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Readest

Readest is an open-source ebook reader designed for immersive and deep reading experiences. Built as a modern rewrite ofFoliate, it leveragesNext.js 16 andTauri 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 installReadest on theApp Store,also available on TestFlight for beta test (send your Apple ID toreadestapp@gmail.com to request access).
• Windows / Linux / Android: Visit and downloadReadest athttps://readest.com or theReleases on GitHub.
• Linux users can also installReadest on Flathub.
• Web: Visit and useReadest for Web athttps://web.readest.com.

• Node.js andpnpm for Next.js development
• Rust andCargo for Tauri development

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

nvm install v22nvm use v22npm install -g pnpmrustup update

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

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

# might need to rerun this when code is updatedgit submodule update --init --recursivepnpm install# copy vendors dist libs to public directorypnpm --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 sureclang can be found in the path by addingC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools\VC\Tools\Llvm\x64\bin for example in the environment variablePath.

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

For Android:

# Initialize the Android environment (run once)rm apps/readest-app/src-tauri/gen/androidpnpm tauri android initgit checkout apps/readest-app/src-tauri/gen/androidpnpm tauri android dev# or if you want to dev on a real devicepnpm tauri android dev --host

For iOS:

# Set up the iOS environment (run once)pnpm tauri ios initpnpm tauri ios dev# or if you want to dev on a real devicepnpm tauri ios dev --host

pnpm tauri buildpnpm tauri android buildpnpm 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 shellwith all the necessary dependencies:

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

Please check thewiki 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 Issuereadest/readest#358 for further details, or head over to ourDiscord 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 theFlatpak 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. Pleasereview ourcontributing guidelines before you start. We also welcome you to join ourDiscord community for either support or contributing guidance.

If Readest has been useful to you, consider supporting its development. You canbecome a sponsor on GitHub,donate via Stripe, ordonate 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 theGNU 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 theLICENSE 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 theWeb Chinese Fonts Plan for offering open-source tools that enable the use of Chinese fonts on the web.