for terminal workflows

TERMINAL
EPUB/PDF
READER

// FULL-FEATURED EPUB + PDF RENDERING • IMAGES • TABLES & CODE BLOCKS • VIM KEYBINDINGS • MOUSE SUPPORT
INLINE ANNOTATIONS • LOCAL & GLOBAL SEARCH

READ TECHNICAL BOOKS WITHOUT LEAVING YOUR TERMINAL

Install
Bookokrat help screen
Reading view
Book content
Chapter navigation
features

Built for technical reading

Everything you need to read and research technical books in your terminal

EPUB + PDF rendering

Proper table layouts, syntax-highlighted code blocks, bold/italic text, blockquotes, lists, and MathML equations for EPUBs plus a dedicated PDF renderer with page/scroll modes and TOC support.

Annotate & research

Press 'a' on any selection to attach timestamped notes in EPUBs or PDFs. Export all annotations to Markdown. Full-text search across books. Copy chapters or selections. Your reading workspace in the terminal.

Vim keybindings + mouse support

Full vim motions (j/k, gg/G, /, Ctrl+o/i) for keyboard users. Comprehensive mouse support for everyone else. Use whichever you prefer—or both.

Never lose your place

Automatic bookmarks per book. Reading history popup (Space+h). Chapter statistics and progress tracking. Jump list remembers your navigation path in EPUBs and PDFs.

Works in any terminal

Auto-detects true color (24-bit) or falls back to 256-color palette. Images render via Kitty, Sixel, iTerm2, or Unicode halfblocks—whatever your terminal supports. PDF viewing needs a graphics-capable terminal.

Cross-platform

Native binaries for macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon) and Linux. Install via Homebrew, download pre-built binaries, or build from source on any platform including Windows.

installation

Get Started

Homebrew (macOS)

brew install bookokrat

Pre-built Binary (Linux)

Download from GitHub Releases. Static musl binary works on all distributions.

curl -LO https://github.com/bugzmanov/bookokrat/releases/latest/download/bookokrat-v0.2.2-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz

Cargo (all platforms)

Build from source with Cargo (Rust's package manager). Get Rust at rustup.rs

// Prerequisites (Cargo only)

Building from source requires a C compiler/linker:

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt update && sudo apt install build-essential
For --features pdf, also install pkg-config libfontconfig1-dev.
For --features pdf, also install clang libclang-dev (bindgen).
Linux (Fedora/RHEL)
sudo dnf install gcc make
macOS
xcode-select --install
Windows
Install Visual Studio Build Tools with "Desktop development with C++" workload
cargo install bookokrat

PDF support is enabled by default. To build without it, use cargo install bookokrat --no-default-features.

// Quick Start
1. Navigate to a directory with EPUB or PDF files
2. Run bookokrat
3. Use j/k to navigate, Enter to open a book, ? for help
// Troubleshooting
Error: "linker 'cc' not found"
Install a C compiler: xcode-select --install (macOS), sudo apt install build-essential (Debian/Ubuntu), or sudo dnf install gcc make (Fedora).

Error: "The system library `fontconfig` required by crate `yeslogic-fontconfig-sys` was not found"
On Ubuntu/Debian, install: sudo apt install pkg-config libfontconfig1-dev

Error: "Unable to find libclang"
On Ubuntu/Debian, install: sudo apt install clang libclang-dev
demo

See it in action

Watch bookokrat handle real technical content

Bookokrat demo showing EPUB/PDF reading in terminal
comparison

How does it compare?

Terminal EPUB/PDF readers compared side-by-side

Feature ↓ / Reader → Bookokrat bk epr epy baca Lue
EPUB support ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Inline images in terminal ✓ ✗ ✗* ✗* ✓ (ANSI) ✗
MathML rendering ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
Table of contents ✓ ✓ ✓ (basic) ✓ ✓ ✗
Search ✓ (chapter & book) ✓ (incremental) ✓ (regex) ✓ ✓ (regex) ✗
Bookmarks / resume ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Highlights / notes ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
Text-to-speech (TTS) ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✗ ✓
Multi-format (beyond EPUB) ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✓
Library / history view ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗
* epr/epy can open images via external viewer; not inline in the terminal.
terminal support

Image Rendering

Bookokrat auto-detects the best image protocol for your terminal. Here's what to expect.

★★★
EXCELLENT
Kitty
Ghostty
iTerm2
★★☆
GOOD
WezTerm
(some flickering)
★☆☆
BASIC
Alacritty
Linux default terminal
(halfblocks)
✗
NO IMAGES
macOS
Terminal.app
Terminal Protocol Notes
Kitty Kitty Native support
Ghostty Kitty Native support
iTerm2 Sixel Native protocol causes flickering; Kitty buggy in recent betas
WezTerm iTerm2 Kitty buggy (#986); Sixel broken on Windows (#5758)
Alacritty Halfblocks No graphics protocol support (#910)
Others Auto-detect Kitty → Sixel → iTerm2 → Halfblocks
?
Images look wrong? Check bookokrat.log for the detected protocol.
Experiencing issues not covered above? Just open an issue — happy to help!