Portable Document Format, commonly known as PDF, is a powerful file type that’s compact, versatile, and reliable when you want to present and exchange documents.
Regardless of the operating system, software, or hardware that you view the PDF document on, it’s easier to use when filling out forms or just reading the document.
If you want to access a PDF file on your Android device, you’ll need a PDF reader for that. These apps allow you to open a PDF file, fill it out, insert your signature, annotate, and more.
So, you can use them for personal, professional, or scholarly purposes to view or read the PDF document you’ve received or want to send out.
With the slew of PDF reader apps available on the Google Play Store, it can be difficult trying to pick out the best one for your needs. However, you can check for apps that include scrolling and reading modes, support for chapters, and other similar features.
Whether you want to read PDF files for work or school, we’ve compiled a list of the best PDF readers for Android you can use on your mobile device.
Best PDF Readers For Android
1. Adobe Acrobat Reader
For many people, Adobe Acrobat Reader is the default choice PDF reader for Android. You can view, edit, sign, comment, and even export documents from your Android device.
And you can store your file safely online and still access it on the go using this PDF reader.
The app features a special AI-enabled Liquid Mode for easier navigation through your PDF files on an Android device, and dark mode to read in low-light conditions. Also included are single and continuous scroll modes that make it easy to scan through your PDF documents.
A powerful search function allows you to find words in the text without having to read everything in the document. You get excellent document compatibility, and you can scroll around, zoom in or out, and get cloud storage if you sign up for an Adobe account.
The paid version of the app offers form filling and signing, file annotation, text highlighting, adding and managing comments, and an OCR-powered Adobe Scan app to scan receipts, whiteboards, or business cards and convert them to editable and searchable PDF files.
For extra functions, the app comes with in-app purchases and works on devices running Android 5.0 and up.
Explore the best alternatives to Adobe Acrobat here.
2. WPS Office
WPS Office is a great office suite that includes many functions. It’s mostly used as an office app, but it also has some PDF capabilities.
The app converts documents into PDF so you can read them natively. If you want an office app and a PDF viewer, this all-in-one office solution is a good choice.
You can view PDF files natively and still read, edit, and create documents in other formats, including Word, presentations, and spreadsheets.
The app allows you to read, edit, and convert PDFs, plus you get a document scanner. In addition, you can skip to page numbers, add and view bookmarks, view PDF file annotations, search for text, and access your PDF from cloud storage.
The app is free to use and small-sized, so you won’t worry about it taking up too much of your internal device storage space.
The PDF reader also supports PDF signature, split or extraction, and merging. You can add or delete watermarks in your PDF file, manage all your documents in the WPS cloud, sync in real-time on other devices, and access or edit your files easily and directly.
You get 1GB of free cloud storage so you can save your files to third-party services including Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Evernote, then share them via WiFi, DLNA, NFC, and other apps or platforms.
Find out more tools like WPS Office here.
3. All PDF
All PDF is a free app that allows you to view, edit, and manipulate PDF documents. It includes many useful features such as merging, splitting, converting to image, controlling printing, reducing file size, extracting text from PDFs, etc.
The app lets you merge and split PDFs, organize them, and convert them to images, control your print and share functions from the app, and reduce the size of your PDF file.
While All PDF comes with ads, it’s still a decent and free-to-use app that reads PDF files well on Android devices. You can also extract sections of text, start important files and display them in a grid view so you can quickly find the PDF document you want.
If you close and open the file again, it takes you to the last page you were viewing instead of starting all over and scrolling back down to your last spot.
The app also comes with a ton of tools to read PDFs on your Android device and you can launch your document from your file manager, email, or messaging app in seconds.
4. Xodo PDF Reader
Xodo PDF Reader makes it easy and fast to read your PDF files. You can view, edit, and even sign PDFs on your device and manipulate them by inserting, deleting, or rotating pages to fit your needs.
Among its features include a full-screen mode, high zoom factors, and night mode to read clearly in low-light conditions. Plus, it works with your Google account so you can view and merge PDF files from Google Drive on your Android device.
You can link to Dropbox and OneDrive among other cloud services to access your PDFs wherever you are. The app syncs the changes with the source file so you have the latest version anytime.
Xodo PDF Reader is free to use and you can merge multiple PDFs into one file. The app loads quickly and offers smooth navigation. You also get note taking, file management, bookmarking, and other features.
There aren’t any in-app purchases, and Xodo works for your personal, recreational, and business use cases.
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5. Foxit PDF Reader Mobile
Foxit PDF Reader Mobile is a free, fast, and straightforward PDF reader for Android that lets you open files quickly and control how the text on the PDF fits your device’s screen.
You can change background or brightness for an easier, more enjoyable reading experience, highlight text, add drawings and notes, or share files and collaborate with others.
