Potential to be the best PDF reader/annotation app
BiLibre is an amazingly good PDF reader. It is extremely fluid and it is a true joy to read PDF books and documents on it. The app is created and managed by a single programmer/designer. I think this is why everything is so well integrated in the app, with full control over programming and design. Everything is intuitive and just makes sense. BiLibre is the only PDF reader that manage to get page transitions right. No matter the page format or zoom level, the handleling of page turning is near perfect which makes it easy to concentrate on what you are reading instead of the app itself. The app has Horizontal Scroll Lock which once you tried it you can’t live without. Zoom in on any text and tap with two fingers on the screen and you can now scroll vertically without scrolling horizontally by mistake. (it should not be deactivated when you zoom though) One thing that could be improved is the bottom navigation bar, it is a bit cumbersome to use it for precise navigation. Annoatations The annotation features are very good, but they still need some work. A few examples: The marker pen has a maximum width of 32 pixels. This is not enough to mark up large texts. Two transparent strokes over each other within the same drawing gets more opaque when the transparency ought to be the same. The floting annotation toolbar is quite annoying an gets in the way. There is unfortunately no way to dock it to the top where it would be less unobtrusive. You can’t fully deactivate the annotation toolbar to get back full control over the screen, there is always a tool active which makes the reading suboptimal while the toolbar is visible. It would be better if it could be fully deactivated but still visable ready to activate for markings and drawings. I wish thumnails could show annotations for easier navigation like some other apps. Annotating features I miss are audio notes and the possibility to create links from drawings and text to other pages in the book and to URL. Lastly there is no way to duplicate or edit multiple drawings which make annotating quite time consuming. Resize drawings does not work but that might just be a bug. Other features that would be great is autoscrolling, true full screen and slideshow. But these are minor drawbacks that can be fixed. All in all this is THE greatest PDF reader app for ios. Annotation features are also very good, and with some minor improvements this could very well become the optimal PDF reader/annotation app.
