Studying From PDFs: Notes, Flashcards and the Scanned-PDF Limit

In short: read your PDFs in pimReader, keep notes with your own comments under each source, and turn key dates and terms into cards. First check that your PDF has real text.

Your first 10 minutes

1. Tap Open a file on Home and pick a PDF. Try to select a word. If you cannot, the PDF is a scan (pictures of pages). pimReader has no OCR, so you cannot select, tap or search those words. Run the file through an OCR tool on your computer first, then open the new copy.
2. Select an important passage and tap Add Note.
3. In the note, turn on Comment and write your own thought. The note keeps the quote, your comment, and its place in the PDF.
4. Tap Tags: to add a tag, for example "chapter-2" or "methods".
5. Open Notes on Home. Your notes are listed by source. Tap one, then ⋮ → Go To Note to jump back to the page.
6. For a date or a term, tick Memorize in the note. A question icon appears next to it: tap it and type a question, such as "When was the treaty signed?"
7. Need a word in a long PDF? Tap Search on the reader toolbar. To search all your notes, tap 🔍 on the Notes page.

A daily routine

• 5 minutes: do your daily reviews: tap the Exercise card on Home. Answer each card, then tap Again, Hard, Good or Easy. The app brings a card back when you're likely to start forgetting it.
• 20 minutes: read one paper or chapter. Add two or three notes with comments.
• Reading in another language? Set it in Settings → Languages → Foreign Language (English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish or Portuguese). Unknown words then show a small translation above them. If the vocabulary estimate opens, scroll to where the common words stop looking familiar and tap OK. Reading only in your own language? On the first screen tap Just read, no language to learn.
• Once a week (AI): open Ask AI and ask a question about your topic. The AI can search your library by meaning, not only by exact words.

What it won't do

• No OCR. Scanned PDFs cannot be selected, tapped or searched.
• No citation export. There is no BibTeX or reference manager link.
• Notes leave the app only as text. Open a note and tap ⋮ → Share. For a full copy of your data, use Settings → ⋮ → Backup Data, which saves a zip file.
• AI answers can be wrong. Always check them against the source.

Reading, notes, tags, search and flashcards are free; search by meaning and Ask AI use AI, which is part of pimReader Plus. When you open an AI feature, pimReader offers Try free for a month: no card, no account, nothing renews. Tap Not now to carry on without AI.