Mozilla has released Firefox 19 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, following on from the Firefox 18 release in January. The update brings a handful of new features, improvements, and bug fixes, but the one that will make the most difference to everyday users is the long-overdue inclusion of a built-in PDF viewer. Other browsers have had this for a while, and it is good to see Firefox finally catching up. Mozilla has also released Firefox 19 for Android alongside the desktop update.
Built-in PDF Viewer
The headline addition is a native PDF viewer built directly into the browser. No plugin, no redirect to an external application. PDFs now open inside Firefox the same way they do in Chrome and other modern browsers. It is a small change in principle but one that removes a genuine friction point for a lot of users.
Performance and HTML5 Improvements
Firefox 19 includes startup performance improvements addressing a couple of long-standing issues, and Canvas elements can now export content as an image blob using the canvas.toBlob() method. On the HTML5 side, CSS @page is now supported, viewport-percentage length units (vh, vw, vmin, and vmax) have been implemented, and CSS text-transform now supports full-width. A bug that incorrectly claimed the browser was not in Private Browsing mode when launched with the -private flag has also been fixed.
Developer Tools
Firefox 19 brings a solid set of additions for developers. The Debugger now supports pausing on exceptions and hiding non-enumerable properties. A Remote Web Console is available as an experimental feature for connecting to Firefox on Android or Firefox OS, enabled by setting devtools.debugger.remote-enabled to true. A Browser Debugger for add-on and browser developers is also available experimentally via devtools.chrome.enabled. Web Console CSS links now open directly in the Style Editor, which is a handy workflow improvement.
Download Firefox 19
- Download Firefox 19 for Windows
- Download Firefox 19 for Mac
- Download Firefox 19 for Linux
- Android users can grab the update from the Google Play Store
Have you updated to Firefox 19 yet? Drop a comment below and let us know what you think of the latest version.