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How does Goodreader with PDFs look with new Ipad?

S

steffi

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2003
873
14
If you have a new iPad and use Goodreader to read PDFs can you describe how much improved the reading experience now is?
 
I'm eager to find this out too. If nobody posts an update, I'll update here after mine comes in and gets set up tomorrow. I read all my magazines in PDF format via GoodReader. :)
 
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Goodreader is actively developed. I'm sure a Retina update will be released soon if it's not already.
 
I'm wondering the same. The key question is whether Goodreader's PDF rendering engine sends fonts to the iPad's native font rendering engine. Any app that uses native font rendering (which should be the large majority) will see the full benefit of the retina display right away. Apps that render their own fonts (it turns out for example that the Kindle app is one of these) will have pixelated fonts until the app is updated. It could be a few months before many updates roll out.

Goodreader has a "fast engine" and "slow engine" setting, so anyone with an iPad 3 please try both.
 
So was I! That's why GoodReader and iBooks were my first apps on my iPad...

Good News: iBooks is amazingly clear - for ePub and PDF

Bad News: GoodReader pdf text was not perceptively different from pdf text on an iPad 1. It looks pixelated. I'd bet that means that GoodReader will have an update soon. I think they're rendering for a different size display.

I'd like to hear other POV - am I right on this? To compare, I loaded up the same books in iBooks (PDF and ePub) and GoodReader (PDF). (The RSpec book by Pragmatic Press - a great book on TDD! Go get it!)

IMO, clear and clean PDF beats ePub (for text books)

----------

[/COLOR]Until GoodReader is updated for better iPad/hiRes/text display, I'm opting for iBooks for PDFs - even though they don't do a nice job of cropping like GoodReader.
 
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Scanned PDFs will of course look no different (perhaps a little bit more pixely even, just like non-retina apps). Normal PDFs should hopefully look amazing once Goodreader updates.
 
unobtainium said:
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Scanned PDFs will of course look no different (perhaps a little bit more pixely even, just like non-retina apps). Normal PDFs should hopefully look amazing once Goodreader updates.
Click to expand...


FYI My reference above wasn't about scanned PDFs - it was in regards to PDFs by Pragmatic Press and O'Reilly.
 
PDFs in Papers look AMAZING. Any vector graphics are ... I am not one for hyperbole, but it's stunning. PDFs in Goodreader should be fine, even before they update their scalar graphic assets.

edit: I stand corrected.
 
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I haven't tried Goodreader, but I used the Pearson eText App and the text and images are amazingly crisp. Even though the text is smaller, it is just as legible to read as the full sized textbook - without any zooming. The entire page fits perfectly!
 
I'll just have to see this for myself, It may be that the small 10" screen will benefit from the increased resolution (more so than a larger screen).

But larger screens don't benefit substantially from resolution increase when viewing most test documents, as far as I can tell.

I don't know.
 
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Just got my new iPad. Goodreader does not take advantage of the retina display in any mode. Need to wait for an app update. But I can say that PDFs in iBooks or the native viewer look incredible!
 
Just tried

PDF on good reader looks like iPad/iPad2 - pixelated. Word documents and plain text documents looks very nice though. I hope it gets updated soon, I read PDF files on it a lot.
 
Looks like I'll be opening my magazines in iBooks (and use GoodReader as my filesystem) for now. I opened up April 2012 Runner's World magazine and it looked rough in GoodReader. Definitely looked sharper and better in iBooks.

Here's to hoping for an update to GoodReader soon! All of my software development books and magazines are on GoodReader. :/
 
Pdf expert isn't updated yet, I don't think, but the pdfs and text still look amazing. I think they using the default renderer.

What happens is when you first load the page on a pdf, it starts blurry, then pretty quickly, each line, one after anther, suddenly become amazingly sharp. Many images in pdfs still suck though. And this even in ibooks
 
Goodreader is, for the moment, essentially useless on the new ipad. The display of PDF file is actually much worse than on the ipad 2 (presumably because subpixel antialiasing doesn't work anymore without proper retina support?).

It is scandalous that they still haven't updated the app for full retina support. For a long time everyone knows the new ipad will have retina screen, and they should have prepared a new version beforehand.
 
amadeoh said:
Goodreader is, for the moment, essentially useless on the new ipad. The display of PDF file is actually much worse than on the ipad 2 (presumably because subpixel antialiasing doesn't work anymore without proper retina support?).

It is scandalous that they still haven't updated the app for full retina support. For a long time everyone knows the new ipad will have retina screen, and they should have prepared a new version beforehand.
Click to expand...

I agree it's much worse than the iPad 2 and it has rendered the app useless. I'm sure they will update soon.
 
goodreader tutorial

New to online forums and I was born when unicorns roamed the earth...read not tech savvy. I am looking for an online tutorial on how to use goodreader and to learn it's complexities and to make the most out of it.
I live in the Bay area and would also be interested in taking a class.

Suggestions?
 
PDFs are horrible on iPad 3 in Goodreader - however, the same ones look great in the Dropbox app, so I'll just be using that for the time being.
 
Spdgdss said:
New to online forums and I was born when unicorns roamed the earth...read not tech savvy. I am looking for an online tutorial on how to use goodreader and to learn it's complexities and to make the most out of it.
I live in the Bay area and would also be interested in taking a class.

Suggestions?
Click to expand...

I don't know that anyone teaches a GoodReader class specifically, but here's a Google search that seems to have decent GoodReader tips and even videos to watch and learn. http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=goodreader+tutorial&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

I use it as my filesystem, because I can create folders of PDF's like "Magazines", "Software Development", "Triathlon", etc... that way it has all of my files organized. You can also use the "Open In" feature to take any file that's on GoodReader and open it in other apps (such as iBooks). To do that, you click "Manage Files" button, select the file you want to open in another app, and then press the "Open In" button.
 
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