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 • Documentation • Getting Started • Troubleshooting • Support • License

Features

✅ Implemented

Planned Features

🛠 Building 🔄 Planned

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

Screenshots

Downloads

Mobile Apps

Platform-Specific Downloads

• macOS / iOS / iPadOS : Search and install Readest on the App Store, also available on TestFlight for beta test (send your Apple ID to 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.

Nix

[!NOTE] The Nix package supports x86_64-linux only. nix-darwin is not supported.

Try it without installing. --accept-flake-config opts in to the project's binary cache; without it Nix builds the whole Rust/Tauri stack from source.

nix run --accept-flake-config github:readest/readest

To install it, add the input to your flake.nix:

# Due to a limitation in how Nix fetches submodules, a regular GitHub input type will fail to evaluate.
inputs.readest = {
  url = "https://github.com/readest/readest.git";
  type = "git";
  submodules = true;
};

then in configuration.nix add the package and the cache. The cache is needed here as well because a flake input's own nixConfig does not apply to your system build:

environment.systemPackages = [
  inputs.readest.packages.${pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system}.default
];

nix.settings = {
  substituters = [ "https://readest.cachix.org" ];
  trusted-public-keys = [
    "readest.cachix.org-1:KvKAePcZZCZB8ytFIAOGdgN3VRdmFHGRMHqMVckbt5c="
  ];
};

Documentation

Guides, tutorials, and FAQs for installing and using Readest live in the official documentation:

📖 https://readest.com/docs

Contributor references live in the repository: architecture, code layout, and testing.

Building from Source

To build Readest from the latest commit, see Getting Started.

Troubleshooting

1. Readest Won’t Launch on Windows (Missing Edge WebView2 Runtime)

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.

2. AppImage Launches but Only Shows a Taskbar Icon

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.

Contributors

Readest is open-source, and contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues, suggest features, or submit pull requests. Please review our contributing guidelines and Code of Conduct before you start. We also welcome you to join our Discord community for either support or contributing guidance.

Support

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, PayPal, card payments, and crypto. Your contribution helps us fix bugs faster, improve performance, and keep building great features.

Sponsors

License

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.

Happy reading with Readest!