On iPhone and iPad
Niraqua DjVu is also available for iPhone and iPad, with the same on-device
engine as the Mac app: read .djvu documents, search their text, recognize
text on scanned pages, and export to PDF - all offline, with nothing sent over
the network.
Requires iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 or later. Niraqua DjVu is a universal purchase: buy it once and use it on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Open a document
Section titled “Open a document”- The app opens into the standard document browser, showing the same locations
as the Files app: On My iPhone (or iPad), iCloud Drive, and any other storage
providers you have set up. Tap a
.djvufile to open it. - Tapping a
.djvufile in the Files app opens it in Niraqua DjVu too. - Documents open in place: the app reads the file where it is, without making a copy, so you always see the current version.
- On first launch a sample document is placed in On My iPhone (or iPad) > Niraqua DjVu, so you can try the app right away. Delete it like any other file if you do not need it.
Read and zoom
Section titled “Read and zoom”- Pages scroll vertically as one continuous document, and the page indicator near the bottom shows where you are.
- A document opens fitted to the screen width. Pinch to zoom in and out, or double-tap to zoom in on a spot and double-tap again to go back to the fitted view.
- The view re-fits automatically when you rotate the device or resize the app in Split View on iPad.
The page thumbnails appear differently on the two idioms, matching how Preview behaves:
- iPhone (and iPad in a narrow Split View): tap Pages in the … menu, or tap the page indicator at the bottom left, to open a sheet of page thumbnails. Tap a thumbnail and the sheet closes on the page you picked.
- iPad at full width: use Show Sidebar at the top left, or tap the page indicator, for a thumbnail column beside the page. It stays open until you hide it again, and each window remembers its own setting.
Search
Section titled “Search”- Tap the magnifying glass at the bottom right. The find row is at the bottom of the screen on both iPhone and iPad, above the keyboard.
- Type your term. Matches are highlighted on the page, and the counter inside
the field (“1 of 6”) shows your position. Use the chevrons to the right of
the field to step between matches. With no matches the counter reads
0. - While a search is active, the page thumbnails are replaced by the Results list - in the sheet on iPhone, in the sidebar on iPad. Tap a result to jump to it.
- Tap the blue checkmark to close the find row. Your query is kept and re-run the next time you open search.
If the document has no text layer there is nothing to find, so a Text Recognition capsule appears above the find row instead - see below.
Select and copy text
Section titled “Select and copy text”Press and hold a word to select it, then drag to extend the selection. Lift your finger and the standard Copy menu appears; tap it to put the text on the clipboard, ready to paste into any other app.
With a hardware keyboard, ⌘ C copies the selection and ⌘ A selects all the text on the current page.
Pages that were scanned as images have no text to select until you run text recognition on them.
Text recognition (OCR)
Section titled “Text recognition (OCR)”Scanned documents often have no text layer, so search has nothing to find. Just like on the Mac, the app can recognize the text on-device:
- Tap Text Recognition - in the toolbar on iPad, in the … menu on iPhone. It is also one tap from the capsule that appears above the find row when a search comes up empty.
- Pick the language of the document. Recognition handles one language at a time, so choose the one that matches most of the text.
- Choose a quality: Fast suits most documents, Accurate takes longer and can read difficult scans better.
- Tap Start. Progress is shown in a banner while the pages are processed; you can stop at any time, and pages already recognized stay searchable. Leave the app and the run keeps going - see Progress on the Lock Screen.
Recognition runs entirely on your device and the results are cached, so a document only needs to be recognized once.
The sheet carries the same two switches as on the Mac: Remember for this document reuses your language and quality next time, and Replace existing text layer (shown once a document has recognized text) decides whether a re-run reads every page again or only the pages still without text. The same 15 languages are supported, and the same six can use Fast - see Text recognition for the list.
Export to PDF
Section titled “Export to PDF”- Tap Export as PDF… in the toolbar (on iPhone it is in the … menu).
- Choose a Quality preset and, optionally, turn on Enable OCR to add a searchable text layer. The presets are the same as on the Mac - see Saving and exporting.
- Tap Export, then choose where to save the PDF in the Files dialog.
Progress on the Lock Screen
Section titled “Progress on the Lock Screen”Text recognition and PDF export keep running when you leave the app, and a Live Activity follows them:
- The Lock Screen shows the document, what is happening - Recognizing Text, Exporting Searchable PDF, or Exporting PDF - and a progress bar with the page it has reached.
- On iPhone models with the Dynamic Island the same progress appears there as a ring; touch and hold it to expand.
- Tap it to return to the app, right where you left it.
- Quick jobs never post one: the activity only appears once the work has been running for about a second.
If iOS suspends the app while it is in the background, the activity reads Paused - open to continue, and the work resumes exactly where it stopped as soon as you come back. Nothing already recognized or exported is lost.
To turn this off, go to Settings > Niraqua DjVu > Live Activities. The app behaves the same without it; only the progress display outside the app goes away.
Print and share
Section titled “Print and share”- Print… opens the standard iOS print panel, so you can print to any AirPrint printer.
- Share Original sends the original
.djvufile - not a copy or a conversion - by AirDrop, Mail, Messages, or any other destination in the share sheet.
Quick Look and thumbnails in Files
Section titled “Quick Look and thumbnails in Files”.djvufiles show a thumbnail of their first page in the Files app.- Files and other apps can preview DjVu documents with Quick Look without opening Niraqua DjVu - for example, long-press a file in Files and choose Quick Look.
About this app
Section titled “About this app”About - in the toolbar on iPad, in the … menu on iPhone - shows the version and build number you are running, and links to the privacy policy and to this help page. Quote the version if you write to support.
Hardware keyboard shortcuts
Section titled “Hardware keyboard shortcuts”With a hardware keyboard connected (for example on iPad):
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Previous / Next Page | ↑ / ↓ (or ← / →) |
| Copy selection | ⌘ C |
| Select all text on the page | ⌘ A |
| Find Next | ⌘ G |
| Find Previous | ⌘ ⇧ G |
| Zoom In | ⌘ + |
| Zoom Out | ⌘ - |
| Actual Size | ⌘ 0 |
If something does not work
Section titled “If something does not work”- Search finds nothing: the document probably has no text layer - run text recognition (see above) first, then search again.
- A file will not open: confirm it is a valid
.djvudocument and fully downloaded (files in iCloud Drive may need a moment to download first). - Anything else: see Troubleshooting or email [email protected].