re/read - free browser extension: an offline library of web articles and EPUBs

[reapps_eu]

re/read is a free, open-source (AGPL) extension for Firefox (desktop and Android) and Chrome/Chromium. Disclosure up front: it is our project - built by a small Polish non-profit foundation, nothing to sell, no ads, no tracking. Posting here because MobileRead is exactly the crowd it was made for.

At its core it is an offline reading room living in your browser:

- Save any web page as a clean, readable article - stored in full on your device, so it opens with no network and keeps working when the original page moves or disappears.

- Import EPUB books into the same reading list (text-focused: long books are split into parts, the table of contents is built from chapter headings; DRM-free only).

- Highlighter with notes: word-snapped marks in a choice of inks, a note on any mark, a Highlights page listing every quote, and one-click export of all quotes and notes to a Markdown file.

- Search inside the open document and across the whole library - in titles and, on request, in the stored full texts, with snippets that jump straight to the hit.

- Reading position remembered per document; light, sepia and dark themes, serif or sans, adjustable column width; read-aloud with live word highlighting (the browser's own voices).

- Backup: the whole reading list exports to a single JSON file, highlights included.

The other half is for reading in a language you are learning - built around comprehensible input (Krashen): read what actually interests you, look up only what you need, and meet words again until they stick.

- Select a word or phrase to get a translation bubble (works offline). The engine (Bergamot - the technology behind Firefox's built-in page translation) ships inside the package and runs entirely on your device, so it works in airplane mode. About a hundred language pairs.

- StarDict dictionaries beside the engine: a catalogue of 400+ WikDict dictionaries installable in one click, or your own files. A translation model has to pick one meaning; a dictionary lists them all.

- Save a phrase and it gets a quiet dotted underline on every page and in every book where it reappears - click it to recall your meaning, one click marks it Learned. No flashcards and no due counts; vocabulary exports to TSV if you want Anki.

- KOReader users: there is our companion plugin, offlinetranslate-koplugin, which uses the same TSV format - vocabulary collected on an e-ink reader imports into the browser, and back.

If you read in one language only, a single switch (Use without translation) turns the translation half off and leaves a plain offline reader - and a monolingual StarDict dictionary still gives definitions on selection.

Privacy is the point, not a feature: no account, no server, no telemetry. The extension talks to exactly two hosts, both written into the package - Mozilla's translation-model bucket and the WikDict catalogue - and only when you click a download button on the settings page. You do not have to take our word for it: the source ships unminified, and you can simply turn the network off and keep reading.

Works in Firefox 142+ (desktop and Android - including e-ink Android tablets; on phones it starts in a reader-only mode so it does not fight the system text menu) and Chrome/Chromium 128+ (Brave and Edge too).

Overview and store links: https://reapps.eu/read
Source: https://github.com/fundacja-reborn/reread-webext
Firefox Add-ons: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/reread/

Happy to answer your questions

[reapps_eu]

re/read 0.5.22 is out on Firefox Add-Ons and the Chrome Web Store.

New: your saved phrases and your highlights with notes now keep a second copy in the extension's own storage - if the browser ever clears its databases, they come back by themselves. Saved articles and books too, with a switch in the settings. Still 100% on your device: no account, no cloud, no telemetry.

A Safari version (iPhone/iPad) is on its way.

Settings also show how much space re/read takes and whether the browser has promised to keep it.

Firefox (desktop & android) : https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/reread/
Chrome/Brave: https://chromewebstore.google.com/de...imcmmeeoplfcla
Source (AGPL 3.0): https://github.com/fundacja-reborn/reread-webext

[reapps_eu]

re/read (0.5.27): pictures in the offline reading list

By default a saved article keeps only its text. Open it and press "Download pictures" in the menu: the pictures are fetched once from the article's own site, kept on your device and shown in the article, also offline.

"Export with pictures" turns the backup of your reading list into a .zip with the pictures inside. Importing a backup adds only the articles you don't have yet, so the same file imported twice makes no duplicates.

You can export all articles or only selected ones

[Gormagon]

Why can't I download the extension for chromium based browsers on github? I get an error "Download error: Download interrupted" on the Google Store. Plus I*d rather want to try the extension on a browser that is blocked from accessing the web except for certain IPs. So I rather download the extension and install it myself.

[reapps_eu]

Hi! There was nothing to download on GitHub until today - the repository had only source code, no releases. That is fixed: https://github.com/fundacja-reborn/r...eleases/latest carries re-read-0.5.30-chromium.zip, the exact package that is in the Chrome Web Store as 0.5.30 (SHA-256 in the release notes), and every future version will have one too.

To install it: unzip the file, open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode (top right), press Load unpacked and pick the unzipped folder. The extension stays installed across restarts; Chrome only shows its usual notice about developer-mode extensions on startup. Chrome/Chromium 128 or newer; Brave and Edge work the same way. (Installing a .crx directly is not a way around the store in plain Chrome - it refuses packages from outside it unless an enterprise policy allows them - hence Load unpacked.)

