A PDF reader can be a very useful tool to have on your phone.

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We peruse plenty of PDFs in our day-to-day lives, both in work and personal settings. And with the smartphone being the device of choice for many folks, it helps to know for sure that you'll be able to see the files you need when you need them. This may lead you to wonder if you need a dedicated PDF reader on your phone.

For a quick bit of history, PDF stands for Portable Document Format . Adobe developed the file type in the 1990s as a way to share documents across different hardware and software platforms. PDFs are currently maintained under the auspices of the International Organization for Standardization .

As you might expect from a file type designed to be easily accessed, most smartphones are capable of displaying PDFs with software that's pre-loaded by the company. Think Preview on an iPhone or Google Drive for Pixel and Galaxy devices.…