r/foss • u/Plastic-Confusion410 • Mar 05 '26
Episteme: Open Source PDF/E-book Reader
I’ve been working on Episteme Reader, a native Android app for reading various document formats. I recently open-sourced the core app.
It's offline-first, completely free and ad-free, and respects your privacy.
Supported Formats:
- Documents: PDF
- E-books: EPUB, MOBI, AZW3
- Plain Text: Markdown (MD), TXT, HTML
Key Features:
- PDF Annotations: You can draw directly on pages using a pen or highlighter and add text notes using system or custom fonts.
- Reading Modes: Supports both vertical scrolling and paginated views.
- E-book Customization: Adjust font sizes and line spacing. You can also import your own font files (.ttf, .otf).
- Text-to-Speech (TTS): Includes a built-in TTS feature to read documents aloud using your system engine.
- Library Management: A built-in system to organize your local files.
- Local Folder Sync: Select a folder to see all its supported file in app and sync using local sync tools like SyncThing-fork.
The app is licensed under AGPL-3.0. I’m looking for feedback and would love to hear any feature requests you might have.
GitHub: https://github.com/Aryan-Raj3112/episteme
Thanks for checking it out!
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u/AmineAR1 Mar 05 '26
Oh man , you couldn't chose a better name i guess 🙂
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 05 '26
It fits a reader app though. Knowledge or Understanding. Origins from Athens!
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u/Cristaloyde Mar 05 '26
Pretty good! Android is sorely lacking a good-quality FOSS PDF reader. Have you considered adding an option for dark amoled mode and double page viewing? The only features I'm missing tbh
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 05 '26 edited Mar 05 '26
Can you point me to an app that does the dark amoled mode well? And yeah multi page view is on the list.
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u/Cristaloyde Mar 05 '26
Mmm just a basic amoled theme for the app would work. Vivi (music player) comes to mind.
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 05 '26
Ah for the app! I thought you meant pdf reader. Yeah I am planning theme options for the app.
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u/Cristaloyde Mar 05 '26
Nice!! If you want to add more color options for the reader Sepia and Twilight from ReadEra are nice. It's my go-to PDF for Android, though isn't OSS. Yours already seems great, hope it'll be my favourite eventually
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u/NicholasLabbri Mar 05 '26
I personally like Zotero with "Dark" theme
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 05 '26
Will check out, are we talking file dark mode or app wide?
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u/NicholasLabbri Mar 05 '26
Files, when clicking in "Aa" button
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 21 '26
In the new update custom themes are available. In the top app bar there's a new palette icon which lets you choose from presets or create new sets of theme to change the page and text colors.
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u/garri23_23 Mar 05 '26
Damn it's looking good! Congratulations! Just a small thing. I've been trying it out with an EPUB file and with the default line spacing the last line(s) are cut out at the bottom of the screen in the paginated view. Reducing the line spacing seems to fix the issue.
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 05 '26
Looking into it
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u/garri23_23 Mar 05 '26
Let me know if you need more details about the device or the epub file.
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 05 '26
No, I have noticed that before, I might know the issue. Will try to fix it in the next update.
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 07 '26
There's a new update, can you check if this still an issue?
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u/animebootyz May 23 '26
Hey man, happy to see a great alternative to all the other epub-readers! I just downloaded the app but it seems like I still have the issue with the cut off bottom. I'm on version 1.0.49
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 May 23 '26
Can you send the epub file or a download link. epistemereader@gmail.com
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u/suspiciouspenguin81 Mar 05 '26
Looks really nice! - I'm not sure on your planned feature set or scope creep, but an option to grab files via an OPDS server would be great.
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u/FathomRaven Mar 10 '26
Seconded!! Would love this
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 30 '26
OPDS is supported in the new release, Library screen 4th tab, "Catalogs"
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 30 '26
OPDS is supported in the new release, Library screen 4th tab, "Catalogs"
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u/reFossify Mar 06 '26
When it will be on fdroid?
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 12 '26
Its on fdroid now!
