Download view only PDF in 2 Easy ways from Google Drive 2022

How to download view only pdf from google drive?

Google Drive is a free service where you have the power to store, share, edit and collaborate with others on any document, spreadsheet, or presentation, anywhere. You can access your files from any device, anytime, anywhere.

It has a cool feature that allows you to protect your PDF files so that they can be opened, edited, or viewed only by specific people you choose. Among these the most important is to protect your document from being downloaded by anyone.

And if you are interested in seeing the content of this PDF file but cannot download it, don't worry Google cannot stop you from accessing it. You don’t have to be a nerd to do it.

This article will deal with the fairly common question: how to download a view only PDF from Google Drive. It's a fairly simple thing to do just go through the complete steps necessary to get the PDF you need.

What is a view only protected PDF on Google Drive?

For those who don’t know about it. In simple words, it is a type of protection option by google drive. One can enable this option for his file (when sharing) in google drive.

When enabled the viewers can see the pdf file but cannot download view only pdf or print it. Here it means there will be no direct option for downloading and printing as usual.

You can use this feature on your own files too. It can only protect from noobs, not from geeks or who are keen to download it anyhow.

Is it possible to download PDF from Google Drive?

I already mentioned in the above section that there is no direct option for downloading or printing the document.

Yeah, it is possible to download protected files from google drive. But in this article, we will only learn how to download the view only pdf files from google drive.

Remember this is only for educational purposes. I do not encourage any illegal activity. If you need the protected document you must contact the respected owner.

How to download PDF from a view only account on Google Drive?

Method1

This is the simplest method to download view only pdf. Basically, you need to copy-paste a code in the developer tools and it’s done.

Let us see how to do it-

1) Open the pdf file you want to download in chrome

2) Scroll to the end of the document (In order to download the complete pdf)

3) Open Developer tools 

• Go to three dots > More Tools > Developer Tools
• Or you can simply click F12 on your keyboard

4) Go to Console Tab

5) Now you have to copy and paste the javascript code and hit Enter

let jspdf = document.createElement("script");

jspdf.onload = function () {

let pdf = new jsPDF('p', 'mm', [1000, 625]);
let elements = document.getElementsByTagName("img");
for (let i in elements) {
let img = elements[i];
console.log("add img ", img);
if (!/^blob:/.test(img.src)) {
console.log("invalid src");
continue;
}
let can = document.createElement('canvas');
let con = can.getContext("2d");
can.width = img.width;
can.height = img.height;
con.drawImage(img, 0, 0);
let imgData = can.toDataURL("image/jpeg", 1.0);
pdf.addImage(imgData, 'JPEG', 0, 0);
pdf.addPage();
}

pdf.save("download.pdf");
};

jspdf.src = 'https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jspdf/1.5.3/jspdf.debug.js';
document.body.appendChild(jspdf);

Congratulations! you have downloaded your desired view only protected file from google drive.

Method2

Google keeps up updating its algorithms. In the future, Google may find a solution to dismantle the above hack. I mean the above code may not work in the future.

In such a scenario, I will teach you another method to download view only pdf from google drive.

Let me clear one thing. This method is not simple and one step. Here you would have to manually download the file in image format and then, later on, convert it to pdf.

This method is suitable only when you want to download a part or image. This is also suitable to download single-page pdf files in image format.

Let us get into the steps-

Same as above initial steps

1) Open pdf file in chrome browser

2) Open Developer tools (Press F12)

3) Go to Network Tab

4) Select Fetch/XHRr

5) Reload the page (pdf file) again

         Now you may notice the incoming files in the network tab.

6) Go to filter and type “img”

7) Simply right-click and open in the new tab. 

         You will get the document in image format page by page.

8) Right-click and save it as an image on your PC.

         Now you have downloaded your view only protected pdf file.

You may want to convert it to pdf format. You can do it with the help of an online website. There are many websites that convert images to pdf. You can check out the below sites to get this job done-

• SmallPdf
• iLovePDF
• freePDFcoverter

You can also use adobe acrobat dc or a similar pdf reader to convert.

Conclusion: Download view only Pdf

In this blog post, we learn how to download a view only pdf file from google drive.

There are many methods to do it. We learned two of them. The first method required a JS code and the second method is a manual procedure. 

Both methods have their own pros and cons. I hope you like this article, If you found this post helpful. Please do not forget to share it on your favorite social media platforms with your friends. Any queries do ask in the below comment box.