The premium version gives you access to the PDF file merging feature and password protection.
If you have multiple platforms, Foxit can read your PDFs on other devices, including Windows PCs. It integrates with cloud storage services like Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox for more flexibility, and you can protect sensitive data with its privacy features.
With Foxit, you can also export PDFs to other file formats, and organize the PDFs in line. You can fill out PDFs, and get support for ConnectedPDF and other PDFs with passwords, certificates, and Microsoft RMS.
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6. PDF Viewer Pro
PDF Viewer Pro is a free, basic, and simple Android PDF reader app with all the basic features like zoom, bookmarks, annotations, and cloud support, among others.
With the paid version, you get multiple customization options, themes, and document merging in one PDF.
Its user interface is easy to use, and you also get to access the Material Design tool. The free app also provides powerful features such as opening PDFs in the cloud or storing locally on your device and making basic edits or annotations.
If you pay for a subscription, you can interpolate or combine documents, annotate images, and get an interface-free presentation mode.
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7. EBook Reader and PDF Reader for Android
The eBook Reader and PDF reader is a highly customizable app that lets you view PDF files on Android devices – phone or tablet.
You can view the PDF in full-screen mode, but you can also change the orientation to Automatic, Landscape, or Portrait.
The app comes with features that make it quick, comfortable, and easy to read your PDF document. Plus, it supports XPS, DjVu, FictionBook, EPUB, comic book formats, and RTF.
You get features like night mode for low-light conditions, auto fit for your page view, scroll pages by finger tap on your screen, file browser and navigation, search text in book, bookshelf view, bookmarks, cut white document borders, and book and page thumbnails.
There’s so much that this app offers so you can customize how you read your PDF files. You can also tailor the app for the best reading experience and it will remember your settings the next time you open it.
8. Gaaiho PDF Reader
Gaaiho is a decent PDF reader app for Android that offers a comfortable reading environment and allows you to share your PDF files with any WebDAV user.
The app may not receive regular updates, but it still boasts two decades of experience in PDF software development. So, it’s worth considering.
Its viewing engine quickly opens up your PDF file and offers a flexible and comfortable environment to add, read and manage comments, or view attachments.
The app also has quick options for adding and editing bookmarks, so you can mark what’s important on your file and return to it quickly.
Some basic annotation tools you’ll find are the draw lines or highlight text features, arrows, and assorted shapes.
The app supports cloud files via Dropbox directly, but you can add WebDAV servers, giving it a higher flexibility level that you may not get from other PDF reader apps.
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9. Soda PDF Merge
You have multiple documents on your phone and want to convert them into PDFs. Soda PDF Merge helps you do just that.
You can merge contract photos, details, and any document you have into one file for viewing or reviewing. The app supports other formats like JPG, Excel, PowerPoint, and others.
Plus, you can use your Android device’s camera to scan documents and even compress the size of the file to save more space on your gadget.
It’s now easier to merge your files with this app that effectively and efficiently combines multiple documents or files with one file on your device.
You can control the files you want to merge, rearrange the order of the files, add, or even delete the files you don’t need.
Once you merge the documents into one PDF, you can save, view, and share them. You can also name the file, compress it, or share a link to the file via text, email, or social media.
Also Read: Best MS Office Alternatives For Windows
10. Moon+ Reader
Moon+ Reader is a PDF reader app for Android that’s available as a free or paid tool. It’s a popular app for reading e-books and comes with a boatload of features such as auto-scroll, dual page mode, tons of visual options, theming support, and intelligent paragraphs.
The app supports multiple types of formats, including PDF, EPUB, and EPUB3, among others. It’s one of the best for reading PDF format books, and you get thousands of local and foreign ebooks to download in seconds so you can read on the go.
The app comes with a simple user interface and it’s small enough so it won’t hog up the precious space on your Android device.
The full visual options include line space, bold, font scale, shadow, italic, alpha colors, justified alignment, fading edge, and more. The app also supports MOBI, FB2, AZW3, CBZ, CBR, CHM, DOCX, TXT, RTF, WEBP, ZIP, RAR, HTML, ODT, and other file formats.
You get more than 10 themes embedded in the app plus day and night mode switcher, various paging types like touch screen, search or back keys, and volume keys.
The app also comes with 24 customized operations including swipe gesture, screen click, and hardware keys, five auto-scroll modes, brightness adjustment by sliding your finger on the screen edge, and backup or restore options among others.
You can highlight, annotate, translate, and find words from the dictionary while using or viewing your PDF file. The app is localized in 40 languages, and the paid version offers an ad-free experience plus name replacement, book to home screen shortcuts, and more beautiful fonts, themes, and background images.
11. MuPDF
MuPDF is a free, open-source, lightweight PDF reader and document viewer that handles XPS, CBZ, PDF, and unprotected ePUB documents. It focuses mainly on PDF files and comprises command-line tools, software libraries, and viewers for various platforms.
