A DjVu reader for iPad and iPhone
Neither iOS nor iPadOS opens .djvu files. Tapping one in the Files app gives
you a preview that cannot render, and Safari downloads it rather than showing
it. As on the Mac, the format simply was never built in.
An iPad is otherwise close to ideal for these documents: DjVu is overwhelmingly a scanned-book format, and a scanned book wants a large, bright, page-shaped screen you can hold.
Reading DjVu on iPad and iPhone
Section titled “Reading DjVu on iPad and iPhone”Niraqua DjVu opens .djvu documents natively on both. Tap a file in
Files to open it, or send it over from Mail, Safari, or iCloud Drive with Open
In.
Reading is built around touch rather than ported from the desktop:
- Pinch to zoom into a detail, and double-tap to snap back to the page width - the zoom level that matters most for a scanned page.
- Flick through pages continuously, including in books that run to several hundred pages.
- Page thumbnails to jump somewhere specific instead of scrolling for it.
Searching scanned pages
Section titled “Searching scanned pages”Search runs across the whole document and highlights every match, so you can step from one to the next through a book rather than a page.
If a search finds nothing for a word you can clearly see, the scan has no text layer - the pages are images. Run text recognition and the app builds one using Apple’s on-device OCR, after which search and text selection work. Nothing is uploaded; recognition happens on the iPhone or iPad itself.
It keeps working while you do something else
Section titled “It keeps working while you do something else”Recognizing a long book takes a while. On iPhone and iPad, recognition and PDF export continue in the background and report progress on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, so you can leave the app and come back when it is done.
Exporting to PDF
Section titled “Exporting to PDF”Any DjVu can be exported to a PDF with an optional searchable text layer, then sent to Files, Mail, or a printer through the standard share sheet. See converting DjVu to PDF.
One purchase, all your devices
Section titled “One purchase, all your devices”Niraqua DjVu is a universal app: buying it once covers Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Open the same scanned book on an iPad on the sofa and on a Mac at a desk, without paying twice or subscribing to anything.
Requires iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 or later. The Mac app requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
Everything specific to the touch apps is documented in On iPhone and iPad.