A Sanctuary for Unhurried Reading
Mai Read is engineered specifically for deep research, prolonged study, and distraction-free comprehension. Built with a local-first architecture, it turns your browser into a calm, private reading environment.
Study Notebooks: Multi-File Binders & Scratchpad
Group textbooks, research papers, syllabus PDFs, and Word documents into unified binders. Switch between files with zero friction while taking unified notes.
Multi-Document Study Workspaces
Bundle related documents together. Each notebook holds its own collection of PDFs and DOCX files safely stored in your browser's IndexedDB.
Top Tab Strip & Binder Drawer
Flip between documents with a 1-click top document tab bar or open the collapsible Binder drawer. Every document retains its individual scroll position and highlights.
Unified Scratchpad Notes
Capture cross-document insights, study questions, and summaries in a dedicated notebook notes area with auto-save and local text export.
Zero Uploads & 100% Offline
Just like single documents, notebook binders never leave your device. All files and notes are cached locally in your private IndexedDB database.
Instant Memory: Remembers Where You Left Off
When you reopen Mai Read after closing your laptop or shutting down your browser, your reading session is restored down to the exact millimeter.
Fractional Viewport Tracking
Rather than simply remembering a page number, Mai Read computes your exact scroll ratio (scrollY / totalHeight). When re-rendered at any window size, your reading view aligns precisely where your eyes last rested.
Dual-Tier Offline Storage
Document binaries are held safely in browser IndexedDB, while view states, bookmarks, and highlight arrays reside in atomic localStorage. Nothing is ever sent to an external server.
1-Click Welcome Resume
Upon launching the app, the welcome card immediately surfaces your last-opened document with page count and progress. One tap launches you straight back into your text without browsing your filesystem.
Reading History Sidebar
Press H or click the History icon to inspect recent books and papers. Each entry retains its progress percentage, last-read timestamp, and persistent annotations.
The Precision Highlighter System
Highlighting in Mai Read works on both digital documents and scanned PDFs without selectable text layers, with full permanent PDF export.
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Text Selection Pill
Select any sentence or paragraph with your cursor or finger. An ergonomic golden tooltip immediately appears above your selection with Highlight and Copy actions. One click creates a luminous, paper-warm highlight band.
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Freehand Draw Tool (Pen Mode)
Click the Pen icon in the floating dock or press D to enter Draw Mode. Click and drag anywhere across the page to highlight diagrams, mathematical formulas, footnotes, code snippets, or scanned archives where text cannot be selected.
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Resolution-Independent Percentage Anchors
Highlights are mathematically mapped as relative percentages (
x%,y%,w%,h%) of each page canvas. Whether you zoom to 60%, 150%, or 200%, or resize your browser window, your highlights stay pinned with absolute fidelity. -
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1-Click Quick Erase
Made a mistake or finished a review? Simply click or tap any existing highlight band to erase it immediately.
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Baked-In Client-Side PDF Export
Click Save & Export in the reader controls. Mai Read uses
pdf-libin-browser to permanently bake vector highlight rectangles into the actual PDF binary. The downloaded file can be opened in Adobe Acrobat, Apple Preview, or Google Drive with all your highlights intact.
Hardware-Accelerated 60/120fps Smooth Zoom
Traditional web PDF readers lag, jitter, and drop frames when zooming because they force heavy synchronous canvas re-rasterization on every pixel of movement. Mai Read solves this with a modern dual-stage graphics pipeline.
Stage 1: GPU Visual Scaling
When dragging the slider or pressing + / −, scaling executes directly on your GPU via hardware-accelerated CSS transforms. Frame rates remain rock-solid at 60Hz or 120Hz ProMotion without stutter.
Stage 2: Debounced Rasterization
Once zoom interaction pauses for 250ms, a lightweight background worker rasterizes sharp, retina-grade 2x resolution canvases for visible pages, giving you crisp vector clarity without scroll interruption.