Your "Download interrupted" fits the restricted network, by the way: the store page is chromewebstore.google.com, but Chrome fetches the package itself from a different Google host (clients2.google.com / clients2.googleusercontent.com), so an allowlist that shows you the store page can still cut the actual download.

One more thing for a machine that only reaches certain addresses: translation models are downloaded from storage.googleapis.com, only when you press Download in the settings. If that host is blocked too, fetch the model files on another machine and use "Add a model from files" on the settings page - gzipped files can be used as they come. Dictionaries have the same "Add a dictionary from files" option.

[reapps_eu]

Oops, re-read-0.5.30-chromium.zip is now available for download: https://github.com/fundacja-reborn/r...eleases/latest

[Gormagon]

Thanks for the releases on your github page.
I installed the extension on an ungoogled Chromium (Version 151.0.7922.173 (Official Build, ungoogled-chromium) (64-bit)).

I tested it with 2 different epubs. The internal links (when selecting "Links" "Active") are in different colours than the normal text but I can not click on them e.g. in the content section of the epub. What works, though, is the content listing in the hamburger menu and "Contents". I haven't found a setting to enable internal links in the epub itself.

One of the screenshots in your first post shows saved phrases. I only added dictionaries and when I look up a word I can't save this, I can just copy the word.
Also with more than one dictionaries I find it a little bit difficult to quickly see what dictionary I'm using in the pop-up list. Maybe a frame or different background colours could be added to easier recognize the dictionary used.
Also the name of the dictionary in light grey is hard to read.

It looks like I can't change the font to one of my favourite fonts, only serif/sans serif is shown as option. The extension don't seem to use the fonts used in the Chromium settings. I changed the sans serif font there, restarted Chromium, but nothing changed in the extension in an epub file.

An option to minimize the line with "<- re/read", "pen", "Aa" and hamburger to my personal needs would be great. Or maybe an option to chose to show this navigation as a sidebar on the right or left side.

In the dark and sepia mode the dictionary pop-up still has black text on white background.

Other than that the extensions works and to me it looks like a better option than SumatraPDF if I have to read something in an epub file on my computer.

The way I used the extension so far (only epubs with self installed dictionaries), I can confirm that no internet connections were tried by Chromium.

[reapps_eu]

Thank you for testing, and especially for checking the network traffic - "no connections" is an important point of re/read, so an independent confirmation means a lot, thanks.

About what you found:

Links in an epub: internal links are removed when the book is imported - the reader is meant for plain reading, and the table of contents lives in the menu. But you are right that with "Links: Active" they still look like links. That is a styling bug and will be fixed. Also planned: footnotes as small popups - tap the footnote number, read the note right there, no jumping around.

Saving words with only dictionaries: today saving needs the translation engine, but this will change. Pressing a dictionary meaning will save it, and for longer phrases (dictionaries mostly hold one- or two-word entries) you will be able to type your own translation and save that.

The dictionary name in the popup: agreed, it is too faint. It will get more contrast, and the name will be easier to spot when several dictionaries answer.

Fonts: the reader sets its own fonts, so the browser's font settings cannot reach it. Planned: a field where you type the name of any font installed on your computer.

Popup colors in dark and sepia: confirmed bug - the popup follows the system light/dark setting instead of the reader's theme. Will be fixed.

The top bar: planned as a small bookmark-style tab - tap it to hide the bar, tap again to bring it back.

No dates promised, but most of this is small and should arrive over the next releases. Thanks again!

[Gormagon]

Thanks for the comments to my suggestions.
Looking forward to the updates then!

[reapps_eu]

Hi! 0.5.33 is out and everything from the list above is in it e.g.:

- Footnotes in epub books: tap the number, the note opens in a small card next to it. Books imported before this version need to be imported again for this.

- Saving words with dictionaries only: turn on "Use without a translation model" in the settings. The bubble then works on ordinary pages too. Press a dictionary meaning to save it, or "Edit" to type your own. The bubble says when a word is not in your dictionaries or there is no dictionary for the page's language; the page's language decides which dictionary answers.

- Own font: Settings > Own font the name of any installed font (for example Noto Serif); the Aa panel offers it as "Custom".

- The bubble follows the reader's theme (dark, sepia).

- Internal links in an epub no longer look like links.

- A bookmark tab at the right edge of the top bar hides the nav bar and brings it back; the choice is remembered.


And additionally:

- Highlights have their own backup: the Highlights page exports them as a .json file and imports it - into the same articles, and into a book imported again from the same epub. For the footnotes in a book you already have: export the highlights, delete the book, import the epub again, import the highlights.

- Every import in re/read - articles, highlights, saved phrases - adds only what is missing; importing the same file again duplicates nothing.

GitHub release: https://github.com/fundacja-reborn/r...eleases/latest
Firefox Add-Ons: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reread/
Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/de...imcmmeeoplfcla

I would be grateful for feedback, thanks!