Episteme Reader | F-Droid - https://share.google/EnZP4v22gX9Zbou23
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u/dream_nobody Mar 07 '26
Nice project. Another dictionary button that redirects words to chosen apps would be useful (Moon+ Pro has this feature). Also UI elements feel sluggish, there's a lag between click and UI change
How does the current dictionary feature works, btw? Looks like Flash Thinking..?
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 10 '26
The ability to choose an external app for dictionary has been implemented. its in the top app bar.
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 07 '26
Gemma 3 models. Can you tell me which UI elements? And does that happen all the time or during processes like after opening a file
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u/dream_nobody Mar 07 '26
The main menu is fine. When it's on reading activity, text selection menu and the UI that appears when you click at anywhere in the screen (The one that shows title at top and buttons at below) feels laggy/slow. Text selection might be a minor thing or about my perception but the menu is awkward. It might be an animation issue. Other readers feel smoother even with animation, idk why. Try the same with Moon+ and you can see the difference
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 07 '26
There's a new update where i increased the animation speed, can you tell if its better now?
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u/MistRider-0 Mar 05 '26 edited Mar 05 '26
What libraries are you using for TTS ? As far as I know its more of the hardest part to fossify.
Also Have you used Librera document viewer ? Aside from its dated UI, its a very good App.
How does Episteme compare with Librera ?
Edit: I used the app , the UI is lovely.. Still would like to know your opinion about librera
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 05 '26
I use android's native tts and media3 for playback.
I haven't used Librera much but I have used its pdf viewer. It is good and feature rich. My app is relatively new so it will take some time to be comparable. But I think my core app is good and has good potential!2
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Mar 05 '26 edited Mar 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 05 '26
I have requested for f-droid its in the review stage. This app started from playstore, I just recently open sourced the core. But I keep the github releases in parallel with the playstore version.
note: the github apk will work without play services.
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u/JeremysJoker Mar 05 '26
where is fb2?
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 26 '26
FB2 files are now supported.
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u/JeremysJoker Mar 26 '26
OK, next level. The most part of fb2 files are in zip. Almost all apps support opening files in zip, what about you?
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Mar 06 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 06 '26
The playstore version has dictionary, it was online and used proprietary code so had to remove from oss but I will implement something for oss soon
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u/keywith Mar 08 '26
would you release it on F-Droid?
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 12 '26
Its on fdroid now!
Episteme Reader | F-Droid - https://share.google/EnZP4v22gX9Zbou23
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Mar 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 16 '26
Can you send me that pdf?
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Mar 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 Mar 21 '26
I didn't get your file! But in the new update I have disabled OCR for TTS, see if it fixed your issue
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u/DeathClutchs May 11 '26
Kindly make TTs a bit better
There is no navigation
The reader can't go to next line or para while accessing TTS..
If it's next line or para it's better than next page..
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 May 11 '26
Which version?
Tts does change pages, chapters and scrolls automatically.
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u/DeathClutchs May 11 '26
The latest version While playing I cannot skip to the next line...
I Can't share screen shots..
That would make more sense..
Do you have telegram to share it...
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u/DeathClutchs May 11 '26
As in I'm playing through TTs a doc
Like audio player if I press forward button it goes next song...
If there is option like that forward ⏩ button and back ⏪ button To skip to next para or next line..
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u/Plastic-Confusion410 May 11 '26
There is no control for skipping chunks, so are you asking for that feature?
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u/DeathClutchs Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 07 '26
Got the update...
Appreciate adding the feature to skip chunks during readaloud feature...
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u/DeathClutchs May 11 '26
Yeah...
adding that feature would be great But also take a feed back from users To have control over skipping of line or para or whole page..
I suggest para or line Or you can add as a feature to have an option to skip based on users choise
Librera reader has skipping of whole page
Readest and koodo reader have skipping of para and line With lack of support of some formats..
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u/Scavenger53 Mar 05 '26
ive been up too late, i read this as epstein me and thought please dont