Papyrus¶

A cross-platform e-book reading and management application

Overview¶

Papyrus is an open-source application for reading and managing both physical and digital books. It provides a versatile, user-friendly system that makes reading comfortable and fun across Android, iOS, Web, Desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux), and e-ink devices. Papyrus features an intuitive, modern UI with extensive customization options, unifying book organization, reading, note-taking, progress tracking, and personalized settings in a single application.

Why Papyrus?¶

Existing solutions often fall short in one or more areas:

Goals¶

1. Cross-platform - Manage books seamlessly across all devices without relearning the UI
2. Integrated reader - Read e-books with extensive customization options
3. Flexible management - Organize books into shelves, categories, and tags with powerful filtering
4. Progress tracking - Track reading time, books read, and achieve reading goals
5. Storage flexibility - Choose between local, self-hosted, or cloud storage
6. Data ownership - Export everything in open formats; your data is yours
7. Privacy first - No default analytics; optional self-hosted synchronization
8. Extensible - Plugin system for metadata sources, storage, and reader features
9. Developer friendly - Public REST API and easy self-hosting

Target audience¶

• Regular readers who consume digital and/or physical books and need a centralized library management solution
• Habit builders who want to track reading statistics and build reading habits through goals
• Privacy-conscious users who prefer local control over their data
• Multi-device users who read on phones, tablets, e-readers, and computers
• E-ink device owners who want a dedicated reading experience optimized for their hardware

Supported platforms¶

Supported e-book formats¶

Feature overview¶

Core features (MVP)¶

These features define the minimum viable product and are prioritized for initial release:

1. Book management¶

• Import books from local storage, URL, or cloud services (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox)
• Organize with shelves - user-defined collections (e.g., "Currently Reading", "Sci-Fi")
• Tag books with color-coded labels (0-10 tags per book)
• Edit metadata manually or fetch from online sources (Open Library, Google Books)
• Search and filter by title, author, tags, shelves, reading status, and more
• Physical book tracking - manually add and track physical books in your library

2. Integrated e-book reader¶

Typography controls:

• Font family selection (built-in and custom fonts)
• Font size, weight, line spacing, paragraph spacing
• Text alignment (left, right, center, justified)
• RTL language support

Appearance:

• Background color themes (light, dark, sepia, custom)
• Text and link color customization
• Adjustable margins and padding
• Brightness control (in-app)

Navigation:

• Single-page and two-page layouts
• Paginated and continuous scroll modes
• Table of contents navigation
• Go-to-page/percentage jump
• Progress bar with position indicator
• Touch zones, swipe gestures, volume key navigation

Reading profiles:

• Save named presets of all reader settings
• Quick profile switching
• Default profile per device
• Profile import/export

3. Annotations and notes¶

• Highlight text with multiple colors
• Add notes to highlights or create standalone book notes
• Bookmarks for quick navigation
• Export annotations to text, PDF, or Markdown
• Search across all annotations and notes

4. Reading progress and goals¶

Automatic tracking:

• Reading time per book and total
• Pages/percentage read
• Books started, in progress, completed
• Reading velocity statistics

Goals:

• Time-based goals (e.g., "Read 30 minutes daily")
• Book count goals (e.g., "Read 12 books this year")
• Custom goals with manual progress updates
• Visual progress indicators and charts

Synchronization:

• Reading position synced across devices
• Progress and statistics synchronized

5. Storage and sync¶

Storage options:

• Device local storage (default, no account required)
• Self-hosted server (for privacy-focused users)
• Cloud storage (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox)
• Network storage (NAS, shared folders)

Offline support:

• Full offline functionality without account
• Automatic sync when online
• Conflict resolution options

Advanced features (post-MVP)¶

These features are planned for future releases:

• Format conversion between EPUB, PDF, and MOBI
• OPDS catalog browsing - download from online catalogs
• OCR processing - extract text from scanned documents
• Audiobook support - manage and play audiobooks with synchronized progress
• Text-to-speech - read books aloud
• Social features - share progress, reviews, and recommendations
• AI-powered features - summaries, recommendations, smart categorization
• ISBN barcode scanning - add physical books by scanning
• Plugin system - extend functionality with community plugins

Documentation¶

This specification provides comprehensive documentation for development and maintenance:

Requirements¶

• Requirements Overview - Structure and traceability
• Functional Requirements - What the system does
• Non-Functional Requirements - How the system performs

System design¶

• Actors - User types and their interactions
• Use Cases - Detailed workflows and scenarios
• Entities - Data model and relationships
• Database Model - Database schema and design

Implementation¶

• Technologies - Technology stack and architecture
• User Interface - Design guidelines and UI specifications
• Market Analysis - Competitive landscape and positioning

Quick reference¶

Requirement notation¶

Feature priority levels¶