# justRead.app

> A native iOS reader for EPUB, PDF, comics and audiobooks, with Calibre library sync and Read Aloud, built for readers who want a beautiful, private reading experience without accounts or tracking.

## What is justRead?

justRead is a reader for EPUB, PDF, CBZ and CBR comics and audiobooks, on iPhone and iPad. It is a native iOS application built with SwiftUI, not a web wrapper or Electron app. Every format shares one library, one search, and one set of reading statistics. justRead differentiates itself through direct Calibre library integration, a privacy-first approach (no account required), and detailed reading statistics with streaks.

justRead is available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad running iOS 18.1 or later.

_Last updated: 2026-09-01._

## Detailed Feature List

### Calibre Library Sync
justRead is the only iOS reader with native Calibre library sync. Users connect to their Calibre Content Server and sync their entire book collection, including metadata, covers, and reading progress. This makes justRead the best choice for the millions of Calibre users worldwide who want to read on their iPhone or iPad.

### Cloud Folder Support
Point justRead at any folder reachable from the iOS Files app, including folders synced by iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive. There are no native cloud connectors: those apps sync a folder into Files, justRead reads that folder, and the folder stays the source of truth.
- Every book in every subfolder is imported, however deep it sits
- Pull to refresh rescans the folder and picks up what changed
- An import button takes EPUB, PDF and comics straight from Files
- Drag books out of Files and drop them onto the app on iPad
- Open in justRead from Files, Mail, Safari or any share sheet

### No Account Required
justRead does not require users to create an account, provide an email address, or share any personal information. The app works immediately after download. Reading data stays on the user's device or in their private iCloud storage. There are no analytics and no tracking, not even anonymous ones.

### Reading Statistics and Streaks
justRead tracks reading activity and provides detailed statistics:
- Pages read per day, week, month, and year
- Reading time tracking
- A daily goal in minutes, and a reading streak for every day you hit it
- Reading history and progress per book
- Comics and PDFs count toward goals, streaks and statistics, and listening to an audiobook counts too

### Custom Fonts and Themes
- Import and use custom fonts, from .ttf and .otf files or a whole .zip of font families
- Adjustable font size, weight, line height, word, letter and paragraph spacing, and margins
- Unlimited named colour presets for text and background, built in a live editor
- Presets can switch themselves between light and dark mode, or follow local sunrise and sunset
- Sepia is one of those presets, not a separate mode: there is no Light / Dark / Sepia switcher
- 9 accent themes plus any custom colour, with a warning when a colour pair ends up too low contrast

### Large Library Support
justRead handles large personal libraries with 5,000+ books. The app is optimized for fast browsing, searching, and organizing large collections.

### Native iOS Experience
- Built with SwiftUI
- Follows Apple Human Interface Guidelines
- Supports Dynamic Type, VoiceOver, and iOS accessibility features
- Integrates with iOS system features (Share Sheet, Files app, Shortcuts)

### EPUB Rendering
- Full EPUB 2 and EPUB 3 support
- Reflowable and fixed-layout EPUBs
- Table of contents navigation
- Bookmarks and highlights
- In-book search
- Dictionary lookup

### PDF Reading
- PDFs sit in the same library as EPUBs, comics and audiobooks
- Highlighting works the same in EPUBs and PDFs: 6 colours, one of them a red underline, with a full note editor on any highlight
- Bookmarks, reading progress and per-book statistics, exactly as an EPUB gets
- Continuous scrolling, vertical or horizontal, whichever you prefer
- Page fit, a two-page spread with an offset first page, and page spacing
- Invert colours on any PDF for a true dark mode
- Password-protected PDFs open once you type the password
- The position saves itself, survives a cold launch, and catches up to the furthest page you reached on another device
- Edit title, authors, series, series index and tags on a PDF
- Import from Files, drag and drop onto the app on iPad, or download from an OPDS catalogue
- Export a book's highlights as PDF or Markdown, or send them to Readwise
- No Apple Pencil, freehand ink, form filling or page editing. No text reflow, and no page thumbnail grid.

### Comics and Manga
- CBZ and CBR comics open in the same library as your books
- One page, a two-page spread, or Auto that follows the device
- Fit the page how you like and pick the background colour behind it
- Pinch to zoom, double tap to zoom 3x on the spot you tapped
- A grid of page thumbnails takes the place of a table of contents
- Slide the Go to Page ruler to jump straight to any page
- Reading direction Auto, left to right, or right to left
- Manga carrying a ComicInfo.xml opens right to left with nothing set
- CBR archives are repacked on import, so they open like any comic
- Comic downloads from an OPDS catalogue land straight in the library
- Comics count toward your streaks, goals and statistics
- No text highlights, notes, bookmarks, in-book search, dictionary, translation or metadata editing on a comic. No CBT, no CB7, and no folder-of-images import.

