Working with PDFs on Acrobat Reader Android: New Experience

Last updated on Mar 26, 2024

Welcome to the Acrobat Reader app's new experience! We are excited to introduce our reimagined user interface which is designed to give you a modern, unified, and intuitive experience in working with PDFs.

A. Top menu B. Back button C. Liquid mode D. Comments list E. Share F. Search G. Overflow menu H. More tools menu I. Quick actions toolbar

Loving Acrobat Reader Android's new experience? Or have a concern?
We'd love to hear your feedback.

From an open file view, tap> Provide feedback on Acrobat.
On the page that opens, tap on a star to give your rating. The selected stars reflect your rating.
In the text box under it, enter your comment and then tap Submit.

Viewing PDFs

To locate a specific topic or term in your PDF:

From the top bar, tap
In the Search field, type the search term and then select from the keypad.
The search text is highlighted and displayed on the screen. You can use the < and > arrows in the top bar to see all occurrences of the search term.

Acrobat supports the Read-aloud feature that allows you to listen to a document in the language of your choice. If your device is in speaker mode, connected to the smart home device, or connected to earphones, the app prompts you to select the Read aloud option.

To have your document read aloud:

Tap> Read aloud.

It opens the file in Read-aloud mode and the text is read aloud.
To pause the audio, tap the Pause button from the bottom menu. You can replay the audio anytime by selecting the Play button.
To increase or decrease the audio speed, tap the Speed control button.
To change the audio language, tap

To have a specific text read aloud to you:

Tap on the text and then drag the handles to select the text that you want to be read aloud.
In the menu that appears, tap Read aloud.

Note:

Read aloud text feature has certain limitations and may not be available to use in the following cases:

Unknown language
Password protected document
Non-OCR scanned document
Shared file with commenting enabled
Device audio features are enabled

When you tap anywhere on the PDF, it hides the toolbars and displays the document in full-screen view. To exit the full-screen view and access the toolbars, tap again on the PDF.

You can view your PDF in the following different modes: Continuous, Single page, or Reading Mode. You can also enable Night mode.

To view your PDF in different modes:

From the top menu of the PDF, tap> View settings.
In the View settings menu, select one of the following viewing modes as desired:
- Continuous – It allows you to continuously scroll through the pages in your PDF.
- Single page – It allows you to view your document page-by-page. To change pages, swipe left or right, or tap the right or left edge of the document.
- Reading Mode – It gives you a continuous view of the pages with enlarged text for better readability. All PDFs are not compatible with Reading mode. For enhanced readability, we suggest that you view your PDFs in Liquid Mode.
To view the PDF in night mode, tap Night mode.

It enables the night mode that displays the text in light color against a dark screen. To switch back to the default view, tap > View settings and then tap Night mode.

To quickly bookmark the visible page:

Go to the page and then tap> Add Bookmark.
Or, tap> Bookmarks and Table of Contents. Then under Bookmarks, tap Add bookmark to this page.

It bookmarks the page and displays a confirmation message.

To find and bookmark pages:

Tap > Bookmarks and Table of Contents.
Tap Table to Contents and then select the page that you want to bookmark.
Tap Bookmarks > Add bookmark to this page.

It bookmarks the page and displays a confirmation message.

Note:

You can add only one bookmark per page.

To view all the bookmarks:

Tap > Bookmarks and Table of Contents.
The Bookmarks tab displays all the bookmarks added to the PDF.
To jump to a bookmarked page, tap the bookmark.

To rename a bookmark:

Tap> Bookmarks and Table of Contents.
Long press the bookmark that you want to rename.
From the menu, tap Rename.
Tap the bookmark name again to access the keypad.
Enter a new name and then tap Next from the keypad.

