Readest

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.

Features • Planned Features • Screenshots • Downloads • Getting Started • Troubleshooting • Support • License

Stay tuned for continuous improvements and updates! Contributions and suggestions are always welcome—let's build the ultimate reading experience together. 😊

    

• macOS / iOS / iPadOS : Search and install Readest on the App Store, also available on TestFlight for beta test (send your Apple ID to [email protected] to request access).
• Windows / Linux / Android: Visit and download Readest at https://readest.com or the Releases on GitHub.
• Linux users can also install Readest on Flathub.
• Web: Visit and use Readest for Web at https://web.readest.com.

• Node.js and pnpm for Next.js development
• Rust and Cargo for Tauri development

For the best experience to build Readest for yourself, use a recent version of Node.js and Rust. Refer to the Tauri documentation for details on setting up the development environment prerequisites on different platforms.

nvm install v22
nvm use v22
npm install -g pnpm
rustup update

To get started with Readest, follow these steps to clone and build the project.

git clone https://github.com/readest/readest.git
cd readest

# might need to rerun this when code is updated
git submodule update --init --recursive
pnpm install
# copy vendors dist libs to public directory
pnpm --filter @readest/readest-app setup-vendors

To confirm that all dependencies are correctly installed, run the following command:

pnpm tauri info

This command will display information about the installed Tauri dependencies and configuration on your platform. Note that the output may vary depending on the operating system and environment setup. Please review the output specific to your platform for any potential issues.

For Windows targets, “Build Tools for Visual Studio 2022” (or a higher edition of Visual Studio) and the “Desktop development with C++” workflow must be installed. For Windows ARM64 targets, the “VS 2022 C++ ARM64 build tools” and "C++ Clang Compiler for Windows" components must be installed. And make sure clang can be found in the path by adding C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools\VC\Tools\Llvm\x64\bin for example in the environment variable Path.

# Start development for the Tauri app
pnpm tauri dev
# or start development for the Web app
pnpm dev-web
# preview with OpenNext build for the Web app
pnpm preview

For Android:

# Initialize the Android environment (run once)
rm apps/readest-app/src-tauri/gen/android
pnpm tauri android init
git checkout apps/readest-app/src-tauri/gen/android

pnpm tauri android dev
# or if you want to dev on a real device
pnpm tauri android dev --host

For iOS:

# Set up the iOS environment (run once)
pnpm tauri ios init

pnpm tauri ios dev
# or if you want to dev on a real device
pnpm tauri ios dev --host

pnpm tauri build
pnpm tauri android build
pnpm tauri ios build

Please refer to our release script if you experience any issues: https://github.com/readest/readest/blob/main/.github/workflows/release.yml

If you have Nix installed, you can leverage flake to enter a development shell with all the necessary dependencies:

nix develop ./ops  # enter a dev shell for the web app
nix develop ./ops#ios # enter a dev shell for the ios app
nix develop ./ops#android # enter a dev shell for the android app

Please check the wiki of this project for more information on development.

Symptom

• When you double-click readest.exe, nothing happens. No window appears, and Task Manager does not show the process.
• This can affect both the standard installer and the portable version.

Cause

• Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime is either missing, outdated, or improperly installed on your system. Readest depends on WebView2 to render the interface on Windows.

How to Fix

1. Check if WebView2 is installed
   • Open “Add or Remove Programs” (a.k.a. Apps & features) on Windows. Look for “Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime.”
2. Install or Update WebView2
   • Download the WebView2 Runtime directly from Microsoft: link.
   • If you prefer an offline installer, download the offline package and run it as an Administrator.
3. Re-run Readest
   • After installing/updating WebView2, launch readest.exe again.
   • If you still encounter problems, reboot your PC and try again.

Additional Tips

• If reinstalling once doesn’t work, uninstall Edge WebView2 completely, then reinstall it with Administrator privileges.
• Verify your Windows installation has the latest updates from Microsoft.

Still Stuck?

• See Issue readest/readest#358 for further details, or head over to our Discord server and open a support discussion with detailed logs of your environment and the steps you’ve taken.

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.

If Readest has been useful to you, consider supporting its development. You can become a sponsor on GitHub, donate via Stripe, or donate with crypto. Your contribution helps us squash 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:

• foliate-js, which is MIT licensed.
• zip.js, which is licensed under the BSD-3-Clause license.
• fflate, which is MIT licensed.
• PDF.js, which is licensed under Apache License 2.0.
• daisyUI, which is MIT licensed.
• marked, which is MIT licensed.
• next.js, which is MIT licensed.
• react-icons, which has various open-source licenses.
• react, which is MIT licensed.
• tauri, which is MIT licensed.

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.