Read PDF Files on your iPhone /iPad with iBooks

Got an iPhone, iPod Touch or an iPad? You can now read PDF files on your device using the free iBooks app from Apple. There are quite a few PDF reading apps available in the iTunes store but managing PDFs using iBooks is more convenient and the bookshelf view offers a better reading experience.

Don’t however bid farewell to the very-awesome Good Reader app yet as iBooks can only handle PDFs and ePub files – you will still need that app for reading all the Office documents and saved web pages.

How to Manage PDFs with iBooks

You can drag multiple PDF files from your desktop and drop them to your iTunes application and they’ll get uploaded to your iDevice in one go. You can even choose to selectively sync PDF files between the computer and your iPhone /iPad without having to remove any of them from the iTunes library.

iBooks offers a special thumbnail view so you can quickly glance the contents of multiple one pages without any scrolling. There’s built-in search and you can even bookmark your favorite PDF pages for later reference.

Finally, a unique feature is that iBooks lets you categorize and rate PDFs inside iTunes just like your music collection – this option should come very handy if you have large collection of PDFs that you intend to read on your iPhone or iPad. Some screenshots:

A: Drag and drop PDFs in your iTunes library

PDFs in iTunes

B: Click the PDF’s button in iBooks to access your PDFs

iBooks App

Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory

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Digital Inspiration has won several awards since it's launch in 2004.

Google Developer Expert

Google Developer Expert

Google awarded us the Google Developer Expert award recogizing our work in Google Workspace.

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

Our Gmail tool won the Lifehack of the Year award at ProductHunt Golden Kitty Awards in 2017.

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft awarded us the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title for 5 years in a row.

Google Cloud Champion

Google Cloud Champion

Google awarded us the Champion Innovator title recognizing our technical skill and expertise.

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