Welcome to Yiana! This guide will help you get started with scanning and organising your documents.

First Launch

When you first open Yiana, you’ll see a welcome document that explains the basics. Feel free to delete it once you’ve read it.

Scanning Documents

Yiana offers two scanning modes, each with a dedicated button:

Monochrome Scanning

Best for text documents, forms, receipts, and anything primarily black and white.

  1. Tap the + button
  2. Choose Scan Mono
  3. Position your camera over the document
  4. Yiana will automatically detect the page edges
  5. Tap the shutter button or wait for auto-capture
  6. Add more pages or tap Save when done

Monochrome scans are optimised for readability and produce smaller file sizes.

Colour Scanning

Best for photos, diagrams, colour charts, or any document where colour matters.

  1. Tap the + button
  2. Choose Scan Colour
  3. Follow the same process as monochrome

Scanning Tips:

  • Use good, even lighting for best results
  • Keep the camera steady
  • Yiana automatically enhances contrast and sharpness
  • The app works best with documents on a contrasting background

Creating Text Notes

Create text documents directly in Yiana — perfect for notes, letters, or any text content.

  1. Tap the + button
  2. Choose New Text Note
  3. Type your content
  4. When finished, navigate away from the note

Important: When you exit a text note, it’s automatically saved as a PDF. This creates a permanent, tamper-evident record — just like your scans. The text becomes part of the PDF and cannot be edited afterwards.

This is by design: Yiana treats all documents as permanent records, whether scanned or typed.

Adding Text to Pages

Need to fill in a form or add annotations? Yiana lets you add text directly onto any page with precise positioning.

  1. Open a document
  2. Navigate to the page you want to annotate
  3. Tap the Add Text button
  4. Tap where you want to place text
  5. Type your text
  6. Use the positioning controls to adjust placement:
    • Drag to move roughly
    • Use arrow buttons to nudge pixel-by-pixel
    • Perfect for lining up text on form fields

Tips for form filling:

  • Zoom in for precise placement
  • Use the fine-adjustment controls to align text exactly with form fields
  • Preview your changes before saving

Importing PDFs

Already have PDF files? Import them into Yiana:

  1. Tap the + button
  2. Choose Import
  3. Select your PDF file
  4. The document will be added to your library

You can also share PDFs from other apps directly to Yiana using the Share sheet.

Organising with Folders

Keep your documents organised:

  1. Long-press in the document list
  2. Choose New Folder
  3. Name your folder
  4. Drag documents into folders, or move them using the context menu

Searching Documents

Once your documents are processed, you can search through their content:

  1. Tap the Search field
  2. Type your search term
  3. Results show matching documents with highlighted text
  4. Tap a result to jump directly to the matching page

Note: Scanned documents need to be processed before text search works. This happens automatically if you have the OCR backend configured, or when using the optional processing service.

iCloud Sync

Your documents sync automatically via iCloud:

  • Documents appear on all your Apple devices signed into the same iCloud account
  • Changes sync in the background
  • No setup required — it just works

Note: Make sure iCloud Drive is enabled in your device settings.

Viewing Documents

  • Swipe left and right to navigate pages
  • Pinch to zoom in and out
  • Double-tap to fit the page to the screen
  • Use the page thumbnails in the sidebar for quick navigation

Tips & Tricks

  • Swipe left on a document to delete it
  • Long-press a document for more options
  • On iPad, use the sidebar to switch between pages and other views
  • On Mac, use keyboard shortcuts for faster navigation
  • Your documents are always accessible as standard PDFs — see Your Data

Need More Help?

Visit our Support page or contact us directly.