How to open a GeoPDF on iPhone & Android (with your live GPS position)
A GeoPDF looks like a normal PDF but carries embedded coordinates — and with the right app, your phone shows your live position moving across it. Agencies publish thousands of them: USGS topo quads, the BLM's free georeferenced PDF library, forest service and state DNR maps.
NomadTracks opens them with no map-count limit, free — and the steps below are the same on iPhone and Android.
Get NomadTracks free — iOS & Android
Download the GeoPDF
Get the map from the agency's site — on the phone directly (browser → Download) or on a computer and AirDrop / transfer it over. Any file your phone's file browser can reach works.
Import it into NomadTracks
Open the Maps tab, tap + → Import Custom Map… and choose From Files… — or simply tap the PDF in your files app and choose Share / Open with → NomadTracks. The embedded georeferencing is detected automatically; there is nothing to configure.
Check it aligned
A cleanly imported map just works — open it and your blue dot is on it. If a file carries no usable coordinates, the map is marked “Not georeferenced” in orange and NomadTracks tells you why, offering the manual control-point editor as fallback (which shows a live ± metre accuracy readout as you place points).
Use it offline on the trail
Enable the map as an overlay and your blue dot moves across the official cartography — completely offline, since the file lives on your device. Record your track on it like on any other basemap.
Maps from a hunting or permit portal
Got the map from a hunting program's permit system — a military base's iSportsman/RecAccess portal, a state wildlife agency, a lease manager? Those maps are standard GeoPDFs and import exactly as above: your live position on the official boundary and unit map, fully offline in the field. See NomadTracks for hunting — and if you run such a program, distributing your maps to members needs nothing more than the file and a link.