I think many of you have been looking for a simple yet powerful app for iPad to read PDF documents. I’m not talking about super-featured apps such as GoodReader or FastPDF: something simple, elegant and that does just one thing - read PDF files.

PDFMate does just that: it loads PDF documents from iTunes or any other app that support file sharing (like Mail or Dropbox) and displays them in a nice and polished interface. The only graphical element on screen is a black bar at the side of the screen (easy to reach with your thumbs) that lets you adjust brightness, access documents, navigate through pages and return to the home page. No sync, no bookshelf, no folders and WebDAV server to transfer files. You just read.

The app is quite fast at loading large documents, but it’s no FastPDF. MobFarm’s app is still the fastest one I’ve found in the App Store, but it’s also loaded with features many of you may not need. Also, it’s got an interesting “white space cropping” feature that cuts all the extra space on screen to give you more focus on text. It worked pretty well for me, especially in landscape mode. PDFMate is simple, it’s got a nice icon and app design, it’s available at $1.99 in the App Store. If you still haven’t found a PDF reader that suits your needs, give this a try.