Need: A program for iPad for reading PDFs and writing/making notes in them using apple pencil. I use it to attentively read math textbooks and solve exercises in them, read psychotherapy self-help books and fill in worksheets in them, read difficult academic articles and write notes for myself.
Non-needs (i.e., if you need these, maybe you should disregard my recommendation, because I don’t use these): signing documents and sending them to people, rapidly giving feedback to people in the form of annotating their pdfs, collaborative anything, reading fiction without annotating or taking notes or anything, using a dictionary to look up unknown words.
I can easily add blank pages or pictures, remove pages.
Very good tools for writing or drawing inside a document.
It quietly saves my notes in the pdf file. I use MobiusSync, so the changes get synced to my computer, and there are no problems with seeing the notes in other PDF viewers.
Cons:
Doesn’t open djvu files. (but neither do any other of the compared programs)
A sketchy privacy policy written in legalese, so I can’t even understand what data it uploads and whether it uploads my documents.
Xodo provides all the same functional, but there are some bugs that make it worse than PDF Viewer Pro by PSPDFKit:
Sometimes I try to add a blank page after, let’s say, page 200, but instead it gets added after page 201 or page 199.
Erasing handwritten scribbles is buggy.
Tools for writing or drawing inside a document are much less pleasant to use.
Sometimes drawing becomes shifted relative to where I am touching the screen with apple pencil.
I’ll add software for a similar need on Windows, i.e. touch enabled / pen enabled Windows Laptops:
Drawboard PDF is by far the prettiest AND most functional PDF reader to use with a touch pen I’ve tried.
It’s a native Windows app designed to fit in with Fluent / Windows Store apps.
Compared to Xodo, it’s much more polished and provides easy radial menus for quick access to tools using touch, however it takes a bit longer to start up initially. (However, once it’s loaded, opening more PDFs is quick)
It’s less powerful at editing than editing-focused PDF suites like Foxit or whatever, but also provides easy access to multiple PDFs at once and is great at research notes or studying.
Drawboard PDF has served me very well during the research phase of my Bachelor’s thesis.
Software: The free version of PDF Viewer Pro by PSPDFKit (https://apps.apple.com/de/app/pdf-viewer-pro-by-pspdfkit/id1120099014#?platform=ipad) for iPad
Need: A program for iPad for reading PDFs and writing/making notes in them using apple pencil. I use it to attentively read math textbooks and solve exercises in them, read psychotherapy self-help books and fill in worksheets in them, read difficult academic articles and write notes for myself.
Non-needs (i.e., if you need these, maybe you should disregard my recommendation, because I don’t use these): signing documents and sending them to people, rapidly giving feedback to people in the form of annotating their pdfs, collaborative anything, reading fiction without annotating or taking notes or anything, using a dictionary to look up unknown words.
Other programs I’ve tried: Xodo, Liquid Text, MarginNote3, Flexcil, Flexcil 2.
Pros:
I can easily add blank pages or pictures, remove pages.
Very good tools for writing or drawing inside a document.
It quietly saves my notes in the pdf file. I use MobiusSync, so the changes get synced to my computer, and there are no problems with seeing the notes in other PDF viewers.
Cons:
Doesn’t open djvu files. (but neither do any other of the compared programs)
A sketchy privacy policy written in legalese, so I can’t even understand what data it uploads and whether it uploads my documents.
Xodo provides all the same functional, but there are some bugs that make it worse than PDF Viewer Pro by PSPDFKit:
Sometimes I try to add a blank page after, let’s say, page 200, but instead it gets added after page 201 or page 199.
Erasing handwritten scribbles is buggy.
Tools for writing or drawing inside a document are much less pleasant to use.
Sometimes drawing becomes shifted relative to where I am touching the screen with apple pencil.
I’ll add software for a similar need on Windows, i.e. touch enabled / pen enabled Windows Laptops:
Drawboard PDF is by far the prettiest AND most functional PDF reader to use with a touch pen I’ve tried.
It’s a native Windows app designed to fit in with Fluent / Windows Store apps.
Compared to Xodo, it’s much more polished and provides easy radial menus for quick access to tools using touch, however it takes a bit longer to start up initially. (However, once it’s loaded, opening more PDFs is quick)
It’s less powerful at editing than editing-focused PDF suites like Foxit or whatever, but also provides easy access to multiple PDFs at once and is great at research notes or studying.
Drawboard PDF has served me very well during the research phase of my Bachelor’s thesis.