Thorium Reader Getting Started Guide

Thorium Reader is a free and open source reading app for Windows 10, MacOS and Linux. It supports EPUB 3 (both reflow and fixed layout), DAISY 3, and PDF documents.

Thorium contains many features required for ebook reading such as table of contents, page navigation, bookmarks, annotations/highlights, text search, single page scrolling mode, two page layout, navigation using print page breaks, Table of Contents or scroll bar.

Thorium is accessible for visually impaired and dyslexic people. It is fully usable with keyboard alone and supports navigