Ohonya Manual

Chapters: Getting Started · Setup · Features

Getting Started

Ohonya is a page-flip reader for manga, comics, PDF, and EPUB files on iPad and iPhone. Pages curl like paper when you drag a corner, books live on a wooden shelf, and every file, bookmark, and setting stays on your device. With Ohonya Pro, your last reading position also syncs through your own iCloud account, so your iPhone and iPad open a book at the same place. Ohonya is free to use with a library of up to 10 books; Ohonya Pro, a one-time purchase, adds more (see Ohonya Pro below). No account is needed.

This chapter takes you from an empty shelf to reading your first book.

What Ohonya can open

Ohonya reads three kinds of files.

• ZIP archives of page images. Put the pages of one book into a ZIP file. JPEG and PNG pages are the most common; other image formats that iOS can display also work. Pages are shown in file-name order, so name them with leading zeros (001.jpg, 002.jpg, 003.jpg) so that page 10 does not come before page 2. Folders inside the ZIP are fine; Ohonya reads the images it finds and keeps them in name order.
• PDF files. Every page of the PDF becomes a page in Ohonya. If the PDF has internal links, such as a table of contents or "see page 42" references, you can tap them to jump to the linked page.
• EPUB books. The text is laid out for your screen, so page numbers differ between iPhone and iPad and change with the text size. Japanese books written in vertical text are shown in vertical columns. The Features chapter explains the text settings, highlights and notes, search, and Text to Speech.

CBZ comic archives are ZIP files with a different extension and open directly. If the archive contains a ComicInfo.xml (written by ComicRack, Komga, Kavita and similar tools), Ohonya uses it: the title, author, publisher, language and summary appear on the book's info sheet, the reading direction is preselected when you add the book, the cover comes from the page marked as the front cover, and the chapters listed there appear under Contents in the Bookmarks sheet. CBR (RAR) files are not supported.

Where your files live

Ohonya keeps its files in its own folder inside the Files app.

• On iPad: Files app, Browse, On My iPad, Ohonya.
• On iPhone: Files app, Browse, On My iPhone, Ohonya.

Anything you put in that folder appears in the Folder tab inside Ohonya. Deleting a file there also removes it from Ohonya. This folder is included in your iCloud or computer backup like any other app data.

Adding files

There are four ways to get a book into the Ohonya folder. The free library holds up to 10 books; to add an 11th, you need Ohonya Pro (see Ohonya Pro below).

• Files app: open the Files app, find the ZIP, PDF, or EPUB file, and copy or move it into the Ohonya folder. You can drag several files at once. This also works from iCloud Drive, a USB drive, or a network share that is connected in Files.
• Import from inside Ohonya: open the Folder tab, tap New in the top bar, and choose Files. The system file picker opens. Pick one or more ZIP, CBZ, PDF, or EPUB files and Ohonya copies them into its folder. The originals stay where they were.
• From a book catalog (Ohonya Pro): open the Folder tab, tap New, and choose OPDS to browse an online catalog and download books from it. See Book catalogs in the Features chapter.
• From a Mac or PC: connect the device with a cable, open it in Finder (macOS) or iTunes (Windows), open the Files section, and drop ZIP, PDF, or EPUB files onto Ohonya.

Large files may take a moment to copy. When the copy finishes, the file appears in the Folder tab.

The Folder tab

The Folder tab lists every ZIP, CBZ, PDF, and EPUB file in the Ohonya folder.

• Each row shows the file name, size, and the date it was added.
• Search books at the top filters the list as you type.
• If the list is empty you will see a hint to add files via the Files app.

A file in the Folder tab is not yet on your shelf. Tap it to add it.

Adding a book to the shelf

1. In the Folder tab, tap a file. Ohonya opens the file, finds the pages, and shows a card with the cover, a Title field, and an Author field.
2. Check the title. It starts as the file name; change it to anything you like. The author field is optional.
3. Tap Change cover if you want a different page as the cover. Pick any page from the book.
4. Choose the shelf category from the menu on the card. Categories are the tabs at the top of the Shelf, named Shelf1 and Shelf2 to begin with. You can create more categories later on the Shelf.
5. Tap Add and Read. The book is placed on the shelf and opens immediately.

