The Reader
A distraction-free page to read your own files in.
About this page
The reading counterpart of the blank page: bring a plain text or Markdown file, an EPUB or a Word document from your device and it is set in Garamond in a single quiet column—however long, as one continuous scroll—with rain to read inside and a light that follows the sky. The file is opened in the browser, and the page keeps only your place in it—close the tab, come back, open the same file, and you are where you stopped.
Questions
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read in the browser and never leaves your device—there is no server on the other end of this page, no account, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Does the page keep my file?
No. The text itself is never stored; when you leave, it is gone from the page. The only thing remembered is where you stopped—a bookmark, kept on your device, so that opening the same file again returns you to your place.
Which formats can it read?
Plain text, Markdown, EPUB and Word. A .txt file arrives in UTF-8 or the older Turkish encoding, which the page tells apart on its own so no character arrives broken; an EPUB or a Word .docx is unpacked and set in the page’s own type in the browser—no reader app, no library. Markdown (.md or .markdown) keeps headings, emphasis, quotations, lists, tables and code in the same quiet column, with headings in the contents menu. Raw HTML appears as text; images appear as their descriptions.
Why won’t a book I bought open?
Files bought from most stores carry the seller’s lock, and a locked copy cannot be opened here—the page says so plainly rather than showing broken text. A book you own as a plain EPUB opens fine.
What is on the shelf?
A few small things, kept behind the lines button in the corner: the table of contents when the file carries one, rain and brown noise to read inside, four sizes of type, and the light—light, dark, or following the sky. Close the panel and the page is as bare as it ever was.
More instruments: a desk for two instruments, ambient noise and rain and today’s twilight—or see all of them.