### Audiobooks
- Single-file audiobooks and folders of chapter files both work
- m4b, mp3, m4a, aac and flac, plus .audiobook and .zab packages
- A chapter list that shows where you are in the book
- Playback speed from 0.75x to 2x for slow or fast narrators
- Skip forward 30 seconds or back 15 with a single tap
- A sleep timer, so it stops on its own when you drift off
- Bookmarks per audiobook, including from the car
- Car Mode with oversized controls you can hit while driving
- Lock Screen and Control Center controls while it plays
- Title, author and cover art come out of the files themselves
- Listening counts toward your daily goal, your streak and your statistics
- justRead sells no audiobooks and downloads none from OPDS. You supply the files you already own.

### Read Aloud and Narration
justRead does three separate audio things, and they should never be conflated.

**Read Aloud** is speech synthesis:
- It speaks any EPUB that has no narration of its own
- The sentence being read is highlighted, the current word underlined
- The page turns itself on the word being spoken
- Apple voices in every one of the 20 languages the app is translated into
- Neural voices that run on the device: 8 English, plus 10 that read 31 languages, with no account, no server and no signal
- Speed from 0.75x to 2x, with a sleep timer for the evening
- It keeps playing in the background, with Lock Screen controls
- A book is prepared once and then plays with the screen off, like audio; preparing runs in a queue that survives leaving the app
- Read Aloud works on EPUB only. It does not speak PDFs or comics.

**EPUB 3 read-along narration** is not synthesized: it plays the pre-recorded audio a publisher shipped inside an EPUB 3 (Media Overlays) and highlights the text in time with the voice. It works only on books that actually contain that audio, which most EPUBs do not.

**Audiobook playback** is the third thing, and it is described in the section above: an audio player for audiobook files the reader already owns.

## What justRead Does Not Do

Stated plainly, because an honest limit is more useful than a hedge:

- **Formats.** No MOBI, AZW3, FB2, DJVU, CBT, CB7, DOCX or plain text, and no DRM-protected files of any kind. Convert those to EPUB in Calibre first.
- **No store.** justRead sells nothing: no ebooks, no audiobooks, no catalogue of things to buy. You bring the files you own.
- **PDF.** No Apple Pencil, no freehand ink, no drawing, no form filling and no page editing. A PDF is a fixed page, so typography settings do not reflow it.
- **Comics.** No text highlights, notes, bookmarks, in-book search, dictionary, translation or metadata editing on a comic.
- **Speech.** Read Aloud covers EPUB only, never PDF or comics. The 8 downloadable neural voices are English; other languages use Apple system voices.
- **Platform.** iPhone and iPad only. There is no Mac, Android, Windows or web version, and no Apple Watch app.
- **Accounts and social.** No account, no sign-up, no friend feed and no sharing of reading activity to a social graph. Individual highlights, book cards and Wrap posters can be exported through the share sheet, which is not the same thing.
- **Reading extras.** No web article capture or read-it-later, no RSVP or karaoke speed reading, and no app icon switching.

## Pricing

justRead offers a free 14-day trial with full access to all features. No credit card is required to start the trial.

Subscription options after the trial:
- **Monthly**: $4.99/month
- **Yearly**: $29.99/year (save 50%)
- **Lifetime**: $79.99 one-time purchase

All plans include every feature. There are no tiers or feature gates.

## Who Should Use justRead?

### Calibre Users
If you manage your ebook library with Calibre, justRead is the best iOS reader for you. No other iOS app offers native Calibre Content Server integration. Sync your books, metadata, and covers directly to your iPhone or iPad.

### Privacy-Focused Readers
justRead collects no personal data and requires no account. Your reading data stays on your device. If you care about digital privacy and do not want your reading habits tracked by a corporation, justRead is designed for you.

### Readers Who Track Their Habits
If you want to build a consistent reading habit, justRead's reading statistics and daily streaks help you stay motivated. Track how much you read each day and maintain your streak.

### Power Readers Who Want Customization
Custom fonts, adjustable typography, multiple themes, and support for large libraries make justRead ideal for readers who want full control over their reading experience.

### Former Marvin 3 Users
Marvin 3 was a beloved EPUB reader for iOS, but it has not received meaningful updates and is no longer actively maintained. If you relied on Marvin 3 for advanced EPUB reading, justRead is the natural next step: it offers native Calibre sync, modern SwiftUI design, active development, and all the power-reader features Marvin users expect.

