How do I set Safari on Mac OS X to show PDFs using Preview instead of Adobe Reader?

Question

I shouldn't have installed Adobe Reader on my Mac. But now that I have, how do I set Safari to (go back to) show PDFs using Preview (as the inline PDF display plug-in) instead of Reader? Do I need to uninstall Reader?

Update: I went ahead and uninstalled Adobe Reader. (I grew tired of constant reminders to update something I wasn't using.)

Solution 1

The "Right Way" to accomplish this is actually within the Adobe Reader app. Just go into preferences, click Internet, and uncheck Display PDF in Browser. Simple and non-destructive, since Adobe will almost certainly attempt to "repair" itself when it notices the plugin file missing at the next security update.

Solution 2

It is neither necessary nor sufficient to uninstall the Adobe Reader. I went also through this process and finally succeeded by (re)moving

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/AdobePDFViewer.plugin. 

More information can be found here.

Comments

[Adam Sheehan]

But this launches Preview as a separate process whereas it is possible to use Preview as an inline reader directly in Safari.

[stereoscott]

Right. I'll clarify my question.

[stereoscott]

I, of course, had to restart Safari after deleting this file.

[Josh]

Daryl Spitzer is asking about the Acrobat plugin, not PDFs opened from the finder.

[Insomnic]

The default setting on the file itself is what Safari uses. Setting the file within the Finder will also set it for Safari (unless Acrobat is over-riding that - which would be new to me). If you want to keep the plugin installed, I believe the following terminal command sets it as the inline viewer: defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitOmitPDFSupport -bool NO

[stereoscott]

Insomnic, can you verify that Safari & Adobe Reader honor the Finder setting, and verify that the default setting works as you describe? (I've already deleted the plug-in and would rather not re-install it.)

[Insomnic]

I tried to verify but on 2 different machines I got different results on what happens when Acrobat Reader is installed. One one machine I didn't get inline - and setting default via Get Info worked as I stated. On the other machine Reader installed and displayed inline but preview didn't (as default). So I'm not sure how this works out. It looks like Reader isn't consistent.

[stereoscott]

This sounds like the right answer, but I can't verify since I uninstalled Adobe Reader since posting this question.

[Volker Stolz]

This no longer works with a recent Adobe and is a known issue: superuser.com/a/254624/65618