To delete a bookmark:

To delete the bookmark from the visible page, tap> Remove bookmark.
To find and delete bookmarks from other pages, tap> Bookmarks and Table of Contents.
To delete the bookmark of the visible page, tap Remove bookmark from page.
To delete bookmarks from other pages, tap the bookmark that you want to delete and then tap Remove bookmark from page.
Alternatively, long press the bookmark that you want to delete, and then from the menu, tap Delete.
To delete all the bookmarks, long press any bookmark, and then from the menu, tap Delete All.

To make your PDF easily readable and flowable, tap from the top menu.

It opens your file in Liquid Mode, which enhances the layout of your PDF to help you easily read documents on your phone or tablet device.

You can further enhance the readability in liquid mode by adjusting the text size, character spacing, and line spacing. To do so:

When in liquid mode, tap> Aa Text settings.
In the settings dialog, adjust the text settings as required.
Once done, tap on the document to apply the settings.
To discard the settings, tap Reset all.

Note:

Liquid Mode is currently available for English (en), Spanish (es), French (fr), German (de), Dutch (nl), Danish (da), Finnish (fi), Italian (it), Norwegian (nb), Portuguese (pt), and Swedish (sv).

Enjoying liquid mode? Or have a concern! Share your feedback here:

In liquid mode, tap> Provide feedback on Liquid Mode.
On the page that opens, tap on a star to give your rating. The selected stars reflect your rating.
Tap the Category drop-down and select a category for your concern, if needed.
In the text box under it, enter your comment.
To share your file with Adobe, tap Share my file with Adobe to enable the checkbox.
Tap Submit.

You can convert files in other formats to PDF format using the 'Create PDF' tool. To do so:

From an open file view, select > Create PDF.

Alternatively, from the files view, select > Create PDF.
From the page that opens, select the location from where you want to access the file.
Tap on the file that you want to convert to PDF.

It starts converting the file and displays a message to confirm.
Once the file is converted to PDF, you get a confirmation message as shown below. You can tap Open to view the PDF in the Acrobat Reader app or access it later from the list of files.

Modifying PDFs

From the bottom toolbar, tap Text.

It opens the document in ‘Add text’ mode, where the bottom toolbar displays tools for selecting text color and text size.
To select the text color:
1. Tap to activate the color palette and text size bar.
2. Tap and then tap on any color from the palette.
To change the text size:
1. Tap to open the Text size bar.
2. Drag the size bar to the desired text size.
Tap on the document where you want to add text.
In the text box that appears, enter the text and then tap on the document to add the text.
To resize the text box, drag the corner handles as required.
To move the text box to a different location, hold and drag the text box.
To add more text, tap on the document again and then follow the steps above.
Once done, tap < from the top-left corner to exit the ‘Add text’ mode.

To quickly add text to a blank space:

Tap on a blank space where you want to add text.
From the menu that appears, tap Text.
In the text box, enter your text and then tap elsewhere to add the text.

To edit, modify, or delete the added text:

Tap the text.
In the dialog that appears, take one or more of the following actions as required:
- To delete the text, tap
- To change the text color, tap and then select another color.
- To change the text size, tap tT and then drag the slider to the desired size.
- To edit the text, tap> Edit comment. Then, edit the text and tap > to enter the new text.
- To add a reply to the added text, tap the Reply field and add a reply. Tap to enter the reply.

Note:

The 'Text edit' dialog allows you to navigate through all the texts and comments added to the document. Use < and > arrows to access all the texts and comments on the document and modify them as required.

You can edit a PDF only if you have a subscription to Adobe Acrobat Premium or Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Tap > Edit PDF.

It opens the PDF in edit mode.
Tap the text that you want to edit. Move the handles of the selection box to adjust the selection as required.
From the menu that appears, tap Edit text.
In the edit pane, edit the text as required and then tap Save.
To discard the edits, tap X from the top bar.

To quickly edit some text on your PDF:

Tap on the text that you want to edit.
From the menu that appears, tap Edit text.
In the edit pane that opens, edit the text as required and then tap Save.

