№ 01 · An open-source reader for the modern web

A library, reimagined for the way we read now.

OpenReader is a self-hostable home for your books — quiet, well-typeset, and built around the formats you already own. ePub today; PDF, MOBI, and AZW3 next.

Create your account Read the source on GitHub →

Chapter I

Of the pleasure of a quiet page.

There is, in the act of reading, a particular kind of stillness — a refuge from the breathless commerce of the screen. OpenReader is built for that stillness, in service of the page itself.

— page 3

A note from the editors

Reading software should disappear into the reading.

We built OpenReader because most e-book apps are designed for somebody else — a store, a platform, a metric. The book gets pushed to the side. Our aim is the opposite. The library is yours, the formats are open, the typography is the work of generations of typesetters. The software gets out of the way and lets the prose do its thing. Whether you keep a hundred volumes or ten thousand, OpenReader is meant to feel less like an application and more like a well-kept room.

№ 02 · The essentials

Built for readers, not for stores.

A small set of features, considered carefully, in the service of long-form reading.

I

Typographic by default

Generous margins, real serifs, optical sizing, and a calm palette tuned for hours, not minutes.

II

Open formats first

ePub today, with PDF, MOBI, and AZW3 in active development. Bring the books you already have.

III

Self-host or sign up

Run it on your own server with a single Kamal command, or use the hosted edition. Same software.

IV

Highlights & marginalia

Quiet, durable annotations. Yours to keep, export, and revisit — never locked behind a vendor.

V

Synced across devices

Pick up exactly where you left off, on the desktop, the tablet, or the phone in your coat pocket.

VI

No DRM, no surveillance

We don't track what you read or sell it back to you. Your library is a library, not a feed.

“A book read is a small act of attention — a refusal, however brief, to be hurried.”

From the OpenReader house manual

№ 03 · Formats

One reader for the books you already own.

OpenReader starts with the open standard and works outward. Bring an ePub today; the rest are on the way.

ePub: EPUB 2 & 3, with embedded fonts and reflowable layout.
PDF: Reflowable mode for prose; fixed mode for everything else.
MOBI: Legacy Kindle format, decoded and reflowed for the web.
AZW3: Modern Kindle format, with KFX support under evaluation.
CBZ / CBR: Comic and graphic novel archives.

№ 04 · Open by design

Built in the open. Run anywhere.

OpenReader is a Rails 8 application — Hotwire on the front, PostgreSQL behind it, deployable with a single Kamal command to any server you control.

The hosted edition runs the same code you can clone today. Read the source, file an issue, send a patch. The library, after all, has always been a public good.

github.com/openread →

An invitation

Bring your books.
We’ll set the table.

OpenReader is free and open source. The hosted edition is in early access.

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A library, re­imagined for the way we read now.