If a file cannot be opened, Ohonya shows Unable to Open Book with the reason. The usual causes are a damaged archive, a ZIP with no images inside, or a PDF that is password protected.

Your first reading session

• The page fills the whole screen and the menus are hidden so nothing distracts from the book.
• Tap the right or left edge of the page to turn it. For a Japanese manga the next page is on the left; for a left-to-right book it is on the right. Ohonya follows the Binding setting of the book (see the Setup chapter).
• Tap the middle of the page to show the menus: the top bar with the back arrow, the list of contents and bookmarks, Settings, and Bookmark, and the bottom bar with the page slider and thumbnails. Tap the middle again to hide them.
• Tap the back arrow in the top bar to close the book. Ohonya remembers the page you were on and opens the book there next time.

Reading in portrait and landscape

• Hold the device upright and Ohonya shows one page at a time, or a continuous scroll in Gapless mode.
• Turn it sideways and Ohonya can also show two pages side by side like an open book, depending on the Mode setting. Single is the default for a new book.

Ohonya Pro

Reading in Ohonya is free. Ohonya Pro is a one-time in-app purchase, not a subscription, and it works with Family Sharing.

Free, with no purchase:

• Reading every format (ZIP, CBZ, PDF, and EPUB), with the page flip and the other animations, single, two-page, and continuous modes, page crop, themes, zoom, bookmarks, the page grid, and search inside a book.
• Translate, copy, and share for selected text, and the Test button for the Text to Speech voice.
• Up to 10 books in the library. The limit counts the book files in the Folder tab; this guide does not count.
• Up to 10 highlights per book, notes included.

Ohonya Pro adds:

• Unlimited books.
• Reading position sync between your devices, through your own iCloud account.
• OPDS book catalogs.
• Text to Speech, which reads a book aloud.
• Unlimited highlights and notes.

Where to buy and restore: open Settings, then Ohonya Pro. The same screen has Restore Purchase for a new device or a reinstall. The purchase screen also appears when you add an 11th book, choose New and OPDS in the Folder tab, start Text to Speech, make an 11th highlight in one book, or open a book while the library holds more than 10 books, for example after copying files in through the Files app.

Removing books and files

• Removing a book from the shelf (Edit, select, Remove) keeps the file in the Folder tab. You can add it to a shelf again later.
• To free storage, delete the file in the Folder tab or in the Files app. Deleting a file also removes the book from any shelf it was on, along with its bookmarks and reading position.

Where to go next

• The Setup chapter explains every setting: themes, reading direction, page modes, animations, tap zones, and page crop.
• The Features chapter covers the shelf, groups, gestures, zoom, bookmarks, the page grid, and the menu bars in detail, then reading EPUB books (text settings, highlights and notes, search, Text to Speech) and book catalogs.

Setup

Ohonya has two places for settings: the Settings tab, which holds the defaults for every book, and the Settings popover inside a book, which adjusts that one book. This chapter explains both, option by option.

Defaults and per-book settings

• The Settings tab (Detail page) sets the defaults. A book that you have never adjusted inside the reader uses these values.
• The gear inside a book changes that book only. Once you change anything there, Ohonya marks the book as customized and keeps its own copy of the settings. Later changes on the Settings tab no longer affect that book.
• This lets you keep, for example, right-to-left binding for your manga and left-to-right for your PDFs without switching every time.

The Settings tab

The Settings tab has a list on the left and content on the right (on iPhone the list fills the screen and each item opens a page).

• Detail: the default reading settings and tap zones.
• Ohonya Pro: buy Ohonya Pro, a one-time purchase, or tap Restore Purchase to get it back on a new device or after a reinstall.
• Manual: this manual.
• About: version number, Privacy Policy, and open source licenses.

Detail: Theme

Theme sets the background color around the pages and behind the app chrome.

• Light: white background. Best for daylight and for PDFs with white pages.
• Dark: black background. Best at night and for manga scans, because the black border does not glow.
• Sepia: warm paper tone.

The reader menus themselves always stay dark so they do not distract from the page.

Detail: Mode

Mode decides how pages are laid out on screen. Double needs landscape: in portrait, a book set to Double shows one page at a time. Single and Gapless work the same in both orientations.

• Single: one page at a time.
• Double: two pages side by side like an open book. A page that is already a wide spread (wider than it is tall) is shown alone so it is not squeezed. An EPUB book is laid out as two text pages side by side.
• Gapless: pages are stacked into one continuous strip that you scroll with your finger. There are no page turns; pinch to zoom the whole strip. Useful for webtoons and long vertical comics.

Detail: Binding

Binding is the reading direction of the book. It decides which way pages turn, which tap zone goes forward, and which page sits on the left or right in Double mode.

• Right: the spine is on the right and you read right to left. Use this for Japanese manga.
• Left: the spine is on the left and you read left to right. Use this for Western comics and most PDFs.
• Vertical: pages flow from top to bottom. Use this for webtoons and scrolling comics. Vertical binding shows pages as a continuous scroll.

Detail: Animation

Animation is how a page turn looks.

• Flip: the page curls like real paper. You can drag a corner and watch the page bend, with a shadow under the fold. Release past the middle of the screen to complete the turn or release early to let the page settle back. A quick flick of the finger turns the page immediately. Tapping a tap zone plays the same curl automatically.
• Slide: pages slide sideways, like a photo gallery.
• Fade: the next page cross-fades over the current one. The calmest option, useful when reading fast.

Only Flip lets you drag a corner. With Slide or Fade, turn pages by tapping or swiping.

Detail: Reverse Tap Zones

Normally the tap zone on the "next page" side goes forward and the other side goes back. Turn on Reverse Tap Zones to swap them. Some readers prefer always tapping the right side to advance, even in a right-to-left manga; this switch makes that possible.

Detail: Page Turn Tap Zone

The tap zones are two invisible bands along the left and right edges of the page. Tapping inside a band turns the page; tapping between the bands toggles the menus.

• Single Page: the width of each band, as a percent of the screen width, when one page is shown. The default is 30, which means the left 30% and the right 30% of the screen turn pages and the middle 40% toggles the menus.
• Double Page: the same for two-page spreads. The default is 15, which keeps the bands narrow so that most of both pages remains free for zooming and for PDF links.

Use the plus and minus buttons to change each value in steps of 5, from 5 to 45.

Detail: Page Crop

Many books carry wide white margins, especially PDFs made for print. Page Crop cuts those edges away so the text or artwork fills more of the screen. It works for PDF files and for ZIP image books. EPUB books have Margins in the reading settings instead.

• Tap Adjust on page. A crop screen opens, the same kind used for choosing a cover: the whole page is shown at full size and stays still while you work.
• Drag the top, bottom, left, or right edge of the white frame to say how much to keep. The area outside the frame is dimmed, so you always see what is being cut away.
• The left and right edges move together, so the crop stays even on both sides.
• The percentages at the bottom of the screen show the current values. Each side can be cut up to 40 percent, and at least a fifth of the page always remains.
• Nothing changes until you tap Use. Tap Cancel to leave the page as it was.
• At 0 the page is shown exactly as the file has it, including the margins the file itself was made with.
• Single page and two-page spread keep separate values, because a spread needs a different amount than a page that fills the screen. Portrait always uses the single-page value.

The value set here is the default for books you have not adjusted individually. To crop one particular book differently, use Adjust on page inside that book (see below).

Reading settings inside a book

Tap the middle of the page to show the menus, then tap the gear in the top bar. A popover opens with the settings for the current book.

• Brightness: a slider that sets the screen brightness while you read. It is the same brightness as in Control Center, kept handy so you do not have to leave the book.
• Text to Speech (Ohonya Pro): reads the book aloud. It appears for EPUB books and for PDFs that contain text. The Test button for the voice is free; starting to read needs Ohonya Pro. See the Features chapter.
• Binding: Right, Left, or Vertical, exactly as in the Settings tab, but only for this book.
• Mode: Single, Double, or Gapless for this book.
• Theme: Light, Dark, or Sepia for this book.
• Animation: Flip, Slide, or Fade for this book. It is not shown in Gapless mode, where there are no page turns.
• Crop (PDF and image books): opens the crop screen on the page you are reading. The page is shown whole and does not move while you drag the frame; the new crop is applied when you tap Use.
• Font, Text Size, Line Spacing, Alignment, and Margins (EPUB books): the text settings described under Text settings for EPUB in the Features chapter.