You can delete a text from your PDF only if you have a subscription to Adobe Acrobat Premium or Adobe Acrobat Pro.

To delete text on your PDF:

Tap > Edit PDF.

It opens the PDF in edit mode.
Tap the text that you want to delete. Move the handles of the selection box to adjust the selection as required.
From the menu that appears, tap Delete.

It deletes the selected text. You can restore the deleted text, by tapping from the top menu.

The current version of the Acrobat Reader app does not support editing images on PDF.

You can add images to a PDF only if you have a subscription to Adobe Acrobat Premium or Adobe Acrobat Pro.

To add a new image to a PDF:

Tap > Edit PDF.

It opens the PDF in edit mode.
From the bottom toolbar, tap Add image. Then, tap on a blank space on the document where you want to add an image.
From the add image panel, take one of the following two actions:
- Tap Add from photos: If prompted, allow access to photos. It opens the recent image gallery. You may tap an image to select from there. To select images from other apps, tap on one of any of the app icons that appear on the top panel, and select any image.
- Tap Add from Camera: If prompted to allow access to the camera, select a consent option, as desired. Next, focus the camera on the image and tap the capture icon. Once satisfied, select Ok.

To modify the added image:

Tap the image and take one or more of the following actions, as required:

To move the image, drag it to the desired location.
To resize the image, drag the blue corner handles as required.
To delete the image, tap
To rotate the image, tap or from the bottom menu.

To make drawings:

From the bottom toolbar, tap
It opens the file in ‘Add image’ mode, where the bottom toolbar displays tools for selecting Image color and Image line width.

For quick access to the 'Add image' mode, tap on a blank space on the document, and then from the menu that appears, tap Draw.
To change the drawing color:
1. Tap to activate the color palette.
2. Tap and then tap on any color from the palette.
To change the image line width:
1. Tap to open the line width picker.
2. Tap on the desired width bar.
Once you select the image line color and width, tap on the document and use a one-finger drag to draw an image.

Note: You can use a 2-finger scroll to scroll through the document and draw images where required.
To undo a step, tap from the top menu.
Tap < from the top menu to exit the ‘Add image’ mode.

To modify or delete a drawing:

Tap the image.
From the dialog that appears, take the following actions as required:
- To change the image color, tap
- To change the image line width, tap
- To delete the image, tap
- To add a comment to the image, tap Add a comment field and write your message. Once done, tap > from the top-right corner.
- To add a reply to an image, tap > Reply and then add a reply.

From the bottom toolbar, tap Highlight.

It opens the PDF in Highlight mode, which displays tools for highlighting, underlining, strikethrough, and color picker.
From the bottom toolbar, tap one of the following tools as required:
- to highlight text.
- to underline text.
- to strikethrough text.
Check the colorpicker icon to verify the display color. To change the color, tap and then from the color palette, tap a color to select it.
Drag over the text that you want to highlight/underline/strikethrough.

You can use the text-magnifier tool that appears to verify your selection.

It marks the text with selected annotation in the chosen color.

To quickly highlight/underline/strikethrough few lines:

Tap on the text that you want to mark and then drag the handles to select the lines.
In the menu that appears, take one of the following actions as required.
- Tap to highlight text.
- Tap to underline text.
- Tap to strikethrough text.

To modify a highlight/underline/strikethrough or add comments:

Tap the marked text.
In the dialog that appears, take one or more of the following actions as required:
- To change the color of the highlight, underline, or strikethrough, tap and tap on a color to select.
- To reply to the annotation, tap > Reply and enter your response.
- To add a comment to the annotation, tap on ‘Add a comment’ field and enter your comment.
- To delete the annotation, tap

To view the list of comments on your PDF:

From the top bar, tap

It opens the list of all the comments on the PDF.
To reply to a comment, tap Reply.
To edit a comment, tap> Edit comment.
To delete a comment, tap> Delete.

