Norea is a local-first light-novel reader for Windows, Linux, and Android. It keeps your reading sources, library, downloads, and progress in one app.
Norea is inspired by lnreader/lnreader, but it is a separate app with its own data, backup, and source system.
- Browse and search installed reading sources.
- Add novels to your library and organize them with categories.
- Import local plain text, HTML, and PDF files.
- Download images from HTML
<img>tags for local reading. - Create local novel homes, add chapter files later, reorder local chapters, and manage local metadata with locally uploaded cover images.
- Read in paged or scrolling mode.
- Change themes, font size, text color, tap zones, and keyboard navigation.
- Track reading progress, history, unread chapters, and downloaded chapters.
- Download chapters for later reading.
- Export and import local backups for your library, progress, categories, source settings, and downloaded chapters.
Norea is usable for testing, but it is not a polished app-store release yet.
Current limits:
- macOS and iOS are not planned right now.
- Some protected sources may ask you to open the in-app site browser once before search or downloads work.
- Android background downloads still need more device testing.
- There is no automatic updater yet. Use Settings -> About to check and download newer builds manually.
For regular installs, use the latest GitHub release. Release assets are the stable public downloads.
For a newer tester build from the current main branch, use GitHub Actions:
- Open the latest successful workflow run for your platform: Windows, Linux, or Android.
- Open the run and scroll to Artifacts.
- Download the matching artifact:
| Platform | What to download |
|---|---|
| Windows x64 | norea-windows-x64-nsis or norea-windows-x64-msi |
| Windows ARM64 | norea-windows-arm64-nsis or norea-windows-arm64-msi |
| Linux x64 | norea-linux-x64-appimage, norea-linux-x64-deb, or norea-linux-x64-rpm |
| Linux ARM64 | norea-linux-arm64-appimage, norea-linux-arm64-deb, or norea-linux-arm64-rpm |
| Android phone or tablet | norea-arm64.apk |
| Android emulator or WSA | norea-x86_64.apk |
Workflow artifacts are tester downloads and are kept for 30 days. If an artifact is expired, use a newer successful run or the latest release.
- Install and open Norea.
- Add a reading source list from Browse -> Sources.
- Install one or more sources.
- Search a source, open a novel, and add it to your library.
- Open a chapter to read. Download chapters you want available later.
Reading sources are installed separately from the app. The sample source list is maintained at tinywind/norea-plugins and focuses on public-domain, open-license, official-API, and user-owned self-hosted examples.
To add the sample source list:
-
Open Browse -> Sources.
-
Choose Set repository.
-
Paste this URL:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tinywind/norea-plugins/main-dist/plugins/v0.1.0/.dist/plugins.min.json -
Save it.
-
Install sources from Available source plugins.
Only install and use sources you are allowed to access in your country and under the source site's terms.
Use Settings -> Backup to export or import your local library data. Backups include your library, progress, categories, source settings, and downloaded chapter content, including cached chapter media used by downloaded HTML chapters.
Norea keeps app data and backup compatibility inside each active release line.
Stable releases (1.0.0 and later) guarantee compatibility only within the same
major version. During pre-release development (0.x.y), compatibility is
guaranteed only within the same minor version.
For example, 0.1.x data is supported by later 0.1.x releases, but 0.2.0
may introduce incompatible data changes. Export a backup before moving across a
major version, or across a minor version while Norea is still 0.x.
Maintainer details live in docs/release-compatibility.md.
Developer setup, local plugin testing, release artifact details, and contribution rules live in docs/development.md.
MIT. Upstream assets and translation seeds remain MIT-compatible and are credited in the app where relevant.