The customizable and highly versatile PDF reader allows you to add PDF functions quickly and easily to your mobile app through app kits for your Android device. You can also add PDF library functionality to your computer or laptop, embedded projects with the core API, and cloud or server.
The PDF reader is just for reading documents so you can’t fill out forms or edit annotations like other apps on this list do. However, you get other nifty features like tapping to flip to previous or next pages, or bring up and hide toolbars.
You also get a link button to toggle highlighting hyperlinks, to make them active and tappable. Plus, you can pinch to zoom in or out, and tapping will scroll to move to the next screenful of text.
In the toolbar, there’s a search button and table of contents button, a scrubber to go to any place in your PDF document, an overview system button, and a file chooser to open multiple files simultaneously.
MuPDF also has a renderer that works with high-quality anti-aliased graphics. It renders text with spacing and metrics accurate to almost fractions of a pixel to get high fidelity to reproduce the look of a page printed on a screen.
It’s a small, complete, and fast PDF reader that supports PDF, OpenXPS, XPS, FictionBook 2, and EPUB formats. You can fill out forms and annotate PDFs with the mobile viewers.
With the command-line tools, you can edit, annotate, and convert documents to other formats such as SVG, HTML, CBZ, and PDF, and write scripts to manipulate documents with JavaScript.
The app features support for progressive rendering of large documents, text reflow, PDF 1.7, and it can handle basic interactive features like hyperlinks, form-filling, annotations, electronic signatures, text search, and extraction.
It doesn’t have extra fancy features like advanced editing or cloud integration, but you can still give it a shot.
12. CamScanner
CamScanner is a popular and powerful PDF reader app that comes in a free and paid version. The app can import PDFs and scan physical documents into PDF files as well on your Android device.
You get features that can make clean, crisp documents while improving the scanning process, annotate your PDFs and share with others or fax it if you want but at a small fee.
The premium version of the app offers more features like 10GB of cloud storage, editing, and more but the free version is still enough for simple things.
The efficient scanner app converts your device into a powerful portable scanner that uses OCR to recognize text automatically and help you become more productive as you do your personal or professional work.
You can download it to read PDFs, scan, share, and save documents in other formats including JPG, Word, PDF, and TXT formats.
You can handle all your paperwork with ease, and quickly digitize documents, extract text from images, share files, print or fax documents, do quick searches, edit using advanced features, and secure important documents.
The app also syncs across devices whether you’re using your Android phone, tablet, or using a computer.
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13. DocuSign
DocuSign is a free and paid PDF reader that’s popular for its signature feature. The app helps you open PDFs, fill them out, sign, and share or send them where they should go.
The app helps you send and sign agreements anywhere or any time and gives you unlimited free signing.
You can create your customized signature, upload documents easily, and E-Sign the documents for free without limits. The app also lets you send and manage files from your device and get real-time push notifications when people sign the document.
DocuSign offers security for your documents and complies with several legal acts. It also has a complete audit trail and encryptions for safer and more secure usage than ordinary paper.
It supports PDF, Word, image files (JPEG, PNG, TIFF), Excel, text, and more so you can sign your NDAs, contracts, agreements, slips, waivers, and other documents.
Explore some of the best alternatives to DocuSign here.
14. Fast Scanner
Fast Scanner is a PDF scanner app that helps you read or scan documents with your Android device’s camera and convert them to PDF or JPEG files for future use. The app is available for free but a paid version exists with Google Play Pass.
The app can turn your device into a page scanner for receipts, documents, business cards, invoices, notes, and other paper text. You can scan your document, print and email as a PDF or other format, or just save them for later use in other apps.
You can also export to industry-standard PDF quickly and use the editing options on your scanned files. To open the PDFs, you can use Dropbox or other cloud storage apps and send to fax or cloud apps.
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15. Librera
Librera is a PDF reader app that bills itself as a complete e-book reader. It supports PDF and other formats like ZIP, MOBI, EPUB, TXT, and more.
Plus, Librera comes with a modern design, day and night mode, Text-to-Speech so you can listen to books, and offers password protection of documents.
It’s also lightweight so it won’t hog too much space on your device, and comes with a bookshelf library that displays or sorts them in genre, size, and series among other parameters.
You can change background and font colors, reading direction, and also listen to audio files in different languages.
Wrapping Up
With these 15 best PDF readers for Android devices, you can quickly read through your files with ease.
If you use e-books or PDF forms regularly, pick any of these tools for comfortable reading, filing forms, scanning, or converting documents to the format you need.
Scott L. Macarthur is a marketing consultant and an online author. He is mostly engaged in providing his expertise to startups and SMBs. He is also an author on TheNextWeb.