To Add comments on your PDF:

From the bottom toolbar, tap and then tap on the document where you want to add a comment.
Alternatively, tap on a blank space, and then from the menu that appears, tap Comment.
In the comment field that appears, type your message and then tap to post the comment.

The comment is posted on the doc in the form of .

To Add a comment on selected text:

Tap on the text and then drag the handles to select the text that you want to add a comment for.
In the menu that appears, tap Add comment.
In the ‘Add a comment’ field, type your comment and then tap
It highlights the selected text and adds a comment to it.

To edit or delete a comment:

Tap
In the edit comment dialog that appears:
- To edit the comment, tap> Edit comment.
- To delete the comment, tap
- To reply to the comment, tap on the Reply field and then enter your comment.

If you want to avoid typing on a mobile screen or simply want a faster way to add comments to a document, you can use the Acrobat Reader app's new 'Voice comment' feature. It allows you to record your message and post it on the document as a comment.

Note:

The Voice comments feature is currently not supported on files shared for review. To share a document with voice comments, you must remove the voice comments from the file and then send it for review.

To post one or more comments on your document:

Open the document and then from the bottom toolbar, select Comment.
Select and then tap where you want to add a voice comment.
Once the record dialog appears, start recording your message. When done, select to stop recording.
You can tap the play button to preview your recording and once satisfied, select to post your comment.

To delete the recorded message, tap

The voice comment is posted as shown below. To continue adding more comments, tap wherever you want to add comments and record your messages.
To modify the added comment, tap on the comment icon and take any of the following actions as required:
- Drag the icon to move to a different location.
- To listen to the added comment, tap
- To reply to the voice comment, tap the Reply field and type your message.
- To delete the voice comment, tap> Delete.

To quickly post a voice comment on a blank space:

Tap where you want to post a voice comment and then from the menu, select Text & voice comment.
On the Add a comment dialog, select and then start recording your message.
Once you are done, select to stop recording.
Preview the recording and then select to post your comment.

You can organize the pages of a PDF only if you have a subscription to Adobe Acrobat Premium or Adobe Acrobat Pro.

To organize pages:

Tap More tools > Organize pages.
Tap on one or more pages to select them and then take any of the following actions as required:
- To rotate pages: Tap or
- To reorder pages: Long press a page and then drag it to a new location.
- To delete pages: Tap and then confirm the action.
- To insert pages: Tap and then choose whether to insert another file or a blank page. Next, choose before or after. The app automatically saves the file.
- To extract pages: Tap . The extracted pages are automatically saved to your device as “Pages from <file name>”.

Filling forms

To fill and sign a form:

Open the form that you want to fill out and sign.
From the bottom toolbar, tap

It opens the form in ‘Fill & Sign’ mode where the bottom toolbar displays form editing tools.
Fill in the respective fields as per the following instructions.

To fill text fields:

Tap and then tap on the field where you want to add text.
It displays a text field along with a tool bar, as shown below.
Tap the text field again and enter your text.
To reposition the text box to align it with the text field, long-press the textbox. Once you see the magnifying symbol, move the textbox to the desired position.
To edit the text, tap the text box. Once you see the cursor and keypad, edit the text and then tap elsewhere to enter.
To change the text size, tap A or A as required.
To change the text color, tap the and then tap on any color from the color palette.
To delete the text field, tap
To change the text style from normal to combed, from the textbox menu, tap >

It changes the text style from normal to combed.

Note: Combed Text is a text style where each letter of the text is equally spaced out with the help of a sequence of boxes.
Once done, tap on the next field space, and then in the text box that appears, enter your text.
Once done, tap on the next field space, and then in the text box that appears, enter your text.

To fill radio option fields:

Tap on the field with the radio option.

It is automatically marked with one of the selected symbols: crossicon, checkicon, or bulleticon.
To change the symbol, tap the field again, and then from the menu, tap and then select another symbol.

It marks the field with the selected symbol.

