Load PDF in Android WebView

By CodesEasy
Updated December 26, 2025
Load PDF in Android WebView

We can load PDF in android easily using WebView. We will be using the simplest way for displaying PDF file in android. Using the Google Docs PDF viewer we could do this easily. Now lets get in to the implementation and source code.

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You could watch the video, it explained everything and also shows you how exactly you can Load PDF in Android WebView. Don’t forget to subscribe if you find out contents useful.

🎥 Load PDF in Android using WebView - #AndroidStudio (YouTube Video)

The first thing you have to do is implement WebView, its really easy to implement a WebView in android. We will be doing only the necessary part.

Designing the layout part is the first thing, we will be using a Linear Layout as parent layout and then will be using the WebView inside it. You should set an id for the WebView and this is important for initializing the WebView.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".WebActivity">

    <WebView
        android:id="@+id/web"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent" />

</LinearLayout>

Go to the Java part and create an object for WebView then initialize it.

WebView webView = findViewById(R.id.web);

Now we have to set the WebView client.

webView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient());

If you like to have zoom and need to enable JavaScript for WebView just these two lines which does this.

webView.getSettings().setSupportZoom(true);
webView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);

You can load the PDF file now, you have to use the Google docs PDF viewer for this. Just add “https://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url=” + the URL of PDF file.

webView.loadUrl("https://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url=" + "https://pdfurl.com/file.pdf");

Full source code to Load PDF in Android WebView

WebView webView = findViewById(R.id.web);
webView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient());
webView.getSettings().setSupportZoom(true);
webView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
webView.loadUrl("https://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url=" + "https://pdfurl.com/file.pdf");

That’s all you can load a PDF file in WebView these simple steps.

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Comments (6)

Leave a Comment

edmund

2 years ago

hi i am trying to get a pdf i stored on firebase storage to display in a web view. show me.

Hemraj Kumawat

2 years ago

This is working after i have added these lines in webview webView.getSettings().setAllowContentAccess(true); webView.getSettings().setAllowFileAccessFromFileURLs(true); webView.getSettings().setAllowUniversalAccessFromFileURLs(true);

vidwath

3 years ago

Hii is it possible to load web view pdf from internal/sd card storage without using the google docs link directly load to get external storage

Vishnu

2 years ago

yes

Diwankar

3 years ago

When I try to access the pdf that is present in my google drive it failed to load , showing blank screen .How can I fix it ?

Vishnu

3 years ago

Use a .pdf link. If you are using google drive link just give that link only don’t include the https://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url= link. Just give the drive link alone. That too the link to video the pdf.

Ibrahim Ogah Oseyi

3 years ago

Hello Sir Please help me with the Source Code So that I should Just Directly Change the Pdf url

Vishnu

3 years ago

You can easily download the source code files from https://youtube.codeseasy.live/2021/load-pdf-in-webview

Tania

4 years ago

Hello, I need to load PDF file and zoom it in same url can you please help me to do this?

Vishnu

4 years ago

Check the video we have shown that too.