How to read a PDF e-book on an iPhone or iPad

Save it to Apple Books

1. Open the PDF — from your email, from Safari after downloading, or from the Files app.
2. Tap the Share button.
3. Choose Books. The PDF opens in Apple Books and is saved in your library.

Books is the better home for something you will read over several sittings: it remembers your page, keeps PDFs next to your other books, and with iCloud Drive turned on for Books the same PDF shows up on your iPad and Mac.

Or keep it in Files

If you would rather treat it as a document — to keep it with other files, or to back it up somewhere specific — download it into the Files app and open it from there. Files opens PDFs directly, and a PDF saved in iCloud Drive is available on every device signed in to the same Apple account.

Reading comfortably on a phone

• Rotate the phone to landscape: the page fills the width and the text is larger.
• Pinch to zoom on a paragraph; a double-tap usually fits the text column to the screen.
• Use the iPad if you have one. A PDF laid out as a book page reads at its natural size there.

Pills of Matrix editions can also be read in your account in the browser, page by page, without downloading the file — useful if you are on a borrowed device. On Android instead? See reading a PDF on Android.