Hello,
I can’t seem to find a PDF viewer that wraps text instead of having to zoom in and scroll sideways. I find it difficult, if not impossible to actually read PDF text files this way.
Is it just me being old ? Am I missing setting or a special way of pinching the screen that I’ve not discovered yet?
So far I’ve tried “Pdf Viewer Plus” and “Open Document Reader”. I’ve heard of some non-free apps, but I’d like to avoid that, and if possible, an app already in the default /e/store.
Cheers,
While I don’t have an App recommendation, the feature you are looking for is mostly called “text reflow”.
It works a bit against the intention behind the PDF format, i.e. to always present document pages exactly in their original layout. But PDF viewers with text reflow do exist.
Be aware that some PDF documents might not include any plain text but only graphics (perhaps showing text).
Text reflow might not work with such files if the PDF viewer has no built-in OCR feature to try to recognize text in graphics.
Thanks for the explanation and the “text reflow” terminology.
I’d also be fine with an ODT file reader (I had tried that, even RTF).
My workflow could be → write with LibreOffice and export to any format that would be readable on the phone.
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/android-and-ios/
https://de.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-viewer-fuer-android/
I’m not sure I get it, but, Libreoffice Viewer doesn’t appear to wrap text. I haven’t tried Collabora (yet), could anyone confirm it wraps text?
I installed Collabora Office 6.4 from F-Droid (after adding the Collabora F-Droid repo https://www.collaboraoffice.com/downloads/fdroid/repo/)
Trying it out by opening a couple of PDFs, and it looks like it does not support reflowing text. On the documents I tried, it opens the file at a zoom level that shows the whole page. Zooming in to make the text bigger does not reflow the text
What about ODT files?
No idea - sorry. I don’t have any ODT files lying around. I assume it would behave the same as LIbreOffice, but I’m not in a position to check
Thanks a lot for the feedback, that saves me a lot of time.
I’d have thought too. I’m actually genuinely surprised that trying to find a program that does this has become a quest.
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I mentioned the LibreOffice stuff in the context of viewing ODT files on the phone.
Edit: Ok, qPDF was a shot too quick. Turns out some links are defunct, but it’s still there in a way …
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0065L6ZKC
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0065L6ZKC
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0065L6ZKC
Edit2: Back on the computer, I tried a few things. Didn’t get very far with LibreOffice Viewer. Collabora Office displays ODT files just fine, but without text reflow 
… unless you enable edit mode and alter the page width 
.
So, you’re right, it’s a quest.
Edit 3: Moon+ Reader has a PDF text reflow feature. Thanks, Reddit … random example PDF file from the internet: https://dagrs.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/2020-01/sample.pdf …
Zoomed in a bit …
Tap once for UI and hit the button at the top …
Et voilà …
And back again …
Wow, it looks like it might work! I can’t say the ergonomics are great, I’m not sure I’d have figured it out without your screenshots (thanks a bunch).
It’s sadly not Free Software (I had to activate non-free to get this), though, it does seem to work. I will also consider buying a printer, or a small handheld computer.
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Thanks again for your help.
