How to Open and Read PDFs on an iPad

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Nicole Levine, MFA. Nicole Levine is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. She has more than 20 years of experience creating technical documentation and leading support teams at major web hosting and software companies. Nicole also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Portland State University and teaches composition, fiction-writing, and zine-making at various institutions.

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If you've downloaded a PDF to your iPad, you can open and read the file just by tapping its name. If the PDF is longer or you're having trouble opening it in your iPad's built-in PDF viewer, follow this simple guide for opening PDF files in the Books app.

• Use the Books app on your iPad to open and read PDFs.
• Tap the Share icon

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• Open the App Store (the blue icon with a white "A" inside).
• Tap Search (the magnifying glass) at the bottom of the screen.
• Type apple books into the search bar and tap the Search key.
• Tap GET or the cloud icon next to "Apple Books" (the orange icon with a white book inside).

Navigate to the PDF. If the PDF is attached to an email message, open that email message now. If it's on the web, browse to the page where you found it.

• If you're using Safari, the Mail app, or the Gmail app, the PDF should open in a basic readable format. You can swipe left or right through the file to flip through the pages. If you just need a quick glance at the file, this could be enough for you. If you need to do more, keep reading!

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. It's the square with an upward-pointing arrow. It's at the bottom of the screen if you're using Safari or the Mail app, but could be in a different location in other browsers and apps.

Scroll right and tap Copy to Books . It's an orange icon in the icon list near the bottom of the screen. This saves the PDF to your library and launches the Apple Books app.

• Now that the PDF is saved to your library, you can view it at any time by tapping the orange Books icon on your home screen and selecting the file.

• To view a visual table of contents that lets you quickly switch between pages, tap the PDF once to bring up the toolbar, and then tap the icon of three lines prefaced by three dots near the top-left corner. [2] X Research source
• To bookmark a page, tap the screen once, and then tap the bookmark icon at the top-right corner.

• Tap the undo icon (the curved arrow pointing left inside of a circle) at the top to reverse your changes.
• Tap the back button (the at the top-left corner) to return to your library. This will save any changes you made in Markup, although you can return to Markup at any point to add or remove markings.

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Tap the Share icon to share the file with others. If you need to send the PDF to someone else, you'll need to do so from the Apple Books app. Simply open the PDF in Apple Books, tap the screen once to bring up the toolbar, and then tap the Share icon (the box with an upward-pointing arrow) at the top to bring up the sharing options. Choose any email, messaging, or cloud sharing option to share the file.

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Community Q&A

What do I do if I can see the PDF, but I can't access it? Community Answer Look for a new PDF reader on the App Store that will let you edit the PDF.

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