fit the whole page, fit the width, fit the height, or a custom percentage.
- Reading direction — left-to-right or right-to-left page progression, for the viewer's scrolling/paging behavior.
- Window — toolbar/menu-bar/window-UI visibility, whether the viewer window resizes to fit the first page or centers itself on screen, and whether the document's title (rather than its file name) shows in the title bar.
These are all standard fields defined by the PDF specification (PageLayout, PageMode, OpenAction, and the ViewerPreferences dictionary) — every compliant PDF reader (Acrobat, browser viewers, etc.) honors the ones it supports. They only affect how the file is displayed; the document's content is untouched.
Will this work in every PDF viewer?
Most desktop and browser PDF readers respect these settings. A handful of lightweight or embedded viewers ignore some of them (especially window-chrome settings like hiding the toolbar), since the spec only requires honoring them when the surrounding application allows it.
What if a PDF is password-protected?
A PDF that requires a password to open must be unlocked first — use the Unlock PDF tool, then set its viewer preferences.
I want to change the actual page order, not just how it opens
This tool only edits display hints, not structure — to reorder, rotate, or delete pages, use Organize PDF instead.
Your file is processed entirely on your device and is never uploaded.