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What’s the best free PDF app for Android?

I want to do a survey of free PDF apps for Android. Unfortunately, I don’t know of very many. What’s your favorite, and what’s good?

BTW, there’s one catch. It has to be accessible outside the Android Market. It would also be great if it ran on v1.5.

So far I’ve tried and discarded txtr (it’s crap), and I have found the PDF experience on the black pandigital Novel to be decent. (It has no annotation, but for simple reading it’s okay.) And I know about Adobe Reader for Android, but since I can’t access the Marketplace it’s beyond my reach. Could someone grab me a copy, please?

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Logan Kennelly November 29, 2010 um 11:45 pm

It’s probably a toss-up as to whether Adobe Reader or VuDroid is better (the last Adobe Reader was a major update). Since of those is out, here’s the other:

http://code.google.com/p/vudroid/downloads/list

I wouldn’t mind passing on a copy of the Adobe .apk if I knew where to send it…

Rob Brown November 30, 2010 um 2:32 pm

You’re right about Adobe Reader having had an update – I’d missed that. But now, if I look for it with my Android 1.6 device, I can’t see it. How can I find its minimum version requirement?

Nate the great November 30, 2010 um 2:48 pm

I just checked, and when Adobe released the Reader Android app they said that v2.1 or better was required.


Rob Brown November 30, 2010 um 12:28 am

Disclosure: about a month ago I was looking into this same question, but didn’t find what I wanted. So I got involved with DroidReader (http://code.google.com/p/droidreader/) and we’ve been improving it. A new release is due soon, but I can send you a recent build if you’re interested.

There’s also apv (http://code.google.com/p/apv/) which is based on the same rendering library and has many similarities, but a different flavour.

Completely contrary to your requirements, but IMHO the best PDF reader on Android (until we get a bit further with DroidReader 🙂 is ezPDF: it’s only available from the market, costs a buck, and requires either 2.0 or 2.1. But it’s really, really nice.

If you contact me by private e-mail I’ll send you a copy of the Adobe Reader. But I warn you, it’s horrid.

Nate the great November 30, 2010 um 2:16 pm

Not a problem, Rob. I posted this open question in the hopes that developers would find it.

Naveen February 16, 2011 um 5:08 pm

Hi Rob,

I am developing an pdf file manager app for Android tablet for our company and we are looking to integrate an opensource pdf viewer into it. I downloaded droidreader but it is not able to open the pdf files. Is the latest version droidReader of droid reader out. If so can you send me a link to download it. Also, it will be of great help to me if you can suggest which pdfviewer is best for my use. Thank you very much


fjtorres November 30, 2010 um 6:20 am

You don’t need to access the Android marketplace from a Tablet to get access to marketplace apps.
Aside from a clever hack that lets you access it from a PC using the emulator in the SDK, there are plenty of other sources.
Adobe reader (and other readers) can be found here:
http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2010/11/22/android-reading-apps-review-and-apk-installation-pack/


Mike Cane November 30, 2010 um 8:48 am

I hope you will doing a comprehensive post about this. I’d like to find a good PDF reader for Android too. Likely use it on either hacked NookColor or just go for an Archos (which is more likely, since its CPU is 1GHz vs NC 800MHz).


vl April 29, 2011 um 9:29 am

I use PDF Viewer for Android which is simple and free.


krya March 5, 2012 um 3:46 am

Approved App is an Annotation and Stamp Approval app that can be used to annotate pdf and png files. Contains provision to highlight,mark with pen and comment with callout.
you can also add signature and time to the document.

Market link :


Lilou May 30, 2012 um 9:27 am

qPDF Viewer is a good free PDF viewer for Android. It’s available on Android 2.1 and higher, which means pretty much all Android phones and tablets. There’s also a build for the Blackberry Playbook.


ivan November 7, 2012 um 9:50 am

I found the best one pdf reader

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.foobnix.pdf.reader

Functional:
1) Read mode and control mode (single tap to switch)
2) Fixate pages by width, saved on scroll
3) Search in books
4) Table of content
5) Night Mode
6) Search ALL books (PDF, DjVu) on device
7) Next Page or scroll pages by tap screen
8) Full screen mode
9) Support e-reader keys like Nook, Kindle, Sony
10) File navigation
11) Recent Books
12) Light and black theme
13) Screen orientation: Portrait, Landscape, Automatic
14) Text Bookmarks for page
15) Links History, back to page


Sydney D’cruz September 14, 2013 um 6:31 pm

Any good pdf reader/viewer that can print the doc.i have a smart phone.pff reader by ivan has no function or am i missing something?. Heellooo ivan babushka.


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