The popover stays open while you change several settings. Tap outside it to close.

Shelf categories

Categories are the tabs at the top of the Shelf. Ohonya starts with a small set, and you can make your own.

• Tap the category box at the top-left of the Shelf to open the category list.
• New Category creates a category; type the name and tap Add.
• Rename or delete a category from the same list. Deleting a category moves its books out of that category; at least one category must always remain.
• When adding a book from the Folder tab, choose the category on the Add to Shelf card. Later, use Edit and Move on the Shelf to send books to another category.

Sorting the shelf

Tap Sort on the Shelf and choose Title or Date Added. Sorting applies to the category you are looking at. You can also arrange books by hand: touch and hold a cover and drag it to a new spot.

Storage and backups

• Books, bookmarks, and settings are stored only on this device. Your last reading position in each book is kept on the device. With Ohonya Pro and iCloud on for Ohonya, it is also copied to your own iCloud account.
• The Ohonya folder in the Files app is part of your normal device backup (iCloud Backup or a computer backup).
• With Ohonya Pro, reading positions sync between your devices: put the same file in the other device's Ohonya folder and the book opens where you left off. Books themselves are not synced; copy the file yourself. To turn syncing off, open Settings, [your name], iCloud, Apps Using iCloud, and switch off Ohonya.

Features

This chapter describes everything you can do on the shelf and inside a book, with the exact gestures and buttons, including reading EPUB books and downloading books from catalogs.

The shelf

The Shelf tab shows your books as covers standing on wooden shelves, one category at a time.

• Open a book: tap its cover. The book opens at the page where you stopped last time.
• Switch category: use the category control at the top of the screen.
• Search: tap the magnifier in the top bar and type part of a title or author. The shelf shows only matching books; clear the search to see everything again.
• Sort: tap Sort and choose Title or Date Added.
• Rearrange: touch and hold a cover until it lifts, then drag it left, right, or to another row and let go.

Groups

A group keeps a series together as one item on the shelf.

• Make a group: drag one cover onto another and release. The two books become a group. Drag more books onto the group to add them.
• Or use Edit: select two or more books, then tap Bind.
• Open a group: tap it. The volumes appear on their own shelf inside the group; tap a volume to read it.
• Rename a group: inside the group, tap Edit and choose Rename Group.
• Take a book out: inside the group, tap Edit, select the book, and use Move to send it to a category.

Edit mode on the shelf

Tap Edit in the top bar to work on several books at once. A check mark appears on each cover you tap.

• Select all: selects every book on the current shelf.
• Bind: combines the selected books into a group. It turns on once you have selected at least two.
• MovetoUp: moves the selected books to the front of the shelf.
• Move: sends the selected books to another category. Pick the category from the list.
• Remove: takes the selected books off the shelf. Ohonya asks you to confirm and reminds you that the files stay in the Folder tab.
• Done: leaves edit mode.

Turning pages

• Tap zones: tap near the left or right edge of the page. The side that goes forward depends on the Binding of the book: the left side for Right binding (manga), the right side for Left binding. The width of the zones is set in Settings, Page Turn Tap Zone.
• Swipe: swipe left or right across the page.
• Drag a corner (Flip animation only): touch a corner of the page and pull it across. The page curls with a shadow beneath it. Release past the middle to finish the turn; release early and the page falls back. A fast flick turns the page at once.

Showing and hiding the menus

• Tap the middle of the page (between the tap zones) to show the top and bottom bars. Tap again to hide them.
• The X button at the right end of the bottom bar also hides the menus.

Zoom

• Double tap on any spot to zoom in on it. Double tap again to zoom back out to the full page.
• Pinch with two fingers to zoom in or out to any size, up to about four and a half times.
• While zoomed in, drag with one finger to pan around the page.
• To change pages while zoomed in, drag past the edge of the page in the reading direction. The next page opens at normal size.
• In Gapless mode, pinch zooms the whole strip and you keep scrolling vertically.

