---
title: "Android pdf reader library for mobile devices"
canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/features/reader-view/"
md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/features/reader-view.md"
last_updated: "2026-05-30T02:20:01.181Z"
description: "Discover how to use Reader View for a better pdf reading experience on android devices."
---

# Optimize pdf viewing with android reader view

[Reader View](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/features/reader-view.md) presents the content of PDF documents in an easy-to-read, single-column view that’s optimized for mobile devices. It’s especially helpful for documents such as magazines, books, articles, and scientific papers.

Reader View only shows the textual content of a given PDF document. It also looks for headings and displays them bigger and/or bolder. All other elements — such as images, stylized page parts, and page headers and footers — are ignored in order to provide an improved reading flow.

Reader View tries to structure the text in the intended reading order. If you find documents where this isn’t the case and are able to share them, let us know.

| Normal View                                                                                                           | Reader View                                                                                                           |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|  |  |

Reader View is still in its early stages, so if you have any feedback on how we could improve upon it, [contact us](https://support.nutrient.io/hc/en-us/requests/new).

To use Reader View, you need to have the Reader View component enabled in your license.

## How to use Reader View

Reader View comes integrated into [`PdfActivity`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-activity/index.html) and [`PdfUiFragment`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-ui-fragment/index.html), but it can also be manually integrated into any other view hierarchy inside your app.

### Enable Reader View in PdfActivity or PdfUiFragment

If your app is using [`PdfActivity`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-activity/index.html), a subclass of [`PdfActivity`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-activity/index.html), or a [`PdfUiFragment`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-ui-fragment/index.html), you can simply enable the preintegrated Reader View using the [`PdfActivityConfiguration.Builder#enableReaderView()`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration.activity/-pdf-activity-configuration/-builder/enable-reader-view.html) method:

### KOTLIN

```kotlin

val configuration = PdfActivityConfiguration.Builder(context).enableReaderView(true).build()

```

### JAVA

```java

final PdfActivityConfiguration configuration =
    new PdfActivityConfiguration.Builder(context).enableReaderView(true).build();

```

When enabling Reader View like this, Nutrient will add a dedicated action with the `R.id.pspdf__menu_option_reader_view` ID to the primary toolbar, which, when tapped, will open Reader View for the currently displayed document.

#### Customizing the Reader View menu action

The default toolbar icon used by Reader View is called `R.drawable.pspdf__ic_reader_view`, and it can be replaced by setting a custom `pspdf__ActionBarIcons` style inside your theme:

```xml

<style name="MyApp.PSPDFKit.Theme" parent="PSPDFKit.Theme.Default">
    <item name="pspdf__actionBarIconsStyle">@style/MyApp.PSPDFKit.ActionBarIcons</item>
</style>

<style name="MyApp.PSPDFKit.ActionBarIcons" parent="PSPDFKit.ActionBarIcons">
    <item name="pspdf__readerViewIcon">@drawable/custom_reader_view_icon</item>
    <item name="pspdf__readerViewIconActivated">@drawable/custom_reader_view_icon_activated</item>
</style>

```

For additional guidance on toolbar customization (e.g. reordering or hiding of toolbar actions), refer to our [customizing menus](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/customizing-the-interface/customizing-menus.md) guide.

#### Programmatically showing Reader View

If you want to programmatically show Reader View inside your activity, you can do this by accessing the activity’s [`PSPDFKitViews`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-p-s-p-d-f-kit-views/index.html) object and calling its [`showView()`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-p-s-p-d-f-kit-views/show-view.html) method using [`PSPDFKitViews.Type#VIEW_READER`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-p-s-p-d-f-kit-views/-type/-v-i-e-w_-r-e-a-d-e-r/index.html):

### KOTLIN

```kotlin

pspdfKitViews.showView(PSPDFKitViews.Type.VIEW_READER)

```

### JAVA

```java

getPSPDFKitViews().showView(PSPDFKitViews.Type.VIEW_READER);

```

### Integrating into the custom view hierarchy

Reader View is represented by the [`PdfReaderView`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-reader-view/index.html) class, which is a subtype of Android’s [`FrameLayout`](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/FrameLayout.html), and which can be added to any view hierarchy inside your app. The simplest way to do this is by using an XML layout file:

```xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <!--... -->

    <com.pspdfkit.ui.PdfReaderView
        android:id="@+id/reader_view"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"/>

</FrameLayout>

```

Then retrieve the inflated [`PdfReaderView`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-reader-view/index.html) instance and set a loaded [`PdfDocument`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.document/-pdf-document/index.html) to it using the [`PdfReaderView#setDocument()`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-reader-view/set-document.html) method:

### MYACTIVITY.KT

```kt

val readerView = findViewById<PdfReaderView>(R.id.reader_view)
val configuration = PdfConfiguration.Builder().build()
readerView.setDocument(document, configuration)

```

### MYACTIVITY.JAVA

```java

final PdfReaderView readerView = findViewById(R.id.reader_view);
final PdfConfiguration configuration = new PdfConfiguration.Builder().build();
readerView.setDocument(document, configuration);

```

#### Available configuration options

When setting a document using [`PdfReaderView#setDocument()`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-reader-view/set-document.html), you need to pass in a [`PdfConfiguration`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration/-pdf-configuration/-builder/index.html) instance as the second argument. This configuration can be used to customize the appearance of the loading spinner that is shown while [`PdfReaderView`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-reader-view/index.html) processes the document for display. Here’s the list of configuration options that [`PdfReaderView`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-reader-view/index.html) supports:

| Option                                                                    | Description                                                                                                                 |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| <nobr>[`getLoadingProgressDrawable()`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration/-pdf-configuration/loading-progress-drawable.html)</nobr> | Use this to change the loading spinner drawable that is shown while [`PdfReaderView`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-reader-view/index.html) processes the document for display. |
| [`getBackgroundColor()`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration/-pdf-configuration/background-color.html)                              | Change the background color that is shown behind the loading spinner.                                                       |

When using [`PdfReaderView`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-reader-view/index.html) inside an activity that also hosts a [`PdfFragment`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.ui/-pdf-fragment/index.html), you can simply reuse the same [`PdfConfiguration`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/android/nutrient/com.pspdfkit.configuration/-pdf-configuration/-builder/index.html) instance that you also pass to your fragment, in order to share the same styling.
---

## Related pages

- [Enable night theme in Android PDF viewer](/guides/android/viewer/viewing-options/night-theme.md)
- [Right-to-left (RTL) support in our Android PDF viewer](/guides/android/miscellaneous/page-bindings.md)
- [Opening multiple PDFs in our Android viewer](/guides/android/features/working-with-multiple-documents.md)