The free reader
The whole reader is free
Save what’s worth reading, read it in four modes, write beside it and find it again. None of it needs an account or a subscription.
Save
Get everything you want to read into one library. Save the page you’re on, open a file from your computer, or follow a news site or a feed. You can also bring over the library you kept in another app. Papers from arXiv, web serials and ebook catalogues come in the same way.
Browser extension
Press ⌘⇧E (Ctrl+Shift+E) to save and read the page you’re on. Press ⌘⇧F (Ctrl+Shift+F) to open FlowReader.
File imports
Open PDF, Word, EPUB and Kindle books, plain text, web pages and comics from your computer.
News sites and feeds
Turn any news site into a clean list of its stories, and follow your RSS feeds.
Import from other apps
Move the articles you saved in Pocket, Omnivore, Readwise, Raindrop or Instapaper over to FlowReader.
With Pro, you can subscribe to newsletters with a private address
Read
Read in Normal, Book, Pacing or RSVP mode, whichever suits the text. FlowReader brings you back to the exact line where you stopped. Books keep their chapters, and everything you’ve saved can be read offline.
Book mode
Turn pages as on an e-reader, one at a time or two side by side. Chapters and a table of contents come with it.
Highlights and notes
Highlight in eight colours, attach a note to any passage, and add bookmarks.
Search in a document
Search what you’re reading, and step from match to match across chapters.
Text to speech
Listen to anything in your library. It’s free, and for English the voice runs on your device.
With Pro, you can ask questions about the document you’re reading
Write
Write your own notes next to what you read, in the same typeface and theme. Open several things in tabs, start a note from a template, and find the layout as you left it next time.
Links and backlinks
Type @ to link a saved item, as a link or a card, and [[ to link another note. Each note shows what links to it.
Tabs and split view
Read a source and write your notes side by side, in up to 4 panes. Everything opens in tabs, and you drag a tab to an edge to split the view.
With Pro, you can share a note on a link of its own
Organize and find again
Keep one tidy library, sorted into collections and tags. Search finds anything again, down to the full text. You can also set reading goals and act on many items at once. To share a collection, send it as a file, and the other person can import it for free.
Library
See what you haven’t started, what you’re reading and what you’ve finished. Show it as a list or a grid, and open the details of any item.
Collections and subcollections
Put collections inside collections, and move items by dragging them.
Filters and search
Filter by type, status or date. Search titles, notes, highlights and the full text of everything you’ve saved.
Statistics
See your progress per item and per chapter, and how much you read over time.
With Pro, you can let Smart Rules sort new items, and see how they connect in the knowledge graph
Make it look the way you like to read
Pick a theme and the whole app follows. 9 of the 33 themes have a gradient. You can also build your own theme and choose the typeface, text size and column width. Save the result, and switch back to it whenever you like.
All of this is free. You only need Pro to take your setup to another device.
Go anywhere without leaving the keyboard
Press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux) and type where you want to go. It finds places, commands, themes, settings and saved articles. There are 76 shortcuts for the library, the reader and Hacker News.
In the reader, press ? to see every key and touch gesture.
Start with the next thing you want to read
Get the desktop app or the browser extension.