I've been working on a full (!) roundup of all (!) PDF readers on the iPad. So far, I've compared no less than 28 (!) PDF readers. For comparison, articles so far published (see e.g. http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/04/ipad-pdf-viewer-showdown/ ) compared way fewer PDF readers. As I plan to wait with publishing the final version of the article until Apple release the new, promised iBooks version with PDF support later this month, I've decided to publish the comparison & feature chart I've been working on (it's part of the article). It already has a LOT of useful information you'll find VERY handy. You may want to start with the bottom-most Verdict / Summary-row to quickly see which PDF reader to choose and which to avoid at any rate. Please see http://winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/201006iPadPDF/201006iPadPDFv1.html . Note that, unlike my previous charts (see e.g. my iPhone / iPod Touch Multiplayer Gaming bible's chart or the iPhone / iPod Touch Web Browsing bible's one), this doesn't let the user to dynamically hide rows / columns. This means that, currently, the chart may be a bit hard to navigate with all those numerous rows and 29 columns. The final version will already have dynamic configuration capabilities. Feedback is welcome, particularly from PDF reader developers, who will want to thoroughly check out my complaints / bug reports so that they can easily see what functionalities I miss the most from their apps. Once again: the chart is at http://winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/201006iPadPDF/201006iPadPDFv1.html . Click the link!
You da man!! iCab Mobile has been my browser of choice thanks to you weeding through everything, and despite all the new ones coming on the market, I can't see that they are any better than iCab, and iCab continues to improve. Thanks for all the exhaustive effort that you go through. Oh - an OBTW - Have you come across any apps that will let you convert to pdf on the iPhone or iPad from various sources -but mostly ASCII text? I know your article is generally about readers, but thought you might have seen this. And GoodReader FTW - it was an early best on iPhone, and was an easy must buy 1st day...
1, thanks for the kind words 2, there're several (even free) tools that convert ASCII to PDF - for example, Free Text To PDF Converter v1.5 ( http://www.verypdf.com/txt2pdf/index.htm#dl ) . BTW, when it comes to converting from JPG / PNG images to PDF, some of them even run on the iPad itself - I've listed them in the chart. 3, GoodReader is also highly recommended in the chart
Hi, Personally, I use GoodReader and like it a lot. Always good to see a new article from you, they are always very informative. David
Wow this is some hard work! I have been looking at iAnnotate PDF (I already own GoodReader) but your chart helps a lot in decision making. Thanks a lot.
Thanks! I'll publish a lot of new iPad-related roundups in the near future (Web browsers will be the next). And I plan to publish a LOT of programming-related stuff too (mostly OpenGL ES and similar, not-that-well explained areas).
Of the reviewed apps (I may add some before officially publishing the roundup), PDFReader 2.1 by YUYAO and PDF Reader 1.1 by Kdan Mobile Software LTD (these titles are almost the same) support importing images and converting them to a PDF.
Thanks, I went back and read some of the "fine print" and noted that. As a matter of fact, I then went to Good Reader support site, and suggested they look at that as something to add onto their own app. It would make it a great reader even better. As to iPad browsers - not asking for favors or anything , but have you found anything better than iCab yet? The only issue that I have with it is that it opens a blank page when linking to the AppStore. I have even had to delete and re-install from once linking to a page that constantly wanted to open another page, and iCab just kept cycling the script...
The new Atomic browser seems to be pretty promising, albeit I wouldn't say it's better than iCab. The new version boasts "improved memory model", which needs to be thoroughly tested. Sometimes, iCab's crashing because of the lack of RAM drives me mad. I've been talking to the dev of iCab and have also tried fixing / circumventing the UIWebView bug but, so far, without success. Dunno if the devs of Atomic have indeed succeeded at this.
In the meantime, I've posted both the roundup and, today, an update to it: see http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/pdf-reader-news-updates
Today's PDF Reader Roundup updates: VGA output, full chart update, latest BookMan I've finished updating the main comparison and feature chart of my Ultimate PDF Reader Roundup, the one and only REAL roundup of iOS (iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad) PDF readers ever published, with up-to-date information on the latest PDF reader versions. I've already mentioned the changes in my yesterday's post; then, however, I still didn't have a VGA cable to test my iPhone 4 / iPod Touch 4G / iPad on a real VGA monitor. Now that I've, at last, received the cable, I could test these all. Speaking of yesterday's update, in the meantime, BookMan has updated to another new version. Please see the (welcome) changes in the chart; now, BookMan is one of the strongest free titles. I've also added a brand new row, VGA output? Test: iPad / iPhone4, which elaborates on the apps' ability to drive a VGA monitor / projector. With similar info, I'll update the chart of the Web Browser Roundup too.
I've added a column describing the recently-released PDF Expert to the chart of my Ultimate PDF Reader Roundup. It's a decent PDF reader; however, I still consider the cheaper(!) GoodReader better in most respects. I've also greatly enhanced the section discussing annotation capabilities see the newly introduced Annotation group. Now that several apps, most importantly the, currently, most recommended GoodReader, have excellent annotation (and passive showing) capabilities, I found it necessary to elaborate on what these apps really are capable of. As you can see, the (still) cheap GoodReader has the broadest support for annotations except for predefined, built-in stamps (in which iAnnotate is the best) and setting the size / color of the freehand drawing.
Good reader still seems to be the best for most things, and they keep adding to the capabilities. A real no-brainer to me for a pdf readers. Also, on a separate note, iCab continues to improve their product as well. You do a great job recommending some great products @ Menneisyys. Thanks!
