This version of GoodReader is designed for iPhone / iPod touch. If you're using iPad, GoodReader for iPad app would be much more useful.

GoodReader is a file viewer with many powerful features, most of which address PDF and TXT viewing.

GoodReader is a very complex application. It incorporates a lot of non-obvious features and solutions. We strongly encourage you to read all our manuals, otherwise it will be hard for you to enjoy the full power of GoodReader.

Here you will find a brief description of GoodReader's features with links to more detailed manuals.

File types to view in GoodReader

PDF Annotations, Highlights and Markups

Transferring files to/from GoodReader

Automatic Synchronization

Tips for folder navigation

Managing files/folders, sending e-mail

Password protection

Data Protection (File Encryption)

Buttons on the main screen

Video out adapter

Wireless printing (AirPrint)

Disabling device auto-lock when reading

Integration with other apps

Known limitations

Help us to help you


File types to view in GoodReader

There are two types of viewing engines - the ones that we wrote ourselves, and the built-in device's standard viewing engine. Our own engines provide great flexibility and many additional features not found in the built-in engine (for example, opening very large files). The built-in engine is very powerful and knows many file formats, but has many limitations and no additional features.

Files of very big size (our own viewing engine):

And as a free bonus - files of normal size (iOS standard viewing engine):

 


PDF Annotations, Highlights and Markups

Annotate your PDF files and save your comments and drawings directly into a PDF file to share with others.

 


Transferring files to/from GoodReader

 


Automatic Synchronization

GoodReader can automatically sync individual files and entire folders to their remote versions hosted on online servers of the following types: MobileMe iDisk, Dropbox, SugarSync and any other WebDAV or FTP server. Please see our manual on this.

 


Tips for folder navigation

 


Managing files/folders, sending e-mail

There is a powerful set of features accessible by pressing the Actions button in a file list view. You can send files to other apps that support Apple's Document Interchange. You can create new folders, and rename/copy/move/delete existing files and folders. You can compress multiple files and folders into .zip archives, and you can unzip .zip archives. You can also send files via e-mail from GoodReader. You can mark files as read/unread, set/remove a password protection for individual files/folders, set/remove a star for a file or folder, extract files from PDF Portfolios, create new TXT files for further editing, and create a task in Appigo Todo app. You can also create a special URL link for integration with other apps. Read more here.

 


Password protection

There are three ways to protect your sensitive data:

You can combine all these methods for extra security, if you don't mind entering three different passwords to open a single file.

iOS 4 introduces multitasking, which redefines the application startup concept a little bit. Now real app startup is a rare thing to happen. More often you will be bringing apps from the background, which is not a real app startup. However, it is a very common thing for a user to send an app to the background and forget about it for a while. Which brings a need to re-enter a password when re-activating already running copy of GoodReader after a certain period of time. GoodReader defines this period of time as 10 minutes. However, there's the Paranoid mode switch available in settings, General section, which will force re-entering of a password after any app re-activation, if you prefer this.

Be careful not to forget your startup and protected files passwords, because no way of retrieving or resetting these passwords is provided. However, if you have forgotten your passwords, the only way to reset them is to delete and reinstall the app, which will also erase all your files and settings.

If you're really concerned about security, you may also want to encrypt your iTunes Backup files.

 


Data Protection (File Encryption)

GoodReader takes advantage of iOS's Data Protection API. This API encrypts files, to make sure that your data will be secure, even if your device gets lost or stolen. While this feature is designed to be as transparent and effortless as possible, there are some procedures that need to be performed to enforce data encryption. Also, some limitations apply, so please be sure to read the following section, if you want to use this feature.

Data Protection provides a fairly strong level of data security. If you use it properly, it will continue to protect your files even if an attacker jailbreaks your device and uses various hacking techniques to access encrypted files. You can also use Apple's Remote Wipe feature to erase all data remotely from a lost or stolen device.

Data Protection works in conjunction with the passcode that you use to unlock your device. If you don't lock your device with a passcode, your files will NOT be encrypted. However, locking a device with a passcode doesn't automatically mean that your files will be encrypted. The following conditions must also be met (we have divided them into two categories - Apple's prerequisites and GoodReader's usage rules).

Apple's side of protection:

GoodReader's side of protection:

Things to consider:

 


Buttons on the main screen

Actions  opens up additional menu to work with files and folders. See Manage Files, Send E-mail for more details.
 
  enters the WiFi-transfer page used for WiFi file transfers. For security reasons and to save your battery power, transfer is allowed only when you're on the WiFi-transfer page. This button opens this page. See WiFi File Transfer section for more details.
 
  rotates interface. GoodReader lets you choose between autorotation and manual rotation of the screen. If you feel that sudden screen autorotations are a little annoying when you're reading in bed, you can turn autorotation off in General section of Application Settings and then you can always rotate the screen manually with this button. Manual rotations can be done in 2 or 3 ways (selectable option on the Application Settings page).
 
  Find File. Use it to find files/folders in one of four modes: find by a name, recently read, recently added, starred.
 
  enters the Application Settings page, where you can change many GoodReader settings.
 
  controls external video output
 
     
   tap in the middle of the navigation bar (right below the clock) to see the stack of all enclosing folders and to quickly jump to those folders

 


Video out adapter

GoodReader supports Apple's Video out adapters to show your documents/movies on an external computer display, TV or a projector (iPhone 4 is required). There's a dedicated button on the main screen of GoodReader that may appear in one of three states:

  Video out adapter is not connected, button is disabled
 
  Video out adapter is connected, but the feature is not activated. Press this button to activate the feature.
 
  Video out adapter is connected, the feature is activated. Open a document or a movie to start sending video signal to an external display. Press this button again to deactivate the feature.

 


Wireless printing (AirPrint)

GoodReader supports AirPrint capabilities of iOS for wireless printing (iOS 4.2 or later is required, works on devices with multitasking capabilities - iPad, iPhone 4/3GS, iPod touch 3 gen. or newer models, requires AirPrint-enabled printers). To print a file, open it and use this button:

 


Disabling device auto-lock when reading

Usually your device uses the auto-lock feature (after a certain period of inactivity screen dims and then turns off). You can let GoodReader temporarily disable device auto-lock while reading (it will be restored once you close a file). This option is configured on the Application Settings page. Disabling auto-lock may discharge your battery faster.

 


Integration with other apps

GoodReader fully supports Apple's Document Interchange feature (iOS 4 or later). It works both ways:

 

GoodReader also offers integration with other apps via mechanism of custom URL addresses. Other applications that support opening URLs can use a special URL generated by GoodReader to launch GoodReader and to open a file encoded in this generated URL. For example, it could be a to-do app or notebook app. Basically, any app where you can paste an URL generated by GoodReader and later click on that URL to open it.

GoodReader provides an easy 1-click integration with to-do app called Appigo Todo.

Integration with other apps can be achieved by using the Link button in Actions menu. More information here.

 


Known limitations

GoodReader heavily relies on iOS capabilities. Some features that are related to file viewing are limited on iPhone/iPod/iPad. Here are some limitations that we know of:

 


Help us to help you

GoodReader was dramatically improved since its earlier versions. The only thing that made it possible is user feedback. Our customers sent us a lot of problematic files, we studied those files, came to certain conclusions, and finally we were able to write a better code. We can't improve our application if you don't talk to us. We might actually solve the problem if you tell us about it! So we encourage you to send us as much feedback or feature requests as possible. Help us to help you!