A PDF reader that only shows the PDF. And sends nothing anywhere.
Opensolr PDF Reader is a free, open source PDF reader for Android. The pages fill the screen with nothing on the edges, zoom is fast and sharp, and any text can be selected with handles and a magnifier and copied, even on a scanned page, whose text is read on the phone when you ask for it.
No network in the Google Play build. The app does not have the permission, so Android will not let it open a connection. The GitHub build uses the network for one thing only: checking for its own updates. No account, no sign-in, no analytics, no ads.
Free and open source under the MIT license. Android 8.0 or newer. No account of any kind. The signed APK is on GitHub.
On a real phone.
A public standards document, read the way the app reads every PDF: the pages, the controls, the zoom, the selection.
Six things a PDF reader should do. Nothing it should not.
Most PDF readers want an account, a subscription, a cloud, a toolbar on every edge. This one opens the PDF and gets out of the way: read it, zoom into it, copy from it, send it on.
1 · Only the pages
Every page the width of the screen, one under the other, with the system bars hidden. No toolbar, no page counter over the text. A tap shows the controls, another tap hides them.
2 · Zoom that keeps up
Pinch, or double tap to zoom in and out. Drag and fling with inertia across a zoomed page. When it stops, the part on screen is drawn again at the resolution of the screen, so small print stays sharp.
3 · Select text like anywhere else
Long press a word, then drag the two handles letter by letter, with a magnifier under your finger. The selection runs across pages and scrolls by itself at the edges. Copy, or take the whole page.
4 · Text from scans, on the phone
A page that is only a picture, a scan or a photographed receipt, has its text read on the phone when you long press it, that page only, in a second or two. English and Romanian, nothing sent anywhere.
5 · Share in one tap
From the right edge: Add to Dropbox when the Dropbox app is on the phone, then the two apps you share PDFs to most, then the share sheet. The PDF goes under its own name.
6 · It stays on the phone
No network permission in the Google Play build; the GitHub build only checks for its own updates. No account, no analytics, no ads. Your PDFs go somewhere only when you share them.
A PDF comes in. Its pages and its text are yours.
The pages are drawn by PDFium, the PDF engine of the Chrome browser, inside the app. Text comes from the PDF itself, or, on a page that is a picture, from Tesseract OCR running on the phone.
- Install the APKFrom the latest GitHub release. Android asks once whether your browser may install apps.
- Make it the defaultOpen any PDF, pick Opensolr PDF Reader and tap Always. From then on every PDF opens straight into its pages.
- ReadZoom, scroll, long press to copy. Tap the page for Back, the page number and Share.
A PDF reader, in detail.
Every behaviour below is in the app today, and in the documentation, one page per topic.
The pages, edge to edge
One under the other, the width of the screen, with a thin gap between pages. The status bar and the navigation bar hide while you read and come back with the controls. Reading.
Pinch, double tap, fling
Zoom up to eight times around your fingers; double tap zooms in where you tapped and back out. A zoomed page moves with inertia and is redrawn sharp once it stops. Reading.
Selection with handles and a magnifier
A long press selects the word under your finger; keep the finger down to stretch it, or drag either handle later, one letter at a time, across pages. A magnifier shows the text under your finger while you drag. Copying text.
Copy, or the whole page
Copy and Whole page float above the selection. Copy puts the text on the clipboard with its spaces and line breaks; Whole page selects every word of the page first. Copying text.
Scanned pages read on demand
When a page has no text of its own, a long press reads it with OCR on the phone: the picture is evened out first, then read two ways, and the better reading wins. Only that page, only when you ask. Scanned pages.
Add to Dropbox, your apps, Share
Along the bottom, from the right: Add to Dropbox opens the Dropbox app’s own upload screen, then the two apps you share PDFs to most, learned from what you pick, then the system share sheet. Sharing.
Back to where you were
Top left, the name of the app the PDF came from, the way an iPhone shows it. Tap it and you are back in that app, exactly where you left it. Back.
Your default PDF viewer
It answers Open with for every PDF on the phone, from any app. Pick it once and tap Always. Default viewer.
Updates without a store
The GitHub build checks the latest GitHub release once a day and installs it when you tap Update. The Google Play build has no network at all and is updated by Google Play. Updates.
Not a policy. A permission it does not have.
Where your PDFs go
Nowhere, until you share one.
- No network permission in the Google Play build. Android enforces it; you can check it in the app’s permissions.
- The GitHub build reaches github.com for one thing: its own updates, once a day.
- The OCR runs on the phone. Its models are inside the app; no page is sent anywhere to be read.
- No accounts, no sign-in, no analytics, no crash reporting, no ads.
What it asks for
Almost nothing.
- No storage permission. It reads the one PDF another app hands it, or the one you pick.
- Vibration, for the tap under your finger.
- Readable in the source. The whole app is on GitHub under the MIT license.
Every line is on GitHub.
Opensolr PDF Reader is MIT licensed. Read how the selection works, build the APK yourself, or fork it and make it yours.
Source code
Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, with PDFium and Tesseract. github.com/phpcip/opensolr-pdf-reader
Documentation
Installing, the default viewer, reading and zoom, copying text, scanned pages, sharing, back, updates, privacy. Read the documentation
Releases
Every version with its signed APK and release notes. All releases
Three steps, about a minute.
- Download the APK on your phoneopensolr-pdf-reader.apk, the latest signed release from GitHub. Android 8.0 or newer.
- Allow the installAndroid asks once whether your browser may install apps. Allow it for this install.
- Open a PDF and tap AlwaysOpen any PDF, from Files, Drive or a mail, pick Opensolr PDF Reader and tap Always. Step by step.
Just the PDF. On your phone.
Free, open source, no account, no network on Google Play. Full-screen pages, fast sharp zoom, text selection with handles, text from scans read on the phone, and Add to Dropbox in one tap.