this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2021
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Privacy

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Recommend me a free and open source PDF reader for Android (that respects privacy).

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 years ago

Librera Pro, a beast

For a lighter one, MuPDF

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 years ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

Obrigado pela dica. Baixei alguns leitores de PDF para testá-los e, dentre os que baixei, o 'MuPDF viewer' foi o que atendeu melhor as minhas necessidades: é simples, objetivo e, o melhor, extremamente leve.

Percebi que você é português. É legal ver outras pessoas aqui teclando em português. Sinto bastante falta de comunidades que falem nosso idioma.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

This doesn't allow copying, sharing or printing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 years ago (1 children)

I'd suggest MuPDF or MuPDF mini which are both available on Fdroid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

Yes, thank you. I downloaded the “MuPDF viewer” (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.artifex.mupdf.viewer.app) - is simple, objective and, best, extremely light.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 years ago (1 children)

I use and recommend https://f-droid.org/es/packages/org.sufficientlysecure.viewer/.

However, https://f-droid.org/es/packages/com.github.axet.bookreader/ can adapt text view in PDFs as an E-Book or HTML page so a person can read more easily.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

It doesn't allow copying, searching or printing as far as I know.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

Both allow searching books and books' content at least. The second allow copying text too.

I need to test printing.

Edited: I don't see options for printing in any of both. If you can, set that on the post's title, to allow people recommending apps to know what you expect.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

In the first one I didn't find the search function the last time I tried it. I will try again with the latest version. The second one I'm actually using too for ebooks and it is a very nice app for that purpose. But for PDF files it seems to do some conversion and because of that PDF files often do not look as expected.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

In the first, you must go to the top bar of each book and choose first option where there is an arrow. It will display a list of options and one of them is to search content. That has been from several versions ago when I first used it in 2016-2017.

For the issues in the view in the second app, try disabling the second option in the top bar. That is for making an in-place conversion to make it easier to read.

For copying in the second app, take in account the space of the screen used for changing between pages, etc. Don't move the finger until you ensure word selection and then move to extend it. Use to be easier to do it from the centre of the screen where no options can be enabled if the finger is moved.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

Ok, I found the search function now. I don't know how I missed it. But still printing and copying would be nice features for a PDF viewer.

For tge second app disabling that option helped but it is quite slow and unstable compared to others and it seems like it doesn't support encrption. But it's still my favorite ebook reader.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

Yes, the second app may have some issues. For copying you have this at least.

Don't worry for the first case, it is a bit hidden and some people miss it because of that and the old-style monotheme icons.

To be exact, I never tested encrypted PDF files in any of these apps so I cannot recommend you any specific for it.

I will look for printing in these days to see which one support it or report it you here if it happens that you find it first. This could be interesting for other people.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago

Book Reader in f-droid. Keeps a nice catalogue for you, too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

FBReader is a proprietary software though. Probably not something people here would want to use (regardless of the possible qualities of this app, one can never know what exactly the application does with your stuff). Open source versions have been discontinued and are no longer developed AFAIK.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago

I'm using Libera PRO. But this may changes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago

https://github.com/GrapheneOS/PdfViewer

The same PDF viewer GrapheneOS has. Super simple but it works

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

What I use and the best I found is:

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.gsnathan.pdfviewer

Unfortunately it doesn't allow copying or searching in PDF files so I'm also looking for something better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

I personally use Zathura, for vim users and people who hate using trackpads. this is a great choice

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

wait nvm I didn't read "android". I thought he was talking about linux

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

Is this one free software?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

Sadly no, the only one I found to be close enough (in ui as libera reader has more features) is this:

Librera Reader (Book and PDF reader) - https://f-droid.org/packages/com.foobnix.pro.pdf.reader