How to use Ocren

The very first screen asks for your language: 日本語 or English. Tap one and the whole app switches at once.

You can change it later from the globe link on the welcome and sign-in screens, or in Settings ▸ Display ▸ Language.

Sign in

Ocren uses an account so that your books and memos are saved and carry over to a new device. After the welcome screen, tap Start and choose:

• Sign in with Apple, or
• Continue with Google, which opens a browser sign-in and then returns to the app.

The Library tab is your wooden bookshelf. Covers stand on the shelves. A book without a cover image gets a cloth cover printed with its title and author.

Reading status at a glance

Each cover carries a mark. The shapes differ, so you don’t have to rely on color:

• Reading: an amber bookmark ribbon hanging from the top of the cover.
• Read: a round seal with a check mark at the bottom right.
• Want to read: a small paper slip peeking out above the cover.

Filter, sort and search

• The tabs under the wordmark, All, Reading, Read and Want to read, filter the shelf. Each one shows its mark, so the tabs double as a legend.
• The arrows button switches the order between By date (newest added first) and By title.
• The list button switches to record view: numbered index cards with title, author, status and the number of memos. The grid button switches back to the shelf.
• The magnifier at the top right opens Search by title or author. Tap × to close it.

Add manually

Enter a Title (required) and an Author, choose a Status, and if you like write a Note (optional) about the book. Tap Save. You can add a cover later with Choose cover.

Tap a book on the shelf to open its page.

• Status: the pill under the title shows Reading, Read or Want to read. Tap it to change.
• Below it: the number of memos, and Started, the date you added the book.
• Setting a book to Read records the date you finished it. Reflect and Ranking count it from that date.
• The ⋯ button (More) has Edit book, Choose cover (searches covers for this title and author; needs a connection) and Delete book, which deletes the book and all its memos.
• Under Memos: the Add button, Search in this book (searches memo text and notes), and flag tabs showing only the flags used in this book. Tap a flag again to clear the filter.

1. Open the camera

On the book’s page, tap Add. The camera opens right away.

• SILENT at the top right: the camera takes a frame from the video feed, so there is no shutter sound.
• Photos (next to the shutter) picks an image from your photo library, for example an e-book screenshot.
• Type opens an empty memo form to enter text by hand.
• CLOSE leaves the camera.

2. Select the lines

On From a photo, drag a rectangle over the lines you want to keep. If you select nothing, the whole page is read (Drag to select an area (whole page if none)). Retake goes back to the camera, or to your photo library if the picture came from there.

3. Tap Scan

Tap Scan. Recognition runs on your device. When it reads well, the memo form opens with the text filled in. The page number printed on the page is picked up too.

4. If Ocren isn’t sure

When Ocren reads something but isn’t confident, Check the result appears. The result is never thrown away. Choose:

• Try again, more carefully: reads again at higher resolution (slower).
• Select a different area
• Retake
• Edit this result: keep it and fix it yourself.

It may also say why, for example “This looks like a two-page spread. One page at a time reads better”, or “Ruby text and running heads were left out of the body text”.

If no text is found at all, you’ll see Nothing to read: select a different area, or take the photo somewhere brighter.

5. Check the memo and save

Tap Save to return to the book. In the form opened from the camera, if you have changed anything and tap Cancel, Ocren asks Discard this memo? with Discard and Keep Editing. A memo made from two or more photos always asks.

1. In the memo form, tap Save, then select another area. The memo is saved and you are back on the same photo.
2. Saved areas are marked with a dotted frame and a ✓, and the hint reads Now select another area (whole page if none).
3. Select the next area and tap Scan. The next memo gets the same page number as the first one from this photo.
4. When you’re done, tap Close.

• Type a memo: tap Type on the camera screen, or press and hold Add on the book’s page and choose Enter manually.
• Use a saved picture: tap Photos on the camera screen.

If the camera is off

If Ocren isn’t allowed to use the camera, you’ll see Camera access is off with Choose from library and Enter manually. Tap You can allow the camera in Settings to open iOS Settings; when you come back, the camera works.

Other messages you might see: The camera is restricted on this device (for example by Screen Time), Couldn't start the camera, and No camera is available on this device. Photos and manual entry still work.

If you switch away from Ocren while writing a memo and iOS later closes the app, what you typed is kept on this device. The next time you tap Add on that book (or press and hold it and choose Enter manually), you’ll see You have an unsaved memo:

• Continue Writing: opens the form with your text.
• Discard and Start Over: deletes the draft and starts again the way you began: the camera, or an empty form if you chose Enter manually.
• Cancel: does nothing and keeps the draft for later.

Each memo can have a Note with your thoughts and one of seven flags. The default names are:

Rename them in Settings ▸ Flag names. Clear a field to go back to the default name. Flag names are stored on this device only.

The Memos tab gathers the memos from every book.

• Search matches memo text, notes and book titles as you type.
• Flag tabs: All plus each flag in use. Tap a flag again to clear it.
• The count line shows how many memos match.
• The sort button switches Newest and By book.
• Tap a memo to open it.

A memo’s page shows the book, the text, your note, the page, the flag and the date it was saved. The ⋯ button (More) has:

• Share: makes a quote card image and opens the iOS share sheet.
• Edit: the same form, titled Edit memo.
• Delete: asks Delete this memo? first.

The card is cream paper with the memo text, the book’s title and author, and the Ocren wordmark. It looks the same whatever appearance you use. Your note and the page number are not on the card.

• Quote of the day shows one of your memos, chosen at random each time you open the tab. Another picks a different one (when you have two or more). Tap the memo to open it.
• Reading log: choose All time, Year, Month or Week (weeks start on Monday).
  • Finished: books set to Read in that period.
  • Memos: memos saved in that period.
  • Started: books added in that period, whatever their status.
• Memos over time: a bar chart. Year shows 12 months, Month shows 7-day blocks, Week shows each day.

Rankings compiled from everyone’s shelves and memos, up to 50 books each:

Pull down to refresh. Ranking needs a connection. Only the title, author, cover and counts are shown; who added a book, and the text of memos, are never shown.

If you sign in with a different account from the one this device’s books belong to, Ocren pauses syncing and asks what to do:

• Move them to this account
• Erase and use this account's data (nothing stays on this device; it asks once more before erasing)
• Sign out and use a different account

Unless you move them, the books stay with the previous account. This usually happens when the same person signs in once with Apple and once with Google.