Navigate inside a PDF

This page covers the gestures and controls inside the reader.

Tap zones

The screen is divided into three zones, each 25 % / 50 % / 25 % of the width.

Left edge — go to the previous page.
Right edge — go to the next page.
Center — show or hide the top and bottom bars.

In right-to-left binding, left and right are swapped.

Swipe

Swipe horizontally to turn pages. The exact feel depends on the page transition you’ve chosen (Slide, Fade, Curl, Scroll). See Customize the reading experience.

Pinch to zoom

Pinch with two fingers to zoom in. Zoom works in both Single and Double layouts, up to 4×. While zoomed:

Pan to move around the page.
Tap zones are disabled — pinch back to 1× to turn pages again.

If the PDF has a table of contents, you can jump to any chapter from inside the reader.

Tap the list icon in the top bar.
The sheet opens to the Table of Contents tab.
Tap any entry to jump to that page.

Bookil remembers which tab (Table of Contents or Bookmarks) you used last and opens to the same one next time.

If the PDF has no table of contents, Bookil opens directly to the Bookmarks tab.

Bookmarks

Mark pages you want to come back to.

Add or remove a bookmark:

Tap the bookmark icon in the top bar. If the current page is already bookmarked, the icon is filled and the next tap removes it.

Browse bookmarks:

Tap the list icon in the top bar.
Switch to the Bookmarks tab.
Tap any entry to jump to that page.
Swipe left on an entry to delete it.

Bookmarks are saved with the PDF and included in your library backup.

Chapter scrubber

The chapter scrubber sits at the bottom of the reader when the top and bottom bars are visible. It shows your position in the document and highlights the current chapter.

The dots mark chapter boundaries (top-level chapters from the PDF’s table of contents).
Drag the thumb to scrub through pages. Page numbers update as you drag.
The current chapter’s dot is highlighted.

In right-to-left binding, the scrubber direction is flipped.

The … menu in the top bar has:

File Info — open the file-info sheet with PDF metadata and the reading log.
Share — open the share sheet with the PDF file.

Password-protected PDFs

If a PDF is password-protected, Bookil shows a password prompt when you open it.

Type the password and tap Unlock.
If the password is wrong, Bookil tells you and lets you try again.
Tapping Cancel returns you to the library.

Bookil supports the password formats commonly used by macOS Preview, Adobe Acrobat, and other PDF tools.

When a PDF can’t be opened

Some PDFs aren’t supported:

PDFs with interactive forms (AcroForm) — Bookil shows “This PDF cannot be opened.” There’s no way to fill out the form inside Bookil. Open it in another app instead.
Corrupted PDFs — Bookil shows the same generic message during import. Try a different copy of the file.

Text selection, copying, translation, and in-document search are not available in Bookil’s reader.