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v0.1.10 · no duplicate cards after a sync merge

Your books. Your shelf.
Your machine.

TuxBooks is a local-first, bookshelf-style ebook library and reader for Linux. Point it at a folder of EPUB and PDF files. It indexes your library, remembers where you stopped reading.

Pre‑1.0 software, still changing fast. There is no data‑compatibility promise yet. A release can change the library database.

Download for Linux Build from source

Free software under GPL‑3.0 · Local-first

A library that stays yours

TuxBooks is local-first: your library and reading data live on your machine.

A real bookshelf

Point TuxBooks at a folder of EPUB and PDF files, and every book shows up with its cover and details. Group books into collections, and track what you are reading and what you finished.

Readers for EPUB and PDF

Choose your font, text size, and line spacing for EPUB. Read PDFs with zoom, fast scrolling, and a dark mode that keeps photographs in color.

A new PDF engine

The PDF engine is new. Wheel and pinch zoom keep the point under your cursor in place, deep zoom stays sharp, and the page stays visible while the next render loads.

Pick up where you left off

Every book remembers your place. Close the app mid-chapter, come back tomorrow, and you are on the same page, in EPUB and PDF alike.

Find any book, any passage

Search your whole library with a keyboard shortcut, or search inside the book you are reading and jump to the match.

Bookmarks, highlights & notes

Bookmark a page, highlight a line in color, or attach a note. It all waits in the sidebar next time you open the book.

Screenshots

Screenshots from recent development builds.

TuxBooks library view: a grid of book covers on the bookshelf
img/library.pngThe library / bookshelf view
The library
TuxBooks PDF reader: continuous scrolling page view
img/pdf-reader.pngThe PDF reader in action
The PDF reader
TuxBooks EPUB reader: a two-page spread with highlighted passages
img/epub-reader.pngThe EPUB reader in action
The EPUB reader

Roadmap

TuxBooks shipped 0.0.1 in September 2026 and 0.1.0 in October 2026. The core is in place: a local-first library and readers for EPUB and PDF. The project is young and moving fast, so releases may change stored data before 1.0. The next work is reliability and polish, not new features. The full roadmap lives in ROADMAP.md.

  1. Now · after 0.1.0

    The next three milestones

    Three pieces of work come next:

    • Syncing data Keep reading progress, bookmarks, and highlights in sync across machines, without giving up the local-first promise: the library stays usable with no network.
    • Improving architecture Untangle the reader, library, and settings layers so a change stops rippling; pay down the debt from the engine swap and the watched-folder rewrite.
    • Optimizing performance Bring the PDF render p95 back within budget at high device pixel ratio, cut import and startup time for large libraries, and remove the remaining jank from scrolling and reflow.
  2. Later

    What may come next

    Once syncing, architecture, and performance settle, development can move toward larger features. These directions are open, not committed:

    • Local RAG powered search across all library documents
    • CLI or MCP for agents
    • More powerful library organization
    • Improved reading customization
    • Additional ebook formats
    • Accessibility & usability

The roadmap is a plan, not a promise. Quality comes before feature count.