The top bar

• Back arrow (left end): closes the book and returns to the shelf. The reading position is saved.
• List: opens Contents (the table of contents, when the book has one), Bookmarks, and Highlights. Tap a row to jump there.
• Details (i): shows the book's title, author, and other information.
• Settings (gear): opens the reading settings for this book. See the Setup chapter.
• Bookmark: adds a bookmark to the current page, or removes it if the page is already bookmarked. The icon fills in when the page is bookmarked.
• Search (magnifier): searches the text of the book. It appears for EPUB books and for PDFs that contain text.
• Shift buttons (Double mode only): two extra buttons that move the pairing of pages by one. If the spreads look wrong, for example the left half of a picture is on the right page, tap a shift button once and the pairs line up. This is common when a book starts with a single cover page.

The bottom bar

• Page number: shown at the left end, as the current page over the total.
• Page slider: drag the knob to move through the book. The thumbnails follow the knob.
• Thumbnails: a strip of small page images. Tap one to jump to that page. Scroll the strip to look ahead or back without leaving your page.
• Enlarge and shrink: make the thumbnails bigger or smaller.
• Grid: opens a full-screen grid of every page in the book. Tap a page to jump to it. Pinch to change the thumbnail size in four steps.
• Bookmark: shows only the bookmarked pages in the thumbnail strip. Tap it again to show every page.
• Back (arrow): after you jump somewhere with the slider, the grid, a bookmark, or a PDF link, this returns you to the page you came from. It stays dim until you have jumped.
• X: hides the menus.

Bookmarks

• Add or remove a bookmark with the Bookmark button in the top bar. The current page is bookmarked.
• Open the list with the List button in the top bar and choose Bookmarks. The rows show page numbers in order.
• Jump: tap a row.
• Delete one: swipe a row to the left and tap Delete.
• Delete all: tap Delete All and confirm.
• Bookmarks belong to the book and stay with it until you delete the file.

The page grid

The grid gives you the whole book at a glance.

• Open it with the Grid button in the bottom bar.
• Tap a page to jump there. The grid closes and the page opens.
• The Bookmark button in the grid shows only the bookmarked pages.
• Pinch to change the thumbnail size in four steps and see more or fewer pages per row. Ohonya remembers the size for each book.
• The grid always shows pages in reading order, so for a right-to-left book the first page is at the top right.

Double page spreads

• In landscape with Mode set to Double, Ohonya shows two pages side by side, with a shadow along the spine while a page is turning.
• A page that is already a wide image (a two-page spread scanned as one picture) is shown alone across the screen.
• The first page of a book is often a cover that should stand alone. If the following spreads look mismatched, use the shift buttons in the top bar to move the pairing by one page.
• Tap zones in Double mode are narrower by default so the two pages stay free for zooming and links.

Gapless and vertical reading

• Gapless mode stacks all pages into one strip. Scroll with one finger, pinch to zoom, and keep scrolling. The page number in the bottom bar follows the page that is mostly on screen.
• Vertical binding uses the same continuous scroll and is the natural choice for webtoons.
• In these modes there are no page turns, so tap zones and the Flip animation do not apply.

PDF links

• Links inside a PDF, such as a table of contents, chapter references, or footnotes, are active. Tap one to jump to the target page.
• Links take priority over the tap zones, so a link near the edge of the page still works.
• After following a link, use the Back button in the bottom bar to return.

Page crop

• Trim the margins of any book with Crop in the reading settings, or set a default in the Settings tab. See the Setup chapter for the crop screen.
• The value is a percent of the page that is cut away, so 0 shows the page exactly as the file has it and the result looks the same on iPad and iPhone.
• Single page and two-page spread keep their own values, because a spread needs a different trim than a full-screen page.

Reading EPUB books

• EPUB text is laid out for the screen in pages. The number of pages depends on the screen and on the text settings, so the same book has a different page count on iPhone and iPad and after you change the text size. Your place is kept by the text you were reading, not by the page number.
• The top of each page shows the book title and the chapter; the bottom shows the page number.
• Single, Double, and Gapless work as for other books: one page, two pages side by side in landscape, or one continuous scroll.
• The reading direction comes from the book. Japanese books written in vertical text are shown in vertical columns that read from right to left, with furigana.
• Links and footnote marks jump to their target. Use the Back button in the bottom bar to return.
• A table too wide for the page keeps its size: drag it left or right to see the rest.
• After you change a text setting, Ohonya lays the book out again. A counter in the middle of the screen shows the progress, and you stay at the same place in the text.