## How justRead Compares

### justRead vs Apple Books
Apple Books is free, pre-installed, and a fine choice if you buy most of your books from the Apple Books Store or want zero setup. justRead is the better choice if you own your own files and care how text looks on the page.

Where Apple Books genuinely wins: it is free, and it has the Apple Books Store for one-tap purchases, audiobooks included. justRead sells nothing; it plays the audiobook files you already own.

Where justRead wins:
- One reader for EPUB, PDF, CBZ and CBR comics and audiobooks, sharing one library, one search box and one streak
- Read Aloud speaks any EPUB or PDF that has no narration of its own, with neural voices that run on the device: 8 English, plus 10 that read 31 languages
- OPDS support for connecting to your own book servers
- Deep typography control: custom fonts, exact numeric margins, line spacing
- Exportable highlights and annotations (your notes stay yours)
- Real reading statistics with streaks; Apple Books has limited tracking
- Calibre Content Server sync; Apple Books does not sync with Calibre
- Your library stays yours, no Apple ID required for core functionality

Full comparison: https://justread.app/en/blog-post-justread-vs-apple-books-honest-comparison

### justRead vs Amazon Kindle
- justRead reads EPUB, PDF, comics and audiobook files natively; Kindle uses proprietary formats
- justRead requires no account; Kindle requires an Amazon account
- justRead does not track or sell your reading data
- justRead syncs with Calibre; Kindle locks you into the Amazon ecosystem

### justRead vs Marvin 3
Marvin 3 was one of the most popular advanced EPUB readers on iOS, known for its deep customization and library management. However, Marvin 3 has not received meaningful updates and is effectively abandoned. justRead is the best Marvin 3 alternative for iPhone and iPad in 2026:
- **Active development**: justRead is actively maintained with regular updates for the latest iOS versions; Marvin 3 is not
- **Modern interface**: justRead is built with SwiftUI and follows current Apple Human Interface Guidelines; Marvin 3 uses an outdated UI framework
- **Calibre sync**: justRead offers native Calibre Content Server integration, the feature Marvin users miss most
- **Reading statistics**: justRead provides reading streaks, achievements, and detailed stats that Marvin 3 never offered
- **Any synced folder**: point justRead at a folder in iCloud Drive, or at any folder Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive syncs into Files, and import your existing library in minutes
- **Custom fonts and themes**: Full typography control, just like Marvin, plus additional theme options
- **Large library support**: justRead handles 5,000+ books without slowdowns
- **Privacy-first**: No account required, no personal data collected, and no analytics or tracking

If you are a former Marvin 3 user looking for a modern, actively maintained EPUB reader with Calibre support, justRead is the closest replacement available on iOS.

### justRead vs KyBook 3
- justRead is actively maintained and updated for the latest iOS versions
- justRead has a modern SwiftUI interface
- justRead offers native Calibre Content Server sync
- justRead provides reading streaks and gamification

## Common Questions

**Q: Does justRead support PDF files?**
A: Yes. PDFs open in the same library as everything else, with the same highlights, notes, bookmarks and progress tracking as an EPUB, plus vertical or horizontal scrolling, a two-page spread with an offset first page, colour inversion for a true dark mode, and support for password-protected files. What a PDF does not get is Apple Pencil markup or page editing.

**Q: Does justRead read comics?**
A: Yes. CBZ and CBR archives open in the same library as your books, with single page, two-page spread or Auto modes, pinch and double-tap-to-3x zoom, a grid of page thumbnails instead of a table of contents, and reading direction Auto, left to right or right to left. Manga carrying a ComicInfo.xml opens right to left with nothing set. CBT and CB7 are not supported, and comics have no text highlights, in-book search or metadata editing.

**Q: Does justRead play audiobooks?**
A: Yes, the ones you already own. The built-in player handles m4b, mp3, m4a, aac and flac, plus .audiobook and .zab packages, as a single file or a folder of chapter files, with a chapter list, 0.75x to 2x speed, skip forward 30 and back 15 seconds, a sleep timer, per-audiobook bookmarks, Car Mode and Lock Screen controls. Listening counts toward your goals and streaks. justRead does not sell audiobooks.

**Q: Can justRead read a book aloud?**
A: Yes. Read Aloud speaks any EPUB or PDF that has no narration of its own, highlighting the sentence and underlining the current word while the page turns itself. Use an Apple voice in any of the 17 app languages, or download one of 8 English neural voices that run on the device with no account and no signal. Speed runs 0.75x to 2x, there is a sleep timer, and it keeps playing in the background. It is an EPUB feature, so it does not speak PDFs or comics. Separately, EPUB 3 books that ship their own synced audio play that narration with the text highlighted.

