Keep the lines that stop you

How do I save a line?

Open the Lines tab and tap the plus. Pick the book, type the line, add the page, choose one tab and, if you like, write a private note that only you see. The Save button turns off over 280 characters and the field says so.

To skip typing, use Scan Text from the iPhone keyboard on a printed page. That is an iOS feature, so Bookstub itself does not use the camera for it.

Lines belong to a book. Deleting a book deletes its lines, and the delete alert says so before you confirm.

1. Open Lines and tap the plus button.
2. Choose the book and type or scan the line.
3. Add the page and pick a tab.
4. Save. The line appears under its tab.

What are tabs?

Tabs are the colored flags readers stick into paper books, turned into a filing system. Each tab has a color and a name, so the meaning is never color alone. The free legend has four tabs: Favorite line, Made me laugh, Plot twist and Beautiful writing.

Bookstub Pass raises the legend to ten colors and lets you rename tabs with names of up to 24 characters. The longer story is in the guide to book tab colors.

Tabs also stick out of the stub of a finished book as colored flags, up to eight visible with a plus count after that, so the feel of a book is readable from a distance.

Can I find a line again?

The Lines tab shows a filter chip for each tab with its count, plus search. Tapping a line opens it with its book, page and note. Swiping a line left deletes it, with an undo note.

Removing a tab is allowed and gentle: the app says where its lines will go before it acts. Reordering the legend is a drag, and it changes only how the filter chips are listed.

How do line cards work?

Any line becomes a card with the text, the book, the author and the page as attribution. Two templates are free, Ruled and Index card. Pass adds eight more: Typewriter, Stub, Receipt, Marginalia, Night, Bookmark, Tab legend and Torn page. Cards export as 9:16 or 1:1.

Every card shows attribution under the line, in the form title, author and page. That keeps a shared quote traceable to its book, and the card stays honest about where the words come from.

Can I share my tab legend?

Yes. Share my legend makes a card that lists your colors and what each one means, which is useful when your annotation system is half the fun.

Is there a rule about quoting?

Lines are short on purpose. The terms ask you to keep quotations brief, since you are responsible for what you save and share. Notes and line text never travel inside shared links.

What can I do with all these lines later?

Lines feed other parts of the app. When you finish a book, you can pick one of its lines as the line of the book, and it prints on the stub. In December, the archive asks you to choose a line of the year. Both choices are yours, and nothing is selected for you.

Because lines are plain text on your iPhone, they are included in the backup file you can export from Settings. CSV export comes with Pass.

Where are my lines stored?

Lines sit on your iPhone with the rest of your data, encrypted with a key in the iOS Keychain. They are included in the backup file you can export, and Settings, Delete all data removes them with everything else.

A line card contains only the image you chose to share and the Bookstub footer. The text of your lines and your private notes never travel inside a link, so a friend who opens your stub link sees the book and nothing you wrote.

Keep exploring