The PDF is undoubtedly a tricky format to manage. Great for reading. Appalling to work with. Have you ever tried to copy one of those bad boys into MS Word? There’s a host of online programs, some dodgier than others, that switch, change up, annotate and send out your PDF into anything you want it to be, and vice-versa, but none of those ever seem to turn out quite right, at least for me. I’d never tried to work with PDFs on my iPhone; the process seemed too daunting, full of potential changing ratios and missing notes. But there’s a widely successful PDF reader and annotator that you won’t find on your desktop computer; it’s called GoodReader, and it’s available exclusively for iOS.
More importantly, the developers behind this app, Good.iWare, are acutely aware of the shifting landscape that comes with iOS exclusivity, and update their product accordingly. Last year, they unveiled their new GoodReader 4.0, which, along with introducing a whole load of new features, was the first universal incarnation of the app, designed for equal efficiency on both iPhone and iPad. This month, Good.iWare brings us the brand-spanking new version 4.9.2, which takes advantage of the iPhone 6’s larger screen to optimise the reading experience, while also providing a host of even newer features.
At it’s core, GoodReader is a PDF reader and annotator, and what it does it does very well, a position reinforced by its dominating popularity in the leagues of similar apps (and there’s a host of them out there). You’re able to mark, annotate and note your documents in various ways; highlighting, colours, shapes, arrows, etc. With the brand new page management feature, you can also split documents, merge ’em, rotate ’em, extract ’em and store ’em. You can even email individual pages out, which is great for larger documents that you need to send piecemeal. It’s basically a free-for-all once you boot it up, with the notoriously tricky PDF format rendered defenseless by GoodReader’s excellent capabilities.
The interface is a slick and classy affair, and it should be noted that GoodReader is a reader in the broadest sense: though it specialises in PDFs, this thing is great for magazines, newspapers, academic papers, however big they are; the app handles all file sizes equally. You don’t necessarily have to make notes on any of these things, you might just want to kick back and read them; well, you’d be hard pushed to find an app that could do a better job than GoodReader. It’s in the title for God’s sake! There’s also a handy unit of accessibility features for visually impaired users like Text-to-Speech for PDF and TXT files and VoiceOver compatibility, designed to make life as simple and easy as possible. As well as that, we’ve got iCloud functionality and RAR 5 support.
GoodReader also does all the essential stuff that sounds dull but is in fact critical to a smooth workflow, like syncing with your OneDrive and Dropbox, allowing documents to pass through from one to the other with no difficulty. This ‘Swiss army knife’ approach continues on and on; the app really covers a lot of angles. If you’re looking for a painless reading and viewing experience, this app is the way forward. Maybe you’ve heard of it already and were putting off downloading it; with this latest incarnation, now is the time.
Head over to the App Store to kick back with a good read today!
