Google Doc Viewer: Which formats are really supported?

iframe google-docs google-document-viewer
Michaël picture Michaël · Jun 20, 2014 · Viewed 7.3k times · Source

I'm using Google Docs Viewer to embed all kind of documents. However I am having trouble to find out which formats are really supported.

On the offical Docs Viewer website (https://docs.google.com/viewer) Google links to a nice list of all supported formats. The following formats should be supported:

  • Google Docs
  • Google Sheets
  • Google Slides
  • Google Forms
  • Google Drawings
  • Image files (.JPEG, .PNG, .GIF, .TIFF, .BMP)
  • Raw Image formats
  • Video files (WebM, .MPEG4, .3GPP, .MOV, .AVI, .MPEGPS, .WMV, .FLV, .ogg)
  • Microsoft Word (.DOC and .DOCX)
  • Microsoft Excel (.XLS and .XLSX)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (.PPT and .PPTX)
  • Adobe Portable Document Format (.PDF)
  • Tagged Image File Format (.TIFF)
  • Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG)
  • PostScript (.EPS, .PS)
  • TrueType (.TTF)
  • XML Paper Specification (.XPS)
  • .MTS files

However, if I try to embed Image files or Video files for example I will get the famous 'Sorry, this type of document is not supported for viewing' error.

So my question is: Why doesn't it show these files and which formats are really supported?

Example: JPEG (not working)

https://docs.google.com/viewer?embedded=true&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fnordware.com%2Fj2k%2Frelax-orig.png

See for more examples: http://jsfiddle.net/ABcz6/

Answer

Michael Probst picture Michael Probst · Jun 12, 2017

Yes, I can confirm that JPGs as well PNGs that I tried did not work. Originaly I was trying to view such files with Drupals Embedded Google Docs Viewer, but then tested with just the URL https://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url=http://www.example.com/test.jpg.

BUT, the semi-good news is that you can use TIFF images instead.

Maybe TIFFs are just more office-stylee :D

Related questions

How to disable pop-out option in pdf viewer with google doc iframe?

I am using following code to display pdf using google with iframe.. It's working fine. But I want to disable "pop-out" option (which on click opening my pdf in new tab with google docs) shown on right upper corner beside …

Read More
Auto height for Iframe containing embedded / published Google Doc

I have an iframe with a published Google Doc. The contents of that doc are subject to change, so I want to auto adjust the height of the iframe based on its content. I found some solutions for this, but …

Read More
Google Docs iFrame: How to customize the css of an embedded Google Docs iFrame

I have this code of an iframe displaying a google docs document: <div itemprop="description" class="col-xs-12 no-h-padding" id="article_desc" style="margin:0 auto; width:90%; float:none;"> <iframe src="https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://example.…

Read More