How to add a PDF to Shopify: four ways compared

Shopify stores collect PDFs: catalogs, lookbooks, size guides, care instructions, manuals, wholesale price lists. Shopify can store a PDF, but it has no block that shows one on a page. You have four ways to get it in front of customers, and they behave very differently on phones, where most store traffic is.

The four ways at a glance

1. A link to the PDF

Upload the PDF in the Shopify admin under Content → Files. Click the Link button next to the file to copy its address, then link to it from a page, a product description or the store’s menu.

Shopify accepts files up to 20 MB. On a trial store you have to verify your email address before you can upload PDFs.

Good for documents customers want to save or print anyway: a returns form, a warranty card, a price list.

The catch is the same as anywhere else. The customer leaves the product page, and on a phone the file often lands in the downloads folder instead of on screen. A customer who opens a catalog that way has also left your store and has to find the product again on their own.

2. A PDF frame in the theme

You can show the PDF inside a page with an iframe that points at the file’s address. In most current themes, add a Custom Liquid section in the theme editor and paste the code there:

<iframe src="YOUR-PDF-LINK" width="100%" height="800" title="Spring catalog"></iframe>

On a desktop, the browser draws the PDF with its own viewer, so the toolbar and zoom look different in each browser. On phones it often doesn’t work at all: most phone browsers won’t show a PDF inside a page, and customers see a blank box or a button to open the file instead.

Good for a wholesale page that buyers mostly open on a desktop. For anything shoppers see, it lets down the phone visitors.

3. A Google Drive embed

Upload the PDF to Google Drive, share it as “Anyone with the link”, and use the file’s preview address in the iframe:

<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/FILE_ID/preview" width="100%" height="800" title="Spring catalog"></iframe>

Replace FILE_ID with the ID from the file’s sharing link. Google’s viewer works on phones and looks the same everywhere.

The trade-offs: the viewer carries Google’s branding, the file lives on Google Drive rather than in your store, anyone with the link can open the original, and the embed stops working if someone changes the sharing setting.

Good for documents that already live in Google Drive, where the look doesn’t matter.

4. A flipbook app

A flipbook app draws the pages itself, so the PDF looks and works the same in every browser and on every phone. With Real3D: PDF Viewer & Catalog, the same PDF can be a book with a realistic 3D page turn, a swipe viewer for phones or a scrolling viewer like a PDF reader.

1. Install the app from the Shopify App Store.
2. Create a flipbook: upload the PDF and choose the view mode, colors and toolbar, with a live preview.
3. In the theme editor, add the Flipbook Embed block to a page and save.

To show a manual or a product brochure on a product page, open the product template in the theme editor, click Add block under Product information and choose Flipbook Embed. The flipbook can sit in the page, open in a lightbox from a cover image or a button, or be shared as a direct link in an email. If your store already links to PDFs, the app can open those links as flipbooks too.

What a flipbook app adds over the other three:

• The same experience everywhere, including phones, where a two-page spread becomes one page at a time.
• Shopping from the pages. With the page editor you can draw a hotspot over a product photo and link it to the product. On the Advanced plan the hotspot can add the product to the cart without leaving the catalog. Shoppable catalogs on Shopify shows how.
• Catalogs without a PDF. The app can also build a catalog or a wholesale line sheet straight from your products or a collection.
• Your branding. Colors, background and toolbar can match the theme on the paid plans.

Good for anything customers should actually read in your store: catalogs, lookbooks, magazines, menus and product manuals.

What the app costs

There is a free plan, and you pay through your Shopify bill. These are the plans as listed on the Shopify App Store when this was written. The listing always has the current ones.

One flipbook on the free plan is enough to try it with a real catalog before you pay anything.

Which one to use

• Customers will save or print it anyway (a form, a warranty card): a download link.
• Wholesale buyers on desktop and the look doesn’t matter: a PDF frame or a Drive embed.
• A catalog, lookbook or manual shoppers should read, especially on phones: a flipbook app.
• A catalog customers should buy from: a flipbook app with add to cart.

Questions about PDFs on Shopify

Where do I upload a PDF in Shopify?

In the Shopify admin, under Content → Files. The Link button next to the file copies its address. Files can be up to 20 MB.

Why doesn’t my embedded PDF show on my phone?

An iframe uses the browser’s built-in PDF viewer, and most phone browsers don’t show a PDF inside a page. A flipbook app draws the pages itself, so it works on phones.

Can I add a PDF to a product page?

Yes. Link to it in the product description, or add a flipbook with the Flipbook Embed block under Product information in the product template. A flipbook keeps the customer on the product page while they read.

Can customers buy from a PDF catalog?

Not from the PDF itself. In a flipbook, you can place hotspots over products, and on the Advanced plan they add the product to the cart. You can also skip the PDF and build the catalog from your products.

Is there a free way to try it?

Yes. The free plan includes one flipbook. You can also drop your PDF into the demo on the Shopify app page to see it as a flipbook first. The file stays in your browser.

On WordPress instead? See how to embed a PDF in WordPress. For catalogs on any platform, see how to create a digital catalog.