pdf with android and talkback

By Sara, 21 September, 2024

Forum
Android

Hey everyone,

When I receive a PDF via email or WhatsApp and try to view it on an Android phone using TalkBack, the experience isn’t very smooth. Even if the PDF is properly formatted with several lines, TalkBack reads everything as if it’s one continuous line. This makes navigating the document harder, as it’s really difficult to find specific information.

Is there any way to view PDFs more comfortably? Any settings I can adjust on TalkBack or Android? For Android users, how do you handle PDFs with TalkBack?

Thanks in advance!

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Comments

By SeasonKing on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 - 08:19

The thing is, the default application that anyone uses for viewing PDF is Google Drive PDF Viewer.
That one, renders each page in a way, so that if you were to touch anywhere on that page, entire contents of page would be red outall at once.
I would suggest using Talkback's navigation commands, navigate by paragraph or lign, to navigate in a PDF. I haven't tried Adobe's official apps to view PDF documents on Android so far, but, considering Acropad reader does provide better PDF reading experience on Windows, it might as well do so on Android, so, worth giving that a shot.
Have you tried apps like Dolphin Easy Reader for PDF so far? I am not fully sure if it supports PDFs, but, considering it's made with accessibility in mind, that one is also worth giving a try.

By Sara on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 - 08:19

Hi, thanks for your comment and suggestions! I haven’t tried any third-party apps yet, but I’ll give the ones you mentioned a try. I was hoping that PDF viewing would work smoothly, like it does on iOS. I’ll try out what you suggested. Thanks so much!

By Joshua on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 - 08:19

I like it and it works well

By Sara on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 - 08:19

Thanks for the suggestion! Honestly, until yesterday, I thought Acrobat was a paid app, but I just realized it’s not. I really appreciate the recommendation!

By Joshua on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 - 08:19

I think it has a paid version but the free version works fine

Glad I could help