EPUB & PDF reader for iPad
Book Pad
Read the EPUB and PDF files you already own. Highlight as you go, and Book Pad gathers every highlight from every book in one place.
No account. No tracking. Your books stay as regular files in a folder you can see in the Files app.
Your files are your library
A folder you can see is your library.
- Book Pad’s folder in the Files app is your library, and each subfolder becomes a shelf.
- Import many books at once from Files, or send them from another app with the share sheet.
- Move or rename a book, and your reading position and highlights stay with it.
- If a file goes missing, Book Pad keeps its highlights. If you clear them, Recently Deleted holds them for 30 days.
Highlighting that stays out of your way
Press, drag, lift.
Press on a word, drag across the passage, and lift. The highlight appears right away, with no menu to dismiss.
- Choose from five colors and add a note to any highlight.
- Works in EPUBs and in PDFs with selectable text, including PDFs that block copying.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
Every highlight in one place
All your highlights, from every book, together.
- Search the text of all your highlights and notes at once.
- Filter by book or by color, or show only highlights with notes.
- Group by book or by color, and sort by newest, oldest, or book order.
- Tap a highlight to jump back to that spot in the book.
Export and take them with you
Markdown when you want it. Notes that travel with the book.
- Export one book or your whole collection as Markdown, then save it to Files or share it.
- Next to each book, Book Pad keeps a small .notes.json file. Copy it along with the book to another iPad running Book Pad, and your highlights come too.
Read your way
A reading view you can make your own.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach.
Themes
Light, sepia, and dark themes, or your own background and text colors.
Type
Choose the font, text size, line spacing, and margins, and turn justification on or off.
Pages or scroll
Read EPUBs page by page or as one continuous scroll.
Two pages in landscape
In landscape, read two pages side by side, or switch to one page at a time.
Find your way
Table of contents, search inside the book, and footnotes that open right on the page.
Fixed layout and PDF
Opens fixed-layout EPUBs too. PDFs get an outline, text search, page jumps, and zoom.
Turn pages without reaching
A tap, or a double-tap of Apple Pencil.
- Tap the left or right side of the screen to turn the page. You can swap the sides.
- Double-tap Apple Pencil (2nd generation) or Apple Pencil Pro to go to the next or previous page.
- The screen stays on while you read. You can turn this off in Settings.
Private by design
Data Not Collected.
Book Pad has no sign-up, no ads, no analytics or tracking, and no servers. Your books, highlights, and notes stay on your iPad.
- Content inside a book can’t reach the internet.
- Web and email links in a book open only after you confirm.
- Export and sharing happen only when you choose them.
Good to know
- Book Pad opens your own files. It doesn’t sell books.
- DRM-protected books and password-protected PDFs can’t be opened.
- Deleting the app also deletes the Book Pad folder on your iPad, so keep a copy of your books somewhere else.
- Requires iPadOS 18 or later.