To add signature and initials:

Create your signature and initials if not already done. To do so:
1. From the bottom toolbar or from textbox menu, tap signicon.
2. From the options at the bottom, tap Add signature. In the dialog that appears, draw you signature and then tap Done.
3. Tap signicon > Add initials. In the dialog that appears, draw your initials and then tap Done.
Note: You may also add an image as your signature or initials. To add an existing image, tap the image icon from the top menu. To take a new picture to be added as your signature, tap the camera icon and follow through with the workflow.
To add a signature:
1. Tap on the field where you want to add a signature.
2. From the textbox menu options, tap
  Else, from the bottom toolbar, tap
3. Your signature appears in the field.
  Note: Once you add a signature or initial to a form and save it, you cannot edit it again.
4. To adjust the placement of your signature, long-press your signature and then move it.
5. To adjust the size of your signature, tap your signature and then hold and drag the resize tool as desired.
Note: Once you add a signature or an initial to a form and save it, you cannot edit it again. So, when adding a signature or an initial, you see the following warning message.
To add your initials:
1. Tap on the field where you want to add your initials.
2. From the textbox menu, tap initialicon.
  Your initials appear in the field.
3. To adjust the placement of your signature, long-press your initials and then move it.
4. To adjust the size of your initials, tap it and then hold and drag the resize tool as desired.

You can modify the existing fields in a form using the Edit PDF feature, as described above. However, you cannot modify or delete the fields in a form after it's signed and saved.

Form fields cannot be automatically filled in. Acrobat Reader app supports auto-detection that helps you identify the form fields. For text fields, Acrobat may show suggestions based on the data you filled in earlier.

Sharing PDFs

With a subscription to Adobe Acrobat Premium or Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can export unshared PDF files to the following different formats:

Document formats: DOCX, DOC, RTF, XLSX, and PPTX
Image formats: JPEG and PNG

When exporting PDFs to document formats, you can also convert scanned text into actual text via optical character recognition. Acrobat supports many export languages. OCR recognition is not applicable to export to image formats.

To export a PDF:

From the bottom toolbar, tap >
In the Export PDF page that opens, select Document or Image as the export option, as required.
To export the PDF to a document format:
1. From the list of document formats under the Document tab, select a desired file format.
2. To change the language, tap the selected language and select a different language. By default, the export language is the same as your installed app. Acrobat app supports many export languages.
3. Tap Export.
4. Once the file is exported, you see a confirmation message as shown below. To open the exported file, tap Open. To dismiss the message, tap X.
To export the PDF to an image format:
1. Tap Image and then select one of the two image formats: JPEG or PNG.
2. In the page that opens, tap the pages that you want to export as images. Or, tap Select all to select all the pages.
3. To share the exported pages, select Share images from the bottom and complete the workflow.
4. To save the exported pages to the device, select Save to Photos. It displays a permission dialog if Acrobat is accessing your Photos for the first time. From the dialog, select an appropriate option to continue.
5. Once the images are exported and saved in the device Gallery, you see a confirmation message.

With a premium subscription, you can compress files to reduce their size. Compressed files consume less bandwidth and are easier and faster to work with. You cannot compress files that have been previously compressed.

To compress a PDF:

Tap > Compress PDF.
In the compress dialog that opens, select a compression level and tap Compress.
It displays a message saying the compression is in process.
Once your PDF is compressed, you see a confirmation message as shown below. To open the compressed file, tap Open.
The compressed file is named as ‘filename_compressed.pdf’ and is saved in Adobe cloud storage.

Subscribers to Adobe Acrobat Premium or Adobe Acrobat Pro DC can apply protection to PDFs by setting a password. To set a password:

Tap > Set password.
In the dialog that opens, enter a password and then confirm it.
Tap Set password.

You see a message confirming that a password-protected copy is getting created.

Once done, you see a confirmation message, as shown below.

