If you are trying to display a PDF file residing on a server somewhere, you can simple load it to your web view directly UIWebView * webView = [[ UIWebView alloc ] initWithFrame : CGRectMake ( 10 , 10 , 200 , 200 )]; NSURL * targetURL = [ NSURL URLWithString :@ "http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/ documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIWebView_Class/UIWebView_Class.pdf" ]; NSURLRequest * request = [ NSURLRequest requestWithURL : targetURL ]; [ webView loadRequest : request ]; [ self . view addSubview : webView ]; [ webView release ]; Or if you have a PDF file bundled with your application UIWebView * webView = [[ UIWebView alloc ] initWithFrame : CGRectMake ( 10 , 10 , 200 , 200 )]; NSString * path = [[ NSBundle mainBundle ] pathForResource :@ "document" ofType :@ "pdf" ]; NSURL * targetURL = [ NSURL fileURLWithPath : path ]; NSURLRequest * request = [ NSURLRequest requestWithURL : targetURL ]; [ webView loadReq