iBooks is Perfect for PDFs on an iPad

[quasinormal]

I have an extensive range of PDF files that wanted to load on an ipad,

These are mostly magazine articles. I use Newsstand and the books section of iBooks. I like the way how the PDFs are separated from books, which would be hard to find amongst the 50,000 plus files i have.

Itunes will take the first page of the article and make it the cover art. It would appear you can edit the metadata just like an audio or video file.

I now be able to ditch the other 4 PDF programs i have on the ipad that also had importing issues for me.

Sorry for starting a thread but I'm so happy to find this feature, and just wanted to be sure everybody else that was struggling with PDFs did too. Now, If only I could learn how tp merge in Preview.

EDIT i wanted to change the title to "iBooks on a ipad and Itunes on a Mac are perfect for PDF files" but i can't edit the title.

 

[apunkrockmonk]

If you want to change the title of your thread you have to go to the advanced mode after you go to edit.

 

[deeddawg]

For just basic PDF reading, then yes iBooks works well.

Just pointing out for the benefit of those who may need to do serious annotating/highlighting, there are apps with this support. I've been pleased with PDF Expert and it's support for syncing against Dropbox; I just sync my class folders on my mac with Dropbox as well and all my readings are easily at hand on my ipad.

 

[StructAural]

I like Good Reader (site is down at the moment)

 

[andyvp]

I like Dropbox for PDF. It makes getting the PDFs on the iPad drag and drop simple and works well as a reader.

 

[Tones2]

Good Reader is much better than iBooks for PDF, as well as several other apps.

Tony

 

[gloomcookie1]

And becuase iBooks is great with PDF's an awesome use is to download any manuals for your electronic equipment, etc. Just make a new bookshelf called manuals - download the manuals or open in iBooks from the site and as Steve would say...Boom!

I really do like iBooks - excited to see the update.

 

[matt90036]

iBooks is only great for reading PDFs. For everything else iBooks is horrible. Here is why:
- no indexing, so searching for a keyword can take 20 minutes
- no annnotating of any kind

 

[Tones2]

One of the BIG advantages that apps like Goodreader has over iBooks for reading PDF is being able to adjust the margin display to minimize white space on the page, which for technical documents which a lot of pictures can add a lot of screen space. Also, the annotating is worlds better on Goodreader than in iBooks.

The ONLY advantage tha I can see with iBooks over Goodreader (and like apps) is being able to store all reading material (books & pdf's) in one library. Nothing else really.

Tony

 

[..-.]

I have liked iSilo since Palm PDA days for doc reading. I've since converted over several iSilo documents to PDFs and like iBook much better as iSilo is not very iOSy.

An advantage iSilio has is that it can suck in a Web site and create a document with the links and hierarchy of the original site. Anything that can convert a Website to a link enabled PDF? That would let me use everything in iBooks.

Frank

 

[yinc]

I personally really like iAnnotate PDF for reading coding books, it supports downloading pdf from the internet or transfering books from itunes. It opens up books in tabs like a web browser which make it so much easier to switch from 1 book to another without closing them. Also big features of the app are highlight, bookmark and take notes, it has a huge selection of tools for doing these.
One main reason I like this app is that it can lock zoom in and zoom out screen size, so once you move onto the next page, pages still remain the same size. It is very useful for reading programming books since majority of them have very huge white space one each side of a page.
One disadvantage I would say is the high price tag, it costs about 10 bucks. However, to me its well worth the price.

 

[iPagan]

PDF Expert is the best.

 

[bigtallguy]

And becuase iBooks is great with PDF's an awesome use is to download any manuals for your electronic equipment, etc.

This is exactly what I do now. It's really nice to have them all in one place and not have to worry about losing the original manual after purchasing a device.

 

[tmagman]

definitely like it for school. Lots of my textbooks have digital pdf copies and it saves me a few pounds of luggage every day.

 

[saberahul]

iBooks is decent. Many features (or lack of) make me want to use GoodReader or PDF Expert (I prefer PDF Expert as it has a better UI than GR and does syncing faster). My 2¢.

 

[BrunoWill]

I am sure that you haven't tried another PDF Readers, you will find iBooks for PDF is not as good as you think.

 

[Calidude]

iBooks is just fine if you don't need to edit PDFs. Don't make these people make you think its worth spending 10 bucks on something you don't need.

For those who hate iBooks and want something free, Cloudreaders is good too, but not as fast as iBooks.

 

[moderngamenewb]

definitely like it for school. Lots of my textbooks have digital pdf copies and it saves me a few pounds of luggage every day.

Not too mention they're often cheaper too

 

[quasinormal]

I have tried more than a few other PDF readers, including Good Reader, but have rejected them for being too un-Mac like and difficult to use. I just don't have the attention span or the patience to deal to deal with applications that don't conform to a Mac ideal of intuition and usability. I suspect a lot of iOS developers just don't get the whole idea of a Mac and just cater for [ex] Windows users, like themselves.

The worst example I've seen is the Zinio reader App especially in OS X. It looks Mac OK, but the interface is absolute garbage.

I've found you can categorise the PDFs into different collections by using the edit and move buttons. I don't need annotation, just a reader. I am still working my way round this PDF/ePub thing.

I'll post back when I finally get my head around this thing and make some rough guide to iBooks. I've now gotta work out how to retrieve bookmarks.