What type of PDFs do you consume most often?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by hyphenreader

I have other questions in mind, but was starting with this one. Mind sharing your reasons for using Goodreader/PDF Expert? Annotation?

I've tried many PDF readers, and there's nothing to compare (IMHO) with Goodreader. Its key benefit for me is its tabbed UI, which makes it easy to have a number of documents open in different tabs (or even different parts of the same document) and rapidly flip between them. This is essential for academic use, which is my main use case.

I'm an (amateur) Egyptologist - specifically in the area of the ancient Egyptian language - and have all the reference materials I use when translating Egyptian texts on my iPad. I'll generally have at least four documents open at once: the text I'm working on, a hieroglyphic dictionary, a hieroglyphic sign list (used to figure out where to find a word in the dictionary), and an Egyptian grammar book - and I need to constantly flip between them. I couldn't use any PDF reader which didn't offer a similar capability. Does your software offer this ability?

I've also answered, I notice, your question about what sort of PDFs I use it for . Page-scanned PDFs.

[MartyTX]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

I'd caution you against trying to be all things to all people. That rarely works.

Very true with eReaders and politicians!

[rfog]

Originally Posted by hyphenreader

I have other questions in mind, but was starting with this one. Mind sharing your reasons for using Goodreader/PDF Expert? Annotation?

Well, I'm a GoodReader hardcore user with facsimile PDF (mostly Pulps, Verne and my own scanned facsimile from my own old books). I have PDF Expert as second tool (for example if I need to do a lot of handwriting PDF Expert is way better than GoodReader because the "continuous" mode it has.

However, GoodReader for the win:

• Exquisite internal file manager
• Can connect to any remote server, SMB, AFP, NAS, and an incredible large etc.
• Synchronization across servers. And yes, in this case it synchronizes the content with the notes, and not the reading position (1).
• Different ways of synchronization (bidirectional, from only, to only).
• Annotate PDF. Most important for me is handwriting annotation.
• Add/remove/extract parts of a PDF
• Auto generation of a new copy PDF if you annotate it.
• Can get a pdf from an URL, or navigate and automatically detect the PDF embedded in the page.
• Read only Microsoft Office documents.
• Extract the text of the PDF.
• Annotation format is the PDF standard one, can be viewed in any other viewer and continue annotations in other programs and read the annotations made from other programs.
• PDF page preview (opens thumbnails of the open PDF).
• Opens multiple PDF at same time.

(And yes, I use *all* of them).

A wish list for GoodReader:

• Continuous/paged reading mode (like PDF Expert). Now only reads page by page.
• "Continuous" handwriting annotation (like PDF Expert).

(1) One of the reasons I'm not using Hyphen as my ePUB reader in iOS is because it does not automatically syncs the book reading position. You need to sync all the library and if you have a lot of books that is very inconvenient. My other elections for iOS, Marvin, does a good synchronization but only the book position and not the notes/reading statistics (and has another annoying bugs that seems aren't resolved by the developer), and MapleRead does a perfect font rendering but lacks automatica sync...

My two cents.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've tried many PDF readers, and there's nothing to compare (IMHO) with Goodreader. Its key benefit for me is its tabbed UI, which makes it easy to have a number of documents open in different tabs (or even different parts of the same document) and rapidly flip between them. This is essential for academic use, which is my main use case.

I'm an (amateur) Egyptologist - specifically in the area of the ancient Egyptian language - and have all the reference materials I use when translating Egyptian texts on my iPad. I'll generally have at least four documents open at once: the text I'm working on, a hieroglyphic dictionary, a hieroglyphic sign list (used to figure out where to find a word in the dictionary), and an Egyptian grammar book - and I need to constantly flip between them. I couldn't use any PDF reader which didn't offer a similar capability. Does your software offer this ability?

I've also answered, I notice, your question about what sort of PDFs I use it for . Page-scanned PDFs.

hum, I could see that as part of an Apple iPad commercial.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

hum, I could see that as part of an Apple iPad commercial.