It creates a file copy named “<filename>_protected.pdf” and saves the file to Adobe cloud storage. It does not protect or change the original file.

To open the password-protected PDF:

From the confirmation message, tap Open.
Else, from the list of files, tap the password-protected filename to open it.
In the dialog that opens, enter the password and tap OK.

Note the following limitations in password-protected PDFs:

You cannot edit, fill & sign, compress, or export password-protected PDFs.
You can remove the password with desktop Acrobat if you know the original password.
There is no separate password for edit. If a user can open a file, they can edit the file.
Currently, Acrobat Reader mobile app does not support printing of password-protected PDFs.

With a subscription to Adobe Acrobat Premium or Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can combine up to 12 files into a single PDF. You can also combine files from any integrated file location such as Dropbox and Drive.

To combine files:

From the bottom toolbar, tap > Combine files.
In the page that appears, tap Add files.
Select a file location and then tap on one or more files that you want to combine.
On the page that appears, confirm the files that you want to combine and then tap Combine.

The combined file is automatically uploaded to Adobe cloud storage.

Note: Alternatively, from the list of files, long-press a file until a checkmark appears. Tap one or more files as needed and then tap > Combine files. On the page that appears, tap Combine.

Note the following limitations in combining files:

You cannot combine files that are shared for review.
You must log in to Adobe Cloud Storage.
It requires an internet connection.
You need an Acrobat Reader subscription.

The following files are automatically saved to the source cloud location:

A file that you update after downloading from the cloud.
A file that requires Adobe cloud storage features, such as share, reviews, combine files, export PDF, and more.

To save a file to Adobe cloud storage, from the top menu, tap> Save to Adobe cloud storage.

It saves a copy of the file to Adobe cloud storage.

For using share services, your device must be connected to the internet. To share PDFs:

Open the file that you want to share and then from the top menu, tap
Alternatively, from the list of Recent files or the files on any location, tap> Share for the file that you want to share.
In the Share with others dialog that opens, add 1 or more email addresses.
Optionally, tap the subject line and/or message text box to edit them.
Optionally, enable Allow comments if you want recipients to add comments and annotations.

A file is in read-only mode when the Allow comments button is disabled.
To set a deadline for files shared for review, tap > Set Deadline. Set your date and tap Set Deadline.
Tap Send.

You can also share a link to the file by tapping Get link from the bottom. To send a copy of the file to someone, tap Send a copy and follow through with the workflow.

The file automatically uploads to Adobe cloud storage. Document recipients can access the file from the web as well as from their desktop or mobile. All shared files in a list of files are marked with a icon.

You can save a copy of your files to Adobe cloud storage or any supported 3rd party storage. Acrobat allows you to save a copy of shared and review files along with their comments.

To save a copy of your PDF:

From the top menu, tap> Save a copy.
Select a location.
Tap Save.

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New user?

Working with PDFs on Acrobat Reader Android: New Experience

Welcome to the Acrobat Reader app's new experience! We are excited to introduce our reimagined user interface which is designed to give you a modern, unified, and intuitive experience in working with PDFs.

Viewing PDFs

To have a specific text read aloud to you:

To quickly bookmark the visible page:

To find and bookmark pages:

To view all the bookmarks:

To rename a bookmark:

To delete a bookmark:

Enjoying liquid mode? Or have a concern! Share your feedback here:

Modifying PDFs

To quickly add text to a blank space:

To edit, modify, or delete the added text:

To quickly edit some text on your PDF:

To modify the added image:

To modify or delete a drawing:

To quickly highlight/underline/strikethrough few lines:

To modify a highlight/underline/strikethrough or add comments:

To view the list of comments on your PDF:

To Add comments on your PDF:

To Add a comment on selected text:

To edit or delete a comment:

Filling forms

To fill and sign a form:

To fill text fields:

To fill radio option fields:

To add signature and initials:

Sharing PDFs

To open the password-protected PDF:

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