The best PDF viewer for iPad, for reading
The best PDF viewer for reading opens fast, remembers your page and stays comfortable at night. Decide first whether you need to fill forms and sign, or just read. justRead is built for reading: it has no Pencil ink, form filling or signing.
Use the checklist
Questions to ask any PDF app before you commit
Answer these for the reader you use now, and for any you might switch to.
- Does it remember where you stopped?
- A long document is useless if it reopens on page one.
- Can you search the text?
- Search is how you find a clause, a name or a figure in a long file.
- Does it have a dark mode?
- An inverted page is easier at night than a white sheet.
- Can you highlight and keep notes?
- Highlights are only useful if they live in a list you can export.
- Does it handle a password?
- A locked file should ask once and then open.
- Does it show page thumbnails?
- Thumbnails make a big file easy to move around in.
- Do you need to sign or fill forms?
- If so, you need an annotation-first tool, not a reading app.
Where this reader is strong
One library
PDFs sit in the same library as your EPUBs, with the same highlights and progress.
Find things
justRead searches the text of a PDF that has a text layer.
Pages and contents
A pages sheet shows thumbnails of every page, so a big file stays easy to move around in.
Dark reading
justRead can invert the colours of any PDF for a true dark mode.
Highlights
Highlights come in six colours, can carry a note, and export as Markdown.
Layout
Fit the page to the width or the whole page, scroll up and down or sideways, or show a two-page spread.
Where it is the wrong tool
Not here
justRead has no Apple Pencil support, freehand ink, form filling or page editing.
A PDF does not reflow, so text size settings do not apply to it.
Use it when
You read long documents, papers and manuals and want them next to your books.
A locked file asks for its password once and then opens.
Read PDFs next to your books
Your reading position and bookmarks sync between iPhone and iPad through iCloud.
Reading a PDF counts toward your streak, daily goal and statistics, the same as an EPUB. See the PDF book reader page for the full list.
Try it with your own file
Open the file in Files, tap the share button and choose justRead, or use the import button in the library.
The guide to adding books to your iPhone or iPad covers every route, and the roundup of PDF reading apps compares the field.