eDocReader 4+

Great app, especially if you have an iPad 1

I spent hours looking for a free app that would allow me to annotate and draw over the top of my PDFs whilst being compatible with my iPad 1, and was beginning to lose hope until I came across this little gem. There are so many options out there if you just want to view PDFs or have a more up to date iPad, but there is just an enormous gap in the market if you have old hardware.

A few of the apps I tried were overly complicated and heavily focused on cloud integration, a feature which doesn't interest me as I just wanted to be able to fill in PDF crosswords and mark my progress in virtual knitting patterns. Others were plastered with adverts or very limited in functionality unless you paid for the full program.

This app is nice and straightforward and allows you to draw on top of PDFs with your finger. You can easily load a doc into it via the 'Open In' functionality, and there are two different modes you can use to add annotations. One allows you to just draw straight onto the PDF while the other enables you to zoom in on a particular portion and do a more accurate annotation. It's easy to change the colour and thickness of the annotation pen, and if you want to add typed text rather than drawings, there is a feature not dissimilar to the text box tool in Word. There is also an eraser tool as well as a tool for deleting all annotations on one page.

The only slight drawback to the app is a lack of in depth instruction/documentation on its functionality. This is completely forgivable, but just means you have to be willing to experiment a bit to learn the idiosyncrasies of the app.

If you're looking for a simple PDF annotation app then look no further! Thank you to the developers for providing a solution to my PDF annotation iPad 1 conundrum!