Multiple document support is absolutely essential for anyone doing academic research, but a feature that normal book reading apps completely ignore. It really is what separates GoodReader from the rest of the pack. I'd go so far as to say it's the primary reason I have an iPad!

[Tarana]

I also only use pdf files as reference although many craft and cookbooks do come this way. I have to put those on my Nook HD+ with the larger screen.

[rfog]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Multiple document support is absolutely essential for anyone doing academic research, but a feature that normal book reading apps completely ignore. It really is what separates GoodReader from the rest of the pack. I'd go so far as to say it's the primary reason I have an iPad!

Harry, not completely sure (I'm at work and my iPad is at home), but Pdf Expert has tabbed documents too. And has the "continuous annotate mode", that allows you annotate without the need to confirm each annotation as GoodReader has.

[David Munch]

Scientific articles. A good mixture of text, graphs and micrographs.

[hyphenreader]

Thanks everyone for all the feedback provided so far, it's all very useful!

Originally Posted by HarryT

Multiple document support is absolutely essential for anyone doing academic research, but a feature that normal book reading apps completely ignore. It really is what separates GoodReader from the rest of the pack. I'd go so far as to say it's the primary reason I have an iPad!

Originally Posted by HarryT

Its key benefit for me is its tabbed UI, which makes it easy to have a number of documents open in different tabs (or even different parts of the same document) and rapidly flip between them. This is essential for academic use, which is my main use case.

I'm an (amateur) Egyptologist - specifically in the area of the ancient Egyptian language - and have all the reference materials I use when translating Egyptian texts on my iPad. I'll generally have at least four documents open at once: the text I'm working on, a hieroglyphic dictionary, a hieroglyphic sign list (used to figure out where to find a word in the dictionary), and an Egyptian grammar book - and I need to constantly flip between them. I couldn't use any PDF reader which didn't offer a similar capability. Does your software offer this ability?

I've also answered, I notice, your question about what sort of PDFs I use it for . Page-scanned PDFs.

Thanks for the descriptive use case, I appreciate it! Hyphen's PDF support is still in the works, and a lot of things are slated for later release. Basic support is what's being focused on for now. More news to come.

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

I'd caution you against trying to be all things to all people. That rarely works.

Solid advice!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rfog

Harry, not completely sure (I'm at work and my iPad is at home), but Pdf Expert has tabbed documents too. And has the "continuous annotate mode", that allows you annotate without the need to confirm each annotation as GoodReader has.

Thanks - that's one I've not looked at.

[rfog]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Thanks - that's one I've not looked at.

Harry, arrived home but forgot take a look.

Just taken on received notification on your answer, and yes, I can confirm that PDF Expert has tabbed documents. However, file manager is not as good as GoodReader one.

[HarryT]

Thanks. Yes, file management is another of GoodReader's strengths.

[Namekuseijin]

pdf is a fixed layout format for print, it doesn't belong in screens

[rfog]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

pdf is a fixed layout format for print, it doesn't belong in screens

Belongs to screens more than you think. Is the only format that allow to maintain well formatted tables, and images in site and not moved.

But the most use of the PDF in screens, in touch screens, is the annotation possibility. You cannot draw in a ePub, nor make handwritten annotations, cross out and even overwrite over a word.

And most important thing of all, PDF annotation is standard across Viewers/Editors. You can do it in a iPad with GoodReader, go to Sumatra PDF in a Windows machine and the annotation is there, exactly the same, with the same size and same colors. This cannot be done with any eBook format. Each viewer has its own annotation format, separated from the document you are annotating, so you get married not only with a platform (iOS, Android, Windows, ...), but even with one application and one device, because most of the apps (practically all) does not syncs notes across devices.

If you don't need that, welcome, but other people like me enjoys doing that, like in a real book with a zillion or two of advantages over eBooks. I only use ePub/mobi/etc. for novels. Even for divulgation books that can come in eBook format or PDF, I select PDF or even buy the death tree version.

[nancyrobert2011]

while i used desktop pc adobe acrobat is my choice