Feature Overview

What GZreader does, in short, with where to read more. Not every feature is on every device: see Device compatibility.

Reading and your library

• Catalog — one tab, three pages you swipe between: Books, Audiobooks and Music. Search and browse your Grimmory server laid out like a bookshop: Continue reading, Recently added, All books, Libraries, Shelves (and magic shelves), Authors, Series. Lists open at once from a saved copy. → Grimmory library
• Downloads in the background — with a progress bar, a queue, resuming after a dropped connection or a restart, and an auto-download shelf. → Grimmory library
• Sync with Grimmory — reading position (to the exact place, as an EPUB CFI the web reader understands), bookmarks, highlights and notes (both ways, with a three-way merge), ratings and reading sessions. → Grimmory sync
• Bookshelves — books stand on shelves, spines out, the selected one turns to show its cover; audiobooks as a cassette walkman, music as a CD player. Also lists and tiles. → Home and bookshelves
• Grimmory reading stats on Home — read this week, day streak, books finished, across all your devices. → Home and bookshelves
• Picture books — scanned-page EPUBs are recognized and each page fills the screen. → Picture books
• Sleep screen — the book's cover while reading, your pictures from Home: from the USB drive's screensavers folder (send them from your phone's browser) or from an Immich album. → Home and bookshelves
• Immich — an album's photos as the sleep screen and the Home wallpaper, kept on the Kindle and changed now and then on Wi‑Fi. → Home and bookshelves
• English dictionary built in (Open English WordNet).

Setting up

• Set up from your browser — scan one QR code (or type the address and PIN) and one page connects Grimmory (password or single sign-on), Notes, calendars and Plex, and sends books straight to the Kindle. → Setup page and connections
• Copy connections from another GZreader over the Wi‑Fi with a PIN (SPAKE2, encrypted). → Setup page and connections
• Cloudflare — a key or an Access service token so servers behind Cloudflare let the Kindle through. → Setup page and connections
• No Wi‑Fi? The Kindle 2 and DX sync through a web page on a computer, over USB: reading goes to Grimmory, books, audiobooks, music, notes, calendars and updates come back. → Sync with a computer

More than books

• Notes — your Memos notes as sticky notes, in a list or side by side, compact or whole; tick checklists, write and edit, offline too. → Notes
• Calendar — calendar links (Proton, Google, Outlook…) and CalDAV accounts: agenda, day, week, month. → Calendar
• Music — albums and playlists from Plex, downloaded and played while you read (Kindles with audio). → Music
• Audiobooks — from Grimmory, with your place kept in sync (Kindles with audio). → Audiobooks and read aloud
• Read aloud — any EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2 or TXT in the Kindle's own voice, the sentence highlighted and pages turning by themselves (Kindle 2, 3, DX, Touch). → Audiobooks and read aloud
• House — your Home Assistant rooms: lights, switches, thermostats, locks, garage doors and scenes to switch from the Kindle, straight over your Wi‑Fi (Kindles with Wi‑Fi). → House

Using it

• The quick panel — one panel of square tiles on every device (Menu, or swipe down): Wi‑Fi, night mode, sleep, updates, settings, and what fits where you are (Home or the book); choose its tiles in Settings → Interface → Quick panel. → Using GZreader
• Letter keys everywhere on keyboard Kindles; the 5-way on the Kindle 4; touch on the others; the colour touchscreen on the Nook 1st Edition. → Using GZreader
• First-time tour on touch Kindles, showing the quick panel. → Using GZreader

Looking after itself

• Updates from GitHub over Wi‑Fi (or the sync page), with a What's new screen after each; test builds for trying changes early. → Updates and test builds
• Wi‑Fi on, off or auto — Auto (the default) turns it on for what needs it and off after a minute, to save battery; the quick panel's Wi‑Fi tile goes through the three. → Wi‑Fi
• Faster on old Kindles — a shadow screen for drawing, precompiled code, pre-sized covers. → Performance
• Debug reports and diagnostics — no usage statistics; debug reports go to the developer only if you choose, and the diagnostic log goes to the developer in one tap. → Privacy and diagnostics