Document Reader & PDF Editor

Review by eFreeware

Most document apps on Android pick a side: they either read files or they edit them. Document Reader & PDF Editor tries to do both, opening the usual office formats and adding a PDF toolkit on top, with conversion between formats and a set of ready-made templates. That combination is the most distinctive thing about it, and it is the reason it has drawn a large audience: over 100 million installs and a 4.5 average from more than half a million ratings.

The pitch is straightforward. You get one place to open PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, TXT, PNG, JPG and RTF files, search inside them, bookmark what matters and read without an internet connection. On top of that sit editing tools for PDFs, a converter and templates for documents like resumes and posters.

That makes it a reasonable fit for students working through lecture notes and handouts, office workers checking reports away from a desk, and anyone who regularly receives contracts, invoices or forms as attachments and wants to deal with them on a phone rather than a laptop.

Reading files without hunting for them

The reading side covers the formats most people actually encounter. Word documents in DOC, DOCX and DOCS open in a viewer with built-in search, and you can sort files by path, size, name or the date they were last edited. Spreadsheets in XLS and XLSX and plain text files open in a simpler viewer meant for finding the data you need rather than building a workbook. Presentations in PPT, PPTX, PPS and PPSX get their own viewer, which the developer describes as fast and stable with HD quality.

For PDFs specifically, the viewer is more fully featured. You can zoom in and out, jump straight to a page number, switch between portrait and landscape, search the text of a file, and print or share it. Bookmarks let you return to a section quickly, which matters more on a phone than on a desktop because scrolling back through a long contract or syllabus is tedious.

The file organization is deliberately plain: documents are grouped into folders, with a search box to find a specific contract, invoice or handout. There is also a color inversion option, which flips the display for reading in low light or at night. None of this is unusual, but it covers the basics without getting in the way.

Editing, signing and annotating PDFs

The editing tools are the part that separates this from a plain viewer. You can change text directly inside a PDF, adjusting the content, size, font and color, and apply bold, italic, underline, strikethrough and alignment. You can add new text boxes and insert images. Annotations cover highlights, underlines, strikethroughs and freehand doodles.

Signing is handled inside the app as well, so a document that needs a signature does not have to be printed, signed and scanned. For anyone who deals with forms, approvals or agreements by email, that is a genuinely useful capability to have on a phone.

The converter rounds this out. Images and scans can be turned into PDFs, which is the quickest route for a photographed receipt or a paper handout. DOC and DOCX files convert to PDF for sharing, PDFs convert back into editable Word documents, and presentations convert to PDF with slide layouts kept intact.

Templates for documents you write yourself

Alongside the reading and editing tools, the app includes a template library. There are resume templates for building a CV, letter and fax formats for correspondence, simple layouts for everyday documents, and poster designs for events and announcements.

Templates are editable, so you can change the text and fonts and swap in your own images. For someone who needs a presentable document and does not want to start from a blank page, that is a practical addition, though it is a different job from reading and signing files and will not matter to everyone.

The developer lists a set of features still to come, including OCR for PDFs, text translation, AI summary, Excel editing, PDF form filling, shared folders and support for RAR, ZIP, MOBI and HTML. Those are plans rather than capabilities, so I would treat them as a sign of direction, not something to count on today.

What you need before the first document opens

Setup is mostly about permissions. On Android 11 and later, reading and editing files on your device requires granting the MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission. On Android 13 and up, working with images in templates or turning images into PDFs also needs READ_MEDIA_IMAGES. The developer states that both permissions are used only for those purposes.

That is a broad storage permission, and it is worth understanding what you are agreeing to before you tap through. It is also the kind of permission that some people will not want to grant on a personal phone, which is a fair reason to weigh the app against simpler alternatives.

On the positive side, the app works without an internet connection, so reading documents does not depend on a signal. It is free to install, carries ads, and offers in-app purchases. The app was released in July 2022 and last updated in September 2026.

Where this app makes the most sense

The clearest fit is someone who handles a mix of formats and wants one app rather than several. A student opening lecture PDFs, a spreadsheet of results and a slide deck in the same week gets all of that in one place, with bookmarks and search to move around quickly.

It also suits people who receive documents they need to act on rather than just read: a form to sign, a scan to turn into a PDF, a Word file to send on as a PDF. The converter and signing tools cover those tasks without a printer or a desktop.

If your needs are narrower, say reading a single PDF occasionally, the extra tools and the storage permission are more than the job requires. The app is built for people who want a document workspace on their phone, and that is the audience it serves best.

A capable all-rounder with a broad permission request

Document Reader & PDF Editor covers a lot of ground for a free app: reading across the common office formats, PDF editing and signing, conversion in several directions, templates and offline access. The 4.5 average from over half a million ratings suggests the approach has landed with a large number of users.

The trade-offs are the ads and in-app purchases, and the storage permission that Android 11 and later requires for file access. What is here is a practical toolkit for reading, annotating and converting documents on a phone.

I would suggest it to students, office workers and anyone who regularly deals with contracts, invoices, forms or reports away from a computer, and who is comfortable granting broad file access to get editing, signing and conversion in one place.