Inksky
NeoReader is BOOX’s built-in reading app, and it took me a few weeks to realize it’s not just a PDF viewer — it’s the best PDF tool on any e-reader. Once you understand its three big features (reflow, annotations, OCR), you stop fighting PDFs and start actually reading them.
PDF reflow is the headline feature. Open any PDF, tap the center, and enable reflow from the settings menu. NeoReader doesn’t just zoom — it extracts the text and reflows it like an EPUB, which means you control the font size. Standard mode works for most documents. Aggressive mode handles double-column academic papers and complex magazine layouts — it’s not perfect, but it’s better than any other e-reader I’ve tested. Original mode keeps the document as-is for when you need the exact layout, like textbooks with diagrams.
I read a lot of scanned PDFs from older books, and the OCR feature is the reason I stick with NeoReader. Tap OCR on a scanned document, select the language, and wait. When it finishes, the previously dead image text becomes selectable, highlightable, and searchable. Processing a 200-page book takes a few minutes, but once it’s done, you can search for phrases and tap words for definitions like any normal ebook. The OCR supports English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, and several more. I’ve thrown some pretty terrible scans at it and it handles them better than expected.
The annotation tools are deep. You get highlighters in four colors, underlines (straight or wavy), freehand drawing, typed notes, and sticky notes for longer comments. Everything collects in the annotations panel — swipe from the right to see them all — and you can export annotated PDFs with your marks embedded. I send marked-up manuscripts to colleagues and they open fine on any PDF reader.
Split-screen reading inside NeoReader pairs a PDF with notes, a dictionary, or a translation side by side. For language learners, having the original on one side and a reference on the other is genuinely useful. The key settings for PDFs: use landscape mode for textbooks, portrait for papers, and enable auto-crop to trim white margins. It’s the difference between squinting and reading comfortably.