README.md
Readest is an open-source ebook reader designed for immersive and deep reading experiences. Built as a modern rewrite of Foliate, it leverages Next.js 16 and Tauri v2 to deliver a smooth, cross-platform experience across macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, and the Web.
</div> <p align="center"> <a href="#features">Features</a> • <a href="#planned-features">Planned Features</a> • <a href="#screenshots">Screenshots</a> • <a href="#downloads">Downloads</a> • <a href="#documentation">Documentation</a> • <a href="#getting-started">Getting Started</a> • <a href="#troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> • <a href="#support">Support</a> • <a href="#license">License</a> </p> <div align="center"> <a href="https://readest.com" target="_blank"> </a> </div>| Feature | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Format Support | Support EPUB, MOBI, KF8 (AZW3), FB2, CBZ, TXT, PDF | ✅ |
| Scroll/Page View Modes | Switch between scrolling or paginated reading modes. | ✅ |
| Full-Text Search | Search across the entire book to find relevant sections. | ✅ |
| Annotations and Highlighting | Add highlights, bookmarks, and notes to enhance your reading experience and use instant mode for quicker interactions. | ✅ |
| Dictionary/Wikipedia Lookup | Instantly look up words and terms when reading. | ✅ |
| Parallel Read | Read two books or documents simultaneously in a split-screen view. | ✅ |
| Customize Font and Layout | Adjust font, layout, theme mode, and theme colors for a personalized experience. | ✅ |
| Code Syntax Highlighting | Read software manuals with rich coloring of code examples. | ✅ |
| File Association and Open With | Quickly open files in Readest in your file browser with one-click. | ✅ |
| Library Management | Organize, sort, and manage your entire ebook library. | ✅ |
| OPDS/Calibre Integration | Integrate OPDS/Calibre to access online libraries and catalogs. | ✅ |
| Translate with DeepL and Yandex | From a single sentence to the entire book—translate instantly. | ✅ |
| Text-to-Speech (TTS) Support | Enjoy smooth, multilingual narration—even within a single book. | ✅ |
| Sync across Platforms | Synchronize book files, reading progress, notes, and bookmarks across all supported platforms. | ✅ |
| Sync with Koreader | Synchronize reading progress, notes, and bookmarks with Koreader devices. | ✅ |
| Accessibility | Provides full keyboard navigation and supports for screen readers such as VoiceOver, TalkBack, NVDA, and Orca. | ✅ |
| Visual & Focus Aids | Reading ruler, paragraph-by-paragraph reading mode, and speed reading features. | ✅ |
| Feature | Description | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| AI-Powered Summarization | Generate summaries of books or chapters using AI for quick insights. | 🛠 |
| Advanced Reading Stats | Track reading time, pages read, and more for detailed insights. | 🛠 |
| Audiobook Support | Extend functionality to play and manage audiobooks. | 🔄 |
| Handwriting Annotations | Add support for handwriting annotations using a pen on compatible devices. | 🔄 |
| In-Library Full-Text Search | Search across your entire ebook library to find topics and quotes. | 🔄 |
Stay tuned for continuous improvements and updates! Contributions and suggestions are always welcome—let's build the ultimate reading experience together. 😊
Guides, tutorials, and FAQs for installing and using Readest live in the official documentation:
To build Readest from the latest commit, see Getting Started.
Symptom
Cause
How to Fix
Additional Tips
Still Stuck?
On some Arch Linux systems—especially those using Wayland—the Readest AppImage may briefly show an icon in the taskbar and then exit without opening a window.
You might see logs such as:
Could not create default EGL display: EGL_BAD_PARAMETER. Aborting...
This behavior is usually caused by compatibility issues between the bundled AppImage libraries and the system’s EGL / Wayland environment.
Workaround 1: Launch with LD_PRELOAD (recommended)
You can preload the system Wayland client library before launching the AppImage:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libwayland-client.so /path/to/Readest.AppImage
This workaround has been confirmed to resolve the issue on affected systems.
Workaround 2: Use the Flatpak Version
If you prefer a more reliable out-of-the-box experience on Arch Linux, consider using the Flatpak build on Flathub instead. The Flatpak runtime helps avoid system library mismatches and tends to behave more consistently across different Wayland and X11 setups.
Readest is open-source, and contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues, suggest features, or submit pull requests. Please review our contributing guidelines before you start. We also welcome you to join our Discord community for either support or contributing guidance.
<a href="https://github.com/readest/readest/graphs/contributors"> <p align="left"> </p> </a>If Readest has been useful to you, consider supporting its development at donate.readest.com, where you'll find all available donation methods, including GitHub Sponsors, card payments, and crypto. Your contribution helps us fix bugs faster, improve performance, and keep building great features.
Readest is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. See the LICENSE file for details.
The following libraries and frameworks are used in this software:
The following fonts are utilized in this software, either bundled within the application or provided through web fonts:
Bitter, Fira Code, Inter, Literata, Merriweather, Noto Sans, Roboto, LXGW WenKai, MiSans, Source Han, WenQuanYi Micro Hei
We would also like to thank the Web Chinese Fonts Plan for offering open-source tools that enable the use of Chinese fonts on the web.