Apple - How make Safari download PDF files instead of opening them in-page?
Open up a terminal window: ⌘space and type Terminal. Hit enter when its highlighted. When you get to the terminal prompt, type the following command:
defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitOmitPDFSupport -bool YES
You won't get a response at the command line, but once you restart Safari it will no longer open them in the browser.
To take it a step further while you're there, you can keep it from opening them once they are downloaded with this one:
defaults write com.apple.Safari AutoOpenSafeDownloads -bool NO
This last command achieves what the other answer suggests.
You can make Safari on the Mac download ANY files (mp3, mp4, jpg, pdf and more) by doing the following.
- Open the file (movie,music,etc) in Safari. That normally comprises of clicking the link to the pdf/movie/music etc.
- Select the url in the browser (by clicking it, or by pressing ⌘ cmdL).
- Hold option down (⌥ alt) and press Enter.
The file you are viewing downloads to the Downloads folder on the mac.
I've tested this with almost all file types possible. Very very useful little feature that unfortunately too few people know about.
Better yet, you can just hold down alt when you click.