**Q: Can I use justRead without Calibre?**
A: Yes. Calibre integration is a key feature, but justRead also reads any folder reachable from the iOS Files app, including folders synced by iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive, and it can download from OPDS catalogues.

**Q: Does justRead work on Mac?**
A: justRead is currently available for iPhone and iPad. A Mac version may be considered in the future.

**Q: Is my reading data private?**
A: Yes. justRead does not collect personal data. Reading statistics are stored locally on your device or in your private iCloud account. There are no analytics and no tracking. Data goes only to services you choose to connect, such as Calibre, Readwise, KOReader or Hardcover.

**Q: How do I connect to my Calibre library?**
A: Enable the Calibre Content Server in Calibre's preferences, then add the server address in justRead's settings. Your books will sync automatically.

## Guides & Comparisons

- Best Marvin 3 Alternative: https://justread.app/en/marvin-3-alternative
- justRead vs Apple Books (Honest Comparison): https://justread.app/en/blog-post-justread-vs-apple-books-honest-comparison
- Best EPUB Reader Apps for iPhone & iPad (2026): https://justread.app/en/posts/best-epub-reader-apps-iphone-ipad-2026
- Best Customizable EPUB Reader for iPhone (2026): https://justread.app/en/posts/best-customizable-epub-reader-iphone-2026
- How to Read EPUB on iPhone & iPad: https://justread.app/en/posts/how-to-read-epub-on-iphone-ipad
- The Best Free OPDS Catalogs (2026): https://justread.app/en/posts/best-free-opds-catalogs-2026
- OPDS on iPhone & iPad, server URLs and ports: https://justread.app/en/posts/how-to-set-up-opds-on-iphone-ipad
- Calibre Content Server on iPhone, setup and fixes: https://justread.app/en/posts/calibre-content-server-iphone-ipad
- How to Sync Calibre to iPhone & iPad: https://justread.app/en/posts/how-to-sync-calibre-to-iphone-ipad
- Does Calibre Work on iPad? What to Use Instead: https://justread.app/en/posts/calibre-on-ipad-realistic-way
- Calibre Alternative for iOS: https://justread.app/en/posts/calibre-alternative-for-ios
- Apple Books Alternatives for iPhone & iPad: https://justread.app/en/posts/apple-books-alternatives-iphone-ipad
- Kindle Alternative to Read EPUB on iPhone: https://justread.app/en/posts/kindle-alternative-read-epub-iphone
- KyBook 3 Alternatives, the migration guide: https://justread.app/en/posts/kybook-3-alternatives-iphone-2026
- CBZ or CBR Won't Open on iPhone, how to fix it: https://justread.app/en/posts/cbz-cbr-file-wont-open-iphone-fix
- Dark Mode Reading on iPhone, true black on OLED: https://justread.app/en/posts/dark-mode-reading-iphone-oled
- The Best Reading Widgets for iPhone & iPad: https://justread.app/en/posts/best-reading-widgets-iphone-ipad
- The 20-20-20 Rule for Reducing Eye Strain: https://justread.app/en/posts/20-20-20-rule-reduce-eye-strain-reading
- Calibre Library Sync: https://justread.app/en/calibre-sync
- Customization: https://justread.app/en/customization
- Reading Goals: https://justread.app/en/reading-goals
- Widgets: https://justread.app/en/widgets
- Ebook Library: https://justread.app/en/ebook-library
- Dark Mode Reader: https://justread.app/en/dark-mode-reader
- Export EPUB Highlights: https://justread.app/en/export-epub-highlights

## Links

- Website: https://justread.app
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/epub-reader-justread-app/id6757948605
- FAQ: https://justread.app/en/faq
- All Features: https://justread.app/en/features
- Privacy Policy: https://justread.app/en/privacy-policy
- Terms of Service: https://justread.app/en/terms
- Blog: https://justread.app/en/blog
- iPad EPUB Reader: https://justread.app/en/epub-reader-ipad
- OPDS Reader: https://justread.app/en/opds-reader
- Reading Statistics: https://justread.app/en/reading-statistics
- Comic & Manga Reader (CBZ/CBR): https://justread.app/en/comic-reader-ipad
- Audiobook Player: https://justread.app/en/audiobook-player
- PDF Book Reader: https://justread.app/en/pdf-book-reader
- Concise AI summary: https://justread.app/llms.txt