Reading PDFs

Reading PDFs

Open any PDF from Home, Folders, or another app. The reader remembers where you left off and reopens there next time.

The reader at a glance

• Top bar: back, the document's name, Search, and ⋮ for document options (info, share, print, open with, save as, favorite, delete).
• Page bubble: the current page on the right edge. Drag it to scroll through the document, or tap it to jump to a page.
• Bottom bar: Contents, View Options, Zoom, Display, Bookmark this page and ••• for everything else.

Tap the page to hide or show the bars. Hiding them also hides Android's status and navigation bars, for distraction-free reading. Turn on Auto-Hide Toolbar in View Options to have the bars hide by themselves a few seconds after they appear.

Moving around

• Scroll through the pages, or drag the page bubble.
• Go to page: tap the page bubble, or ••• > Go to page, and enter a number.
• Contents: the bottom bar's Contents button opens the document's table of contents, and its attachments if it has any. Tap an entry to jump there.
• Links inside the document (a contents page, footnotes, "see page 12") work as you'd expect.
• Back to page: after any jump (Go to page, contents, a bookmark or a link), a Back to page N chip appears below the top bar. Tap it to return; it then offers the page you came from, so you can switch between two places.
• Tap to turn page: with this on (View Options), tapping near the top or bottom of the page, or the left or right side in horizontal mode, moves to the previous or next page. The middle still shows and hides the bars.

Jumps land just below the top bar, so the top of the page is never hidden behind it.

View Options

• Scroll mode: Vertical (pages one below another) or Horizontal (pages side by side, swipe to turn).
• Lock horizontal scroll: when zoomed in, keeps the page from sliding sideways as you scroll down. Saved per document; vertical mode only.
• Snap to page: each scroll settles on a whole page.
• Auto-Hide Toolbar, Page Slider on Scroll (shows the page slider while scrolling with the bars hidden) and Tap to Turn Page.

Zoom

Pinch to zoom, or double-tap to zoom in around the spot you tapped; double-tap again to zoom back out. The Zoom panel offers:

• Fit Page, Fit Width and Actual Size
• buttons to step the zoom up and down
• the Double Tap Zoom level, from 1.1× to 5×
• Screen orientation: automatic, portrait or landscape

A document shorter than the screen, such as a single page, sits in the middle of the screen.

Display

• Reading theme: Light, Dark, Sepia (warm paper tone) or Black (pure black for AMOLED screens). Dark and Black invert the page colors.
• Keep Image Colors: shown for Dark and Black. Shows photos and pictures in their real colors while the page stays dark. Line drawings on a transparent background can be harder to see with this on, so it's off by default.
• Brightness: follow the system, or set a level just for reading.
• Keep Screen On: stops the screen turning off while you read.

Search in the document

Tap Search in the top bar and type. Every match is highlighted; use the arrows to step through them, and the current match is centered on screen. If any of your highlights contain the search text, the search bar shows how many; tap that to see them.

Auto-scroll

••• > Auto Scroll scrolls the document for you, hands-free. Pick a preset speed (slow, medium, fast, very fast) or set your own. Tap the screen to pause or resume.

Selecting text

Long-press text to select it. The selection menu has Copy, Highlight (see Highlights), and translation apps such as Google Translate, so you can translate a passage without leaving the reader.

Password-protected PDFs

The app asks for the password when you open a protected PDF. Tick Remember password for this file to open it directly next time; the password is stored encrypted on your device. Once open, ••• > Save a copy without the password writes an unprotected copy, for example to print it or share it.

Document options

From the top bar's ⋮ menu:

• Document Info: title, author, subject, keywords, creator, producer, PDF version, dates, security, and where the file is
• Share, Print (with progress while pages are prepared), Open with another app
• Save as: save a copy wherever you choose
• Add to / Remove from Favorites, Delete

••• > PDF Tools opens any of the PDF Tools with the document you're reading already chosen.