How to Transfer epubs and pdfs to ipad or iphone

You have a shiny new iPad, and you’ve downloaded a bunch of apps and PDFs. Now it’s time to read those bad-boys, but how do you do that? The iPad is a great reader for PDFs and ePub books. One of the nice things about the ipad is that the screen is a good readable size. With its color-screen, touch-interface, and zooming options, it’s also easier to read ePubs, PDFs, and to use than a PC, netbook, or smart-phone.

Sometimes different apps handle pdf’s a little differently. You may get better results with different apps and/or methods. Example, some apps spend time pre-fetching your next page while you are reading. When you load the next page it will load faster than it would be using iBooks.

For the most part, the iPad handles ePub books and pdf files the same. They are both just different types of files to be transferred to, then opened on the iPad. We’ll refer to them as “a file” going forward in this article. Let’s look at some of the options available.

Methods of transferring your files:

1. From your PC and iTunes.
You have your PDF treasures and ebooks all stored in your “My Documents” folder. The easiest way to transfer these is just to drag them from your “My Documents” folder into iTunes. Next sync your device. The files will be stored in the iBooks application by default.

The drawback of the iBooks app is that there’s no good way to organize your articles. IBooks also doesn’t render graphic-heavy pdf’s very well. Sometimes it’s just easiest to use the ibooks app with the iPad if you don’t need the additional features of other pdf-reading apps.

You can also transfer the files with the Apps like Goodreader or Cloudreaders through iTunes. Click on “your iPad” icon in iTunes. Select the ‘Apps’ tab. Toward the bottom on the right side there will be a File Sharing Section. Highlight the App in iTunes, then click the “Add” oval toward the bottom-right. Add your file(s). Your files will be added to your iPad at the next sync.

2. Through email.
Another way to open files is through email. This works great if you have some files you want to send to your iPad but you don’t have one of the cloud-file sharing apps/accounts setup. Just email the attachment from your desktop to yourself, then open it on your iPad. It will open as a PDF in a browser window. From there, if you click on the arrow in the top right corner you can open the PDFwith one of your other apps on your iPad like Cloudreaders, Good Reader, or one of the many other Office Apps available.

3. From the cloud (box.net or dropbox.com)
Storing files on “the cloud” just means using special services to store files on the Internet. You setup a personal account with a service like dropbox.com They give you anywhere from 2-5GB of space for free. The nice thing about these services is you don’t have to be tethered to your PC to get your files (but you will need wi-fi).

Summary of the different transfer methods:
1. Drag the file from your PC into iTunes, then sync your iPad.
2. Use iTunes to sync the files between your computer and the App.
3. Email file to yourself and open on iPad.
4. Open the file directly on your iPad through a cloud-storage app dropbox.com app.