PDF and EPUB Books on iPhone, in the Same Feed

Need a PDF and EPUB reader for iPhone that remembers your page and doesn’t demand a separate app for every format? I never meant to make one. I started Spohad with photos: a frame, a swipe, a folder. But very quickly I realized my folders hold more than photos. Books. Documents. Presentations I prepared. Study notes. Notes.

And all of that I want to sort, too. And all of that I sometimes want to look through again.

How do PDFs and books look in the feed?

Spohad shows any files in the feed. Photos and video on the full screen. And a PDF, a book or a note as a card with the first page or the cover. You see right away what it is, and can decide what to do: keep it, send it to the right folder, or delete it.

If it is junk, an old bill, a draft nobody will open, swipe to the Trash. If it is valuable, onto a shelf, next to the other books. How shelves work is in How to organize photos in folders.

Reading without fear of deleting by accident

Tap the page or the cover and reading mode opens. In it the pages turn, and swipes decide nothing anymore: you can read calmly without fear of sending the book to the Trash. When you are done, a cross or a swipe down, and you are back in the feed.

Does the reader remember your page?

Yes. For a PDF it is the page number, “12 / 40.” For an EPUB book, how much you have read, “37%.” You open it a week later and land exactly where you closed it. That helps with studying too: how a student returns to her notes is in Exam flashcards on iPhone.

My presentations

For me this turned out unexpectedly useful. I prepared many presentations as PDFs, and they were scattered across folders. To show one, I had to find it and open it in a separate program.

Now they lie on a “Presentations” shelf. I open one, scroll, present, from where I stopped last time. And when a presentation is out of date, it simply goes to the Trash, like any other file.

What other formats open?

• Markdown notes: not as raw text but as intended, with headings, lists and tables.
• Code: with highlighting and line numbers.
• CSV: as a table.
• Music: as a card with cover art; it has a story of its own, How to sort music on your iPhone.

All of it inside the same feed, without a separate program for each format.

If a file can’t be opened, say a book is copy-protected or damaged, Spohad honestly says why and offers to open it in another app.

Is it free?

The reader and the player in Spohad are free for files on the phone, in Photos and in iCloud Drive. There are no limits on format or length: a book of a thousand pages opens the same as a one-page note. Pro is needed only if books live on external drives and in clouds, beyond the one extra folder.

Quick guide: how to read PDF and EPUB in Spohad

1. Add a folder of books and documents as a source, or sort them from the feed.
2. Tap the page or the cover, and reading mode opens.
3. Turn the pages; swipes in this mode delete nothing.
4. Exit with the cross or a swipe down, and your place is kept.
5. Out of date? Swipe to the Trash and Save.

One feed for everything

I always wanted everything of mine to live in one place. Not a gallery for photos, a file browser for files, a reader for books and something else for documents. But one room where every thing is on its own shelf.

Now it is so. In the evening my feed may float up a photo of the sea, after it a book I abandoned halfway, after that a presentation from three years ago. And each one I can take in hand, look at, and decide where it belongs. Try the feed on the home page.