Text settings for EPUB

Tap the gear inside an EPUB book.

• Font: Book default uses the fonts the book asks for. Or choose any font installed on the device.
• Text Size: from 60% to 300% in steps of 10%.
• Line Spacing: Tight, Normal, or Loose.
• Alignment: Left or Justify. Paragraph: Margin puts space between paragraphs, Indent indents the first line instead. Automatic hyphenation breaks long words at the end of a line.
• Margins: opens a screen with one page of the book. Drag the frame to set the top, bottom, and side margins as a percent of the page, then tap Use.

Selecting text, highlights, and notes

These work in EPUB books and in PDFs that contain text.

• Touch and hold a word to select it. Drag the handles to select more.
• Highlight: marks the text in color.
• Add Note: writes a note on the selected text.
• Translate: shows a translation of the selection.
• Search: looks the selection up on the web in Safari.
• Copy and Share: copy the text or send it to another app.
• Tap a highlight to change its color, add or edit its note, or remove it.
• Every highlight and note is listed under Highlights in the List button in the top bar. Tap one to jump to it.
• Up to 10 highlights per book are free, notes included. Ohonya Pro removes the limit. Making an 11th highlight in one book opens the purchase screen.

Searching inside a book

• Tap the magnifier in the top bar and type a word or phrase.
• The results are grouped by chapter and show the text around each match. Tap a result to go to that place.

Text to Speech

Text to Speech is part of Ohonya Pro. The Test button stays free, so you can hear a voice before you buy.

• Open the gear and choose Text to Speech. Speak speed and Speak pitch set the voice; Reset returns them to normal and Test plays a sample.
• Tap Start Text to Speech. Without Ohonya Pro the purchase screen opens instead. Reading starts at the top of the page you are on, each sentence is highlighted as it is read, and the pages turn by themselves. The menus hide while it reads.
• Tap the middle of the page to pause. Stop Text to Speech asks whether to stop (OK) or to continue (Cancel). Turning the page yourself also stops it.
• The screen stays on while the book is read aloud.

Book catalogs

Book catalogs are part of Ohonya Pro. OPDS is a standard way for book servers to list their books. Calibre's content server, Komga, and Kavita offer OPDS catalogs, and so do public libraries such as Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks.opds/).

• Without Ohonya Pro, the purchase screen appears when you tap New, then OPDS, before the list of catalogs opens.
• Add a catalog: in the Folder tab tap New, then OPDS, then the plus button. Enter the address, a name, and a user name and password if the server needs them. Tap Save.
• Browse: tap the catalog and open its sections. Switch between a list and a grid of covers. When the catalog supports search, use Find a book at the top. Some catalogs offer filters and sort orders.
• Download: open a book to see its details and tap Download EPUB (or PDF, or CBZ). When the download finishes, the card for adding the book to the shelf opens with the title, author, and cover filled in. Tap Add and Read.
• Only books the catalog offers as a direct download can be downloaded. Books to buy or to borrow are not.
• Edit or delete a catalog: swipe its row to the left.
• The password is kept in the device Keychain and sent only to the catalog's own address.

Reading position and history

• Ohonya saves your position in every book automatically. Close a book, switch books, or quit the app, and each book reopens where you left it.
• With Ohonya Pro, your last reading position also syncs between your devices through your own iCloud account.
• Jumping with the slider, the grid, a bookmark, or a link records the page you came from, so the Back button in the bottom bar can take you back.

Themes and brightness

• Light, Dark, and Sepia change the background around the pages. Choose per book from the gear, or set a default in the Settings tab.
• The Brightness slider in the reading settings changes the screen brightness without leaving the book.

Privacy

• Ohonya has no accounts, no analytics, and no advertising.
• Books, bookmarks, highlights, notes, and settings never leave the device. With Ohonya Pro, your last reading position is the only thing sent anywhere, and only to your own iCloud account.
• Ohonya connects to a book catalog only when you add one, and only to that catalog.
• The full policy is in Settings, About, Privacy Policy.