Menus, brochures, catalogs, reports, magazines, price lists: sooner or later every website needs to show a PDF. WordPress gives you several ways to do it, and they do not offer the same experience, especially on phones. Here are the three main methods and when to use each.
Method 1: the File block (download link)
In the block editor, add a File block and pick your PDF. WordPress shows a link and a download button, and on desktop it can show an embedded preview.
- Pros: built in, nothing to install, fine for documents people want to save or print (forms, terms, invoices).
- Cons: on many phones the preview does not display, the PDF opens in another app or downloads, and visitors leave your page.
Method 2: an iframe or PDF viewer plugin
A viewer displays the PDF inside the page with scrolling, zoom and page navigation, usually based on the browser’s PDF engine or a JavaScript library.
- Pros: the document stays on your page; good for long reports and text-heavy documents.
- Cons: reading on a phone means pinching and scrolling inside a small frame; looks functional rather than attractive.
Method 3: a flipbook
A flipbook shows the PDF as a book with pages that turn, two-page spreads on desktop and single pages on phones.
- Pros: the most engaging format for catalogs, lookbooks, magazines, menus and brochures; visitors browse instead of leaving.
- Cons: less suited to dense text documents meant for careful reading or printing (add a download button for those).
See how to add a PDF flipbook to WordPress for a step-by-step guide.
Which method should you use?
- Forms, terms, technical sheets: File block with a download button.
- Long reports, studies: a PDF viewer, plus a download option.
- Catalogs, brochures, magazines, menus: a flipbook.
Performance tips for any method
- Export the PDF for screens (RGB, about 150 dpi images).
- Remove crop marks and unnecessary pages.
- Load the document only when visitors scroll to it (lazy loading).
- Avoid several heavy PDFs on the same page.
PDF and SEO
Search engines can index some PDFs on their own, but the page around the document is what usually ranks and converts. Always add a heading, a short description and a summary of the content as real text. For restaurants, an HTML menu is better than a PDF for search, see restaurant menus in WordPress.
To try the flipbook method, open the E-Reader flipbook demo on your phone, and compare options in how to choose a flipbook plugin.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my PDF not display on mobile?
Many mobile browsers do not show embedded PDF previews and open or download the file instead. A JavaScript viewer or flipbook solves this.
What is the maximum PDF size for WordPress?
It depends on your host upload limit. For the web, compress PDFs to a few megabytes anyway.
Can I prevent people from downloading my PDF?
Not completely: anything displayed can be saved. You can hide the download button, but do not rely on it for confidential documents.