Anchor-Stabilized Viewport
During zoom adjustments, Mai Read locks onto the center-vertical coordinate of the viewport. This completely eliminates the disorienting "rubbery bounce" effect and prevents unexpected jumping.
Tactile Zoom Controls
Includes quick 10% step buttons (− / +), a 1-click reset to 100%, pinch-to-zoom gestures, and a fluid range slider extending up to 200%.
Paper Brightness & Sensory Calm
Modern displays output intense white light that strains the eyes during prolonged research sessions. Mai Read introduces independent paper attenuation.
Independent Paper Dimming (55% to 100%)
Dim the document page itself without darkening your browser interface, operating system, or secondary monitors. This provides instant relief for readers experiencing asthenopia, photophobia, or migraines.
Cognitive Design for ADHD & Dyslexia
All menus and controls fade into the background while reading, leaving only pure text on paper. Zero flashing banners, zero popups, and generous line-spacing allow uninterrupted hyper-focus.
Reading Modes & Document Formats
Customize your reading environment to suit the material at hand, from continuous papers to single-page slide decks.
Continuous vs. Single Page Mode
Toggle between smooth continuous vertical scrolling and single-page presentation snap (P). Ideal for research papers and presentation decks alike.
In-Document Full-Text Search
Press Ctrl/Cmd + F to search throughout the active document with instant jumping to match occurrences and real-time result counts.
Bookmarks & Nested TOC
Bookmark key pages with a single click and navigate multi-level PDF table of contents trees with seamless section jumping.
Native DOCX Rendering
Drop Microsoft Word .docx documents directly into Mai Read. The app uses mammoth.js client-side to convert Word styles into calm typographic pages.
Robust Format Handling & Edge Cases
Designed to handle real-world document variations without crashes, silent failures, or data loss.
Password-Protected Documents
Encrypted PDFs are detected automatically and present an in-memory unlock field. Passwords are used solely for ephemeral client decryption and are never persisted to storage.
Scanned PDF Detection
When a document has no text layer, in-document search and selection inform you gently. Freehand highlight drawing remains fully operational across scanned pages.
Isolated Page Recovery
If an individual page encounters rendering corruption, Mai Read isolates that slot with a "Try page again" retry trigger without freezing or interrupting reading across the rest of the document.
Word (.docx) Dynamic Reflow
Microsoft Word documents reflow into responsive reading typography with estimated page counters. Highlights stay preserved in your local session.
Quota-Aware Storage
If browser storage reaches system quotas, non-blocking notifications alert you while reading remains 100% functional.
Pinch Zoom Feedback
Trackpad and touchscreen pinch gestures display live visual percentage chips that fade away cleanly 600ms after release.
Keyboard Navigation Shortcuts
Keep your hands on the keyboard for an unhurried, uninterrupted reading flow.
| Action | Shortcut | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Next Page / Scroll Down | J or ↓ or Space or ] | Advance reading position down smoothly |
| Previous Page / Scroll Up | K or ↑ or Shift + Space or [ | Retreat reading position up smoothly |
| Command Palette | Ctrl/Cmd + K | Open universal workspace search & quick command launcher |
| Undo Highlight | Ctrl/Cmd + Z | Undo the latest highlight or drawn annotation (20-step undo stack) |
| Study Scratchpad | S | Toggle the document or binder Study Scratchpad panel |
| Bookmark Current Page | B | Save or toggle bookmark on the currently visible page |
| First / Last Page | Home / End | Jump directly to the beginning or end of the document |
| Find in Document | Ctrl/Cmd + F | Open in-document search with keyboard pinning |
| Study Notebooks | N | Open Study Notebooks library from home screen |
| Toggle History | H | Open or close the Reading History sidebar |
| Zoom In / Out | Ctrl + + / − | Step zoom in or out in 10% increments |
| Reset Zoom | Ctrl + 0 | Reset document scale to default 100% |
| Toggle Draw Mode | D | Turn freehand draw highlighter on or off |
| Full Screen | F | Enter distraction-free immersive full screen |
| Presentation Mode | P | Toggle single-page presentation layout |
| Dismiss Dialogs / Panels | Esc | Close history sidebar, reading controls, or search dialog |
100% Local-First Privacy Guarantee
Mai Read was built on a fundamental principle: your books, contracts, academic papers, and private notes belong exclusively to you.
