

Then, click PDFs under Library on the left side of the app and double-click on the PDF you want to open. You can open a PDF from Books by clicking the Library tab at the top of the screen. There are a few different places you can open PDFs from. How To Use Preview As A PDF Reader On MacĪpple has built an excellent PDF reader and markup tools into Preview on Macs. Turn on the switch next to iCloud Drive to sync your PDFs across your Apple devices. Then, tap iCloud and turn on the switches next to iCloud Drive and Books.įinally, go back to the main page of Settings and scroll down to Books. On iPhone and iPad, open Settings and tap on your name at the top of the screen. Turning on Books in iCloud Drive allows you to view your PDFs across all of your Apple devices. You can view all of your PDFs in the Books app by going to Library and tapping Collections -> PDFs. If you’re reading a particularly long PDF and want to save your progress, tap the Bookmark button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. If it’s a word or phrase you’re unfamiliar with, you can tap Search Web or Search Wikipedia at the bottom of the screen to learn more. Tap the Search button to look for a specific word within the PDF. The AA button allows you to increase the brightness of the PDF and swap between horizontal or vertical scrolling. Tap the plus button in the lower right-hand corner of the screen to type out text, add a signature, magnify a certain part of the PDF, or add shapes to the document.

From here, you can highlight text, write notes, and more. Tap the button Markup button (look for the marker tip inside of a circle) to annotate the PDF. You’ll see a few different buttons in the toolbar. Once in the Books app, tap on the PDF to display the toolbar. Find the Books icon in the row of apps and tap it to send the PDF to the Books app. To open a PDF in Books on your iPhone or iPad, tap the Share button (look for the box with an arrow pointing up).


If you aren’t a fan of Apple’s native PDF readers, we’ll recommend our favorite third-party PDF reader app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
