WxReader

Overview

WxReader is a lightweight, cross-platform e-book reader focused on local reading, available on Linux, Windows, macOS, and BSD. Built with native Rust technology, it starts almost instantly, sips memory, and compresses to an installer under 6MB — smooth even on aging hardware, saving every ounce of performance for reading itself.

The app is designed around two core scenarios: library management and immersive reading. Every open book gets its own reading window, so several books can be read in parallel; reopening a book focuses the existing window and jumps back to where you left off.

Format Support

Seven kinds of content are supported, covering nearly every local e-book scenario:

• PDF — outline navigation, three zoom modes, continuous/single/double-page views, per-page full-text search.
• EPUB / MOBI — clean chapter typography with the contents sidebar jumping straight to any chapter, plus chapter-wide search.
• Markdown — full rendering of headings, lists, and code, split into chapters at level-1 headings; ideal for technical docs and notes.
• TXT — smart encoding detection (UTF-8, UTF-16, GBK, Big5) ends garbled text; long texts are split into 64KB chapters, so million-character novels read smoothly.
• CHM — full support for the contents tree, index, and topic search; Windows-era help files come back to life.
• Comics (image folders) — images imported recursively and ordered by filename, with the first page as the cover.

On import, titles, authors, and publishers are recognized automatically, and covers are pulled smartly from the book itself — the first PDF page, the EPUB cover image, the first comic page. Books without covers get a beautiful generated gradient cover bearing the title, so the library always looks tidy.

Library Management

• Multiple shelves — create, rename, delete, and reorder by dragging; cut, paste, or drag books between them, with ungrouped books listed separately.
• Three views — card, cover, and list, plus six sort keys (title, author, added time, recently read, reading time, progress; each ascending or descending).
• Bulk organization — multi-select, rubber-band selection, and select-all; a translucent preview follows the pointer while dragging and the target shelf highlights in real time.
• Context menu — favorite, add to shelf, delete (with confirmation), edit title/author/notes, view details, open containing folder; switches to a bulk menu when several books are selected.
• Details dialog — cover, format, size, author, publisher, and reading data at a glance.
• Aggregated views — favorites, notes, and highlights each get a dedicated cross-book view.
• Background import — imports run in the background without stalling the interface; recursive folder import deduplicates by path.

Immersive Reading

• Shared contents sidebar — all formats share one sidebar: chapter list (current chapter highlighted), CHM index, and full-text search covering chapter text, every PDF page, comic filenames, and CHM topics. Results appear as you type; a click jumps straight there.
• Typography controls — font size, line height, paragraph spacing, and alignment are each adjustable.
• Comfort settings — color inversion, brightness, and auto-scroll make night reading easier on the eyes.
• Background images — set a picture for the content area or the whole window and create your own reading atmosphere.
• Parallel windows — each book has its own window and progress; compare references or advance several books at once.
• Text operations — select and copy any passage.

Notes, Highlights, and Progress

Selecting text is all it takes to add a note or highlight; the passage and your annotation are saved together and revisited in the aggregated views. Progress is recorded per format and reading time accumulates continuously. Reopening a book restores the last position, and the data powers the “recently read” and “reading time” sorts.

Personalization

• 21 interface languages — Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese (Taiwan and Hong Kong), English, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesian; switching takes effect immediately.
• Themes — light and dark built in; a custom theme editor fine-tunes colors and saves your own.
• Shortcuts — a visual keymap editor binds every action to your preferred keys.
• Details — UI font and size, menu bar expansion, and default view mode are adjustable; update checks are built in.

Getting Started

Import your books, folders, or comics from the Books menu; organize them into shelves by dragging; double-click any book to start reading. Adjust typography and brightness to taste, select text for notes or highlights — every book reopens right where you stopped.

Privacy and Data Ownership

The library, notes, highlights, and settings are stored in a local database and configuration files — nothing is uploaded, and the data is entirely yours. The configuration directory is ~/.wxreader/ on Linux/BSD, ~/Library/Application Support/wxreader/ on macOS, and %APPDATA%\wxreader\ on Windows, easy to back up and migrate.

Who It’s For

• Heavy readers with large collections who need shelves, bulk organization, and progress at a glance.
• Technical readers with piles of PDF/CHM manuals and Markdown notes.
• Comic fans whose image-folder collections deserve ordered reading and proper covers.
• Privacy-minded users who want their data to live entirely on their own machine.

FAQ

Does it phone home? No — apart from the explicit “check for updates” action, the app makes no network requests, and no account is required.

Are imported files copied or modified? No. Originals stay untouched, and removing a book never deletes the source file.

DRM-protected e-books? Not supported — WxReader targets open, DRM-free formats.

Moving to a new computer? Back up the configuration directory (on Linux, ~/.wxreader/) and copy it to the same location; shelves, progress, and notes come along.

Closing

If you want a local e-book reader that is lean, offline, and format-complete, give WxReader a try — small in footprint, complete in features: seven formats, contents and search everywhere, notes and highlights, and deep customization.