@Jolyne_AI: Found another e-book reader on GitHub that combines aesthetics and functionality: Foliate, making reading smoother, more focused, and more efficient. Not only does it have a clean and pleasing interface, but it also integrates common functions like dictionary lookup, annotation, and text-to-speech into the same reading context, so you don't need to switch between tools while reading. GitHub: http://githu…
Summary
Foliate is an open-source e-book reader with a clean interface, integrating dictionary lookup, annotation, text-to-speech, and other features. It supports EPUB, PDF, Kindle, and other formats, and can be installed on Linux via Flatpak or Snap.
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Cached at: 07/02/26, 04:24 PM
I found another ebook reader on GitHub that combines beauty and functionality: Foliate. It makes reading smoother, more focused, and more efficient. Not only is the interface clean and pleasing to the eyes, but it also integrates common features like dictionary lookup, annotations, and text-to-speech directly into the reading view — no need to switch between tools while reading.
Key Highlights:
- Clean and intuitive interface with dark mode support — more comfortable for long reading sessions
- Integrated Wikipedia lookup — look up words on the fly without breaking your reading flow
- Comprehensive annotation and bookmark features — easier to take notes, review, and research
- Text-to-speech support — switch to listening mode when your eyes get tired
- Wide format support — works with EPUB, PDF, Kindle, and other common ebook formats
- Runs on Linux – install with a single command via Flatpak or Snap, ready to use
johnfactotum/foliate
Source: https://github.com/johnfactotum/foliate
Foliate
Read books in style.
Screenshot
Installation
Run Time Dependencies
gjs(>= 1.82)gtk4(>= 4.12)libadwaita(>= 1.8;gir1.2-adw-1in Debian-based distros)webkitgtk-6.0(webkitgtk6.0in Fedora;gir1.2-webkit-6.0in Debian-based distros)
Optional Dependencies
To enable auto-hyphenation, you will need to install hyphenation rules, e.g., hyphen-en for English, hyphen-fr for French, etc. (which strictly speaking are optional dependencies for WebkitGTK, not Foliate itself). For text-to-speech support, install speech-dispatcher and output modules such as espeak-ng. If installed, tracker (>= 3; gir1.2-tracker-3.0 in Debian-based distros) and tracker-miners can be used to track the locations of files.
Obtaining the Source
The repo uses git submodules. Before running or installing, make sure you clone the whole thing with --recurse-submodules:
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/johnfactotum/foliate.git
Or download the tarball (the .tar.xz file) from the Releases page.
Run without Building or Installing
It’s possible to run directly from the source tree without building or installing. Simply run
gjs -m src/main.js
This can be useful if you just want to quickly try out Foliate or test a change. But note that this will run it without using GSettings, so settings will not be saved. To solve this, you can compile the schema by running
glib-compile-schemas data
Then you can set the schema directory when running the app:
GSETTINGS_SCHEMA_DIR=data gjs -m src/main.js
Building and Installing from Source
The following dependencies are required for building:
meson(>= 0.59)pkg-configgettext
To install, run the following commands:
meson setup build sudo ninja -C build install
To uninstall, run
sudo ninja -C build uninstall
Installing to a Local Directory
By default Meson installs to /usr/local. You can install without root permissions by choosing a local prefix, such as $PWD/run:
meson setup build --prefix $PWD/run ninja -C build install
You can then run it with
GSETTINGS_SCHEMA_DIR=run/share/glib-2.0/schemas ./run/bin/foliate
Flatpak
Foliate is available on Flathub. For development with Flatpak, use GNOME Builder to open and run the project.
Snap
Foliate is available on the Snap Store. To install:
sudo snap install foliate
Screenshots
Dark mode
Wikipedia lookup
Book metadata
Annotations
Popup footnote
Vertical writing
License
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html) as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
The following JavaScript libraries are bundled in this software:
- foliate-js (https://github.com/johnfactotum/foliate-js), which is MIT licensed.
- zip.js (https://github.com/gildas-lormeau/zip.js), which is licensed under the BSD-3-Clause license.
- fflate (https://github.com/101arrowz/fflate), which is MIT licensed.
- PDF.js (https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js), which is licensed under Apache License 2.0.
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