Reference page

Skip to the tour

One machine for everything you read and hear.

Read PDF, EPUB and DOCX. Listen to audiobooks, podcasts and radio from around the world. Free, with no account.

Download for Android Source on GitHub

LibraryYour books, audiobooks and shows on one shelf.

Turn the ring, or use the arrow keys.

The Library screen of Alexandria: a continue-reading card above a grid of book covers.

Set the page the way you read

Every control on this bench is in the app. Move one and the page answers.

Literata, 19 ptPaper

Loomings

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago, never mind how long precisely, having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.

Page surface

Typeface

Size19 Leading1.6 Margins24 Warmth0

Justified Indent paragraphs

Marker colour

Select words on the page to mark them. Tap a mark to clear it.

Three ways through a book

Loomings

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago, never mind how long precisely, having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

Loomings

It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul;

Loomings

whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

Loomings

This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this.

Loomings

If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

Swipe

The book as a stack of cards, each filled to fit your screen. Go up or sideways, or let them advance at your own words per minute.

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago, never mind how long precisely, having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul;

whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this.

If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago, never mind how long precisely, having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul;

whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this.

If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

Auto-scroll

Speed40 px/s

Hands free, from a crawl to a sprint. Put a finger on the page and it holds.

The reader on a paper surface, with two highlighted passages and the control bar open.

Tap and slide

Tap zones turn the page, and so do the volume keys, in whichever direction you like. Slide the screen edge for brightness or text size, on whichever side you choose.

Eleven surfaces, and every setting

The reader on the Amber CRT surface in JetBrains Mono. — Amber CRT

The reader on the Phosphor surface in IBM Plex Mono. — Phosphor

The Light and surface settings: brightness, super dim, warmth and the day and night surfaces. — Light and surface

The Type settings: typeface, leading, paragraph gap, tracking, weight and margins. — Type

Ask the book, in the margin

Connect your own key from Google or Vercel AI Gateway. The companion knows how far you have read, and keeps quiet about the rest.

Select any passage

The AI companion explains the passage where it sits in the book.

Chat about the whole book, or just one passage.
Recap what you have read so far, picking up after a long gap.
Pitch answers simple, clear or expert, in the language you choose.
See what each model and voice has cost you in the usage log.

A chat with the AI companion about Moby-Dick, answering without spoilers.

The book detail screen with rating, format, reading speed and time left.

Tune to anything spoken

Four bands on one dial. They all share the same player, keep going in the background, and stay on your lock screen.

Audiobooks

Add your own audio files, or stream free books from LibriVox and the Internet Archive.
Download whole books or single chapters for offline listening.
Speed control, chapters, a sleep timer, ratings and timestamped notes.
Attach the ebook to read along, and the page follows the narrator.

Your audiobook shelf, with continue listening at the top.

The player: cover, chapter, speed, sleep timer, chapters and read along.

Keep track of all of it

Finding, filing and counting, across everything on your shelf.

56of 30 min

Daily goal30 min

Set goals for minutes a day, books and audiobooks a year, and episodes a week. Time is counted per kind, along with your streak.

The stats screen: today's goal ring, a 23-day streak, totals by kind and two weeks of bars. — Stats

The home-screen widget customiser with font and colour options. — Home-screen widgets

Book folders, with smart rows for favourites and unfiled books above your own folders. — Folders

The Books screen listing free EPUBs from Project Gutenberg, each with a Get EPUB button. — Free books

Find. Free EPUBs from Project Gutenberg in one tap, or the whole Open Library catalogue for your want-to-read list.

File. One folder can hold books, audiobooks and shows together. Favourites and unfiled items sort themselves.

Search. Every search bar keeps its own recent searches, and you can clear them one at a time.

Two machines in one

Industrial is hairlines, monospace and hard corners. Zen drops all of that for something soft and quiet. Every screen follows, and so does this site's accent below.

Accent

Signal orange

Monochrome Dark

Also yours to change: corner radius, five interface fonts, the dot grid, haptics, and any custom colour from a full picker.

The Library in the Industrial look.

The Library in the Zen look.

Data sheet

Everything the app does, in one table.

Filter the data sheet 96 features

Formats

PDF, EPUB and DOCX
PDFs reflow to text, or show their original pages
Open files from other apps with "Read in Alexandria"
Share files in with "Add to Alexandria"
Covers and details fetched from Open Library and Google Books
Edit book info and set your own cover

Type

12 reading typefaces, including Atkinson Hyperlegible
Size from 11 to 40 pt
Leading, paragraph gap, tracking and weight
Margins, justified or ragged, indented paragraphs
Show or hide images

Light

11 page surfaces, plus a custom page and ink colour
Separate day and night surfaces
Night mode that can follow the system
Warmth filter and super dim
Brightness control inside the app

Motion

Auto-scroll from 5 to 400 px/s, pausing while you touch
Swipe mode: fit to screen or fixed words per card
Swipe up or sideways, with auto-advance by WPM
Tap zones for turning the page
Volume keys turn pages: choose the direction, or switch them off
Slide the screen edge for brightness or font size
Immersive mode, keep-awake, status line and clock

Navigate

Table of contents
Search in book
Position slider and time left
Bookmarks, highlights and notes in one list

Marks

Highlights in 5 marker colours
Notes on any highlight
Bookmarks you can rename
Ratings, favourites and reading status
Define with a dictionary and Wikipedia, right from the selection

AI companion

Uses your own key from Google or Vercel AI Gateway
Gemini, GPT, Claude and Grok models, and search for more
Chat about a book or a passage
Explain a selection, recap what you read, or ask what a book is about
Spoiler guard based on how far you have read
Simple, clear or expert answers in your language
Usage log with tokens, characters and estimated cost

Audiobooks

Your own audio files, or free books from LibriVox and the Internet Archive
Stream, or download whole books and single chapters
Downloads resume after a restart
Playback speed, chapters and sleep timer
Read along with the attached ebook
Timestamped notes, ratings and favourites
Background playback with lock-screen controls

Read aloud

Your phone's voice, free and offline
ElevenLabs voices in 30+ languages, with your key
Addis AI voices for Amharic, Afaan Oromo and Tigrinya, with your key
Search voices by name, language or accent
Speed and pitch controls
Keeps reading with the screen off

Podcasts

Search the Apple podcast directory
Top charts and genres
Add any show by RSS link
Subscriptions with new-episode counts
Reorderable queue and episode downloads
Background checks with new-episode alerts
Played tracking, plus marking older episodes as played
Share cards for shows and episodes

Radio

Stations from around the world
Country picker with flags
Genres from news and talk to lo-fi and afrobeats
Favourites, recents, ratings and notes
Automatic fallback directory if the main one is down

Find

Free EPUBs from Project Gutenberg, downloaded in one tap
Open Library catalogue search
A want-to-read list
Browse by topic, or hit Surprise me
Recent searches on every search bar, removable one by one

Organise

Folders that hold books, audiobooks and shows together
Smart rows for favourites and items not in a folder
Folder covers made from what is inside, or your own picture
Grid or list, with adjustable columns and sorting
Filters for books, audiobooks, podcasts and radio

Stats

Daily goal ring and streaks
Yearly goals for books and audiobooks, weekly for episodes
Time by kind, and 14-day bars
Per-book reading speed and time left
Four home-screen widgets with your own font and colours

Share

8 card styles, from Spec to Blueprint
Sizes for posts, feeds and stories
Any background colour and typeface
Cards for excerpts, highlights and bookmarks
Cards for audiobooks, podcasts and stations

Look

Industrial and Zen designs for every screen
Monochrome mode
Light, dark or system theme
11 accents, or any colour from a full picker
Corner radius, five interface fonts and the dot grid
Haptics you can turn off

Your data

No account and no sign-in
Everything stored on your phone
Export or import everything as one JSON file
Catalogue pages saved on your phone, so they open when offline
Keys for AI and voices are yours and only needed for those features

Put it on your phone

Alexandria is an Android app. Get the latest APK from the GitHub releases page and open it on your phone. Android may ask you to allow installs from your browser the first time.

Go to the releases page Read the source