Zero Server Uploads
Documents are parsed, decoded, rendered, and highlighted entirely inside your browser sandbox. No bytes are sent over the network.
Complete Offline Availability
Powered by a standalone Service Worker, Mai Read runs seamlessly on flights, trains, or off-grid retreats with zero internet connection.
Storage & Data Eviction Protection
Browsers manage offline client-side databases using quota budgets. Mai Read includes multi-tier safeguards to ensure your binders and notes remain protected indefinitely.
Persistent Storage Guarantee
Through the Storage API (navigator.storage.persist()), Mai Read requests persistent storage status so operating systems never clear your cached binders during disk cleanups.
1-Click Complete Backup & Restore
Export your entire workspace — including binders, reading history, bookmarks, and scratchpads — into an encrypted local .json or .mainotebook archive anytime from the Storage Dashboard.
Information Sources & Open Foundations
Mai Read is built with gratitude upon non-profit public archives and transparent open-source libraries. We openly credit where our documents and core technologies originate:
Internet Archive
Provides access to millions of digitized public domain historical books, research documents, and cultural archives via open metadata APIs.
archive.org ↗Project Gutenberg
The pioneer of free electronic ebooks, providing timeless classic literature preserved in verified public domain editions.
gutenberg.org ↗Mozilla PDF.js
Powers community-standard, client-side PDF decoding and text layer rendering directly in web standards with zero server execution.
mozilla/pdf.js ↗Mammoth.js
Converts Microsoft Word (.docx) documents into clean, semantic HTML directly in-browser with zero cloud formatting leakage.
mammoth.js ↗PDF-Lib
Enables pure in-browser PDF modification and export with burned-in vector text highlights without server dependencies.
pdf-lib.js.org ↗IndexNow Protocol
Enables open, direct notifications to modern search engines (Microsoft Bing, Naver, Seznam, Yandex) upon content updates.
indexnow.org ↗JSZip
Powers fast, memory-safe client-side archive decompression for offline comic books (.cbz) and zipped document bundles.
stuk.github.io/jszip ↗Universal Right to Education & Why Mai Read is a Better Option
Knowledge belongs to humanity. Grounded in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Mai Read is engineered to eliminate economic, technological, and surveillance barriers to learning.
100% Client-Side Privacy
Unlike commercial readers that track every page turn, reading speed, and note on remote servers, Mai Read processes 100% of your PDFs, EPUBs, and Word docs inside your browser sandbox. Zero telemetry, zero accounts.
Zero Paywalls, Zero Ads
No premium subscriptions, no paywalled features, and zero behavioral advertising. Essential educational tools—such as multi-document study binders, text-to-speech, and vector highlights—are free for every student worldwide.
True Offline Resilience
Engineered as an autonomous Progressive Web App (PWA). Once loaded, you can read, highlight, and study on flights, in rural libraries, or during network blackouts without losing access to your study workspace.
Open Public Domain Access
Direct, transparent integration with Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg enables instant discovery of historic literature, philosophy, and science under verified public domain and educational fair use principles.
Default SafeSearch Filtering
To ensure classroom, library, and family safety, public catalog queries are filtered by default through a comprehensive multi-layered SafeSearch engine, keeping learning spaces focused and appropriate.
Open Formats & Zero Lock-In
Your notes and highlights export directly as standard Markdown, JSON, or vector PDF layers. You are never trapped inside a proprietary vendor ecosystem.
Read our complete Legal & Educational Charter ↗Crafted for Quiet, Deep Focus
Mai Read is an independent, distraction-free document reader built to honor human attention and deep cognitive focus. Software that gets out of your way and completely respects your privacy.