Rapid Reader

Rapid Reader 2.0 is a free, open-source native macOS app for focused long-form reading, redesigned around a quiet stage, Liquid Glass controls, and a new focus-point icon. It combines rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) with a normal full-text reader, so you can move quickly through books and articles while still being able to inspect the original text and resume from any word.

Highlights

• Import EPUB, PDF, DOCX, RTF, HTML, Markdown, plain text, pasted text, and web articles.
• Keep a local library with reading progress, favorite documents, notes, preferences, sections, and EPUB cover art.
• Read in RSVP mode with pivot-letter highlighting, context preview, punctuation pauses, and adjustable chunk size.
• Switch to full-text mode whenever you want to browse normally, then click a word to resume from that exact position.
• Read on a quiet stage: a floating glass control bar (Liquid Glass on macOS 26 and later, a material fallback on macOS 14 and 15) that hides while you read and returns when the mouse moves. Arrow Up and Down change speed.
• Tune speed, font size, focus mode, section navigation, and playback controls from one compact reading surface.
• Recover gracefully from image-only EPUB cover pages and older library data.
• Search inside a document, choose a light, dark, or sepia reader, and review reading time and speed in Statistics.
• Store everything locally in ~/Library/Application Support/Rapid Reader.

Download

The browser version is available at rapid-reader.up.railway.app. It supports local file imports, RSVP and text reading, notes, search, themes and statistics, with a separate library stored in your browser. No account or cloud sync is required. See web/README.md for browser setup, backup and offline reading.

The latest DMG is attached to the GitHub release for this repository.

1. Download RapidReader-<version>.dmg from Releases.
2. Open the DMG.
3. Drag Rapid Reader.app into Applications.
4. Launch Rapid Reader.

The DMG contains a universal app for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. Unless a release says it is notarized, the app is ad-hoc signed: if macOS blocks the first launch, open System Settings -> Privacy & Security and allow the app after your first launch attempt.

How It Compares

Rapid Reader supports reading on a Mac or in a browser, with local files and no account. Two established speed readers for comparison:

	Rapid Reader	Outread	Spreeder
Platforms	macOS 14 or later, Web	iOS, iPadOS, macOS	Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome OS
Price	Free	Commercial app	Commercial license, with a free web app
Open source	Yes, MIT	No	No
Imports	EPUB, PDF, DOCX, RTF, HTML, Markdown, plain text, pasted text, web articles	DRM-free EPUB, PDF, DOC, RTF, TXT, web articles	52 file and ebook formats
Reading modes	RSVP and full text, with click-to-resume	RSVP and a guided highlighter	RSVP

Outread and Spreeder also run on phones and tablets. Outread includes reading exercises, and Spreeder adds AI summaries and a cloud profile. Rapid Reader keeps its native library in a local folder and its web library in the browser, without those features.

Details for the other apps come from the Outread and Spreeder websites, checked in October 2026.

Build From Source

Requirements:

• macOS 14 or newer
• Xcode command line tools
• Swift 6 compatible toolchain

Run the app:

./script/build_and_run.sh

Build the app bundle without launching:

./script/build_and_run.sh --build-only

Run tests:

swift test

Create a universal release DMG (release configuration, arm64 and x86_64, version and build number in Info.plist):

./script/package_dmg.sh 2.0

The packaged app is written to dist/Rapid Reader.app, and the DMG is written to build/package/. build_and_run.sh accepts the same settings through CONFIGURATION=release, UNIVERSAL=1, APP_VERSION, and BUILD_NUMBER.

Optional signing and notarization, with credentials on the build Mac:

DEVELOPER_ID_APPLICATION="Developer ID Application: Name (TEAMID)" \
NOTARY_PROFILE=rapid-reader-notary \
./script/package_dmg.sh 2.0

NOTARY_PROFILE is a keychain profile created with xcrun notarytool store-credentials.

Updates

Rapid Reader uses Sparkle for updates. The updater and the Check for Updates… menu item are enabled only in builds made with SPARKLE_PUBLIC_KEY. The app reads appcast.xml from the latest GitHub release.

One-time setup by the owner:

1. Run .build/artifacts/sparkle/Sparkle/bin/generate_keys after swift package resolve. It stores the private key in the login keychain and prints the public key.
2. Export the private key with generate_keys -x sparkle-private.key, keep a backup offline, and add its contents as the SPARKLE_PRIVATE_KEY repository secret. Add the public key as the SPARKLE_PUBLIC_KEY repository variable.

Local release with updates:

SPARKLE_PUBLIC_KEY=<public key> ./script/package_dmg.sh 2.0
./script/make_appcast.sh 2.0   # uses the keychain key, or SPARKLE_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE

Upload the DMG and build/appcast/appcast.xml to the v2.0 release. The tag workflow does this automatically when the secret and variable exist. Optional release notes go in docs/release-notes/<version>.html. Losing the private key means existing installs can no longer verify updates.

Releases

Pushing a tag such as v2.0 runs .github/workflows/release.yml, which tests, packages the DMG, and attaches it to a draft GitHub release for review. The workflow can also be started manually to build a DMG artifact without creating a release. CI signs ad-hoc; Developer ID signing and notarization currently run locally.

Keyboard And Reader Controls

• Space: play or pause RSVP playback.
• Left Arrow / Right Arrow: move backward or forward.
• Up Arrow / Down Arrow: raise or lower the speed.
• Command-,: open Settings.
• Command-O: import files.
• Command-F: search in the current document.
• Section picker: jump to a specific chapter or section.
• Text mode: click a word to set the resume position.

Development Notes

Rapid Reader is implemented with SwiftUI and SwiftPM. The core import, parsing, text-processing, and persistence logic lives in RapidReaderCore, while the macOS UI target owns the reading surface, sidebar, app resources, and packaging entrypoints.

The project includes regression tests for:

• EPUB cover extraction.
• Image-only EPUB cover-page filtering.
• Library repair for older imported documents.
• Markdown section splitting.
• Reading progress and preference persistence.
• RSVP pivot-letter calculation.

License

Rapid Reader is released under the MIT License. ZIPFoundation, SwiftSoup and Sparkle keep their own licenses.