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 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 is for reading on a Mac with local files and no account. Two established speed readers for comparison:

Outread and Spreeder also run on phones and tablets. Outread includes reading exercises, and Spreeder adds AI summaries and a cloud profile. Rapid Reader is Mac only, keeps its library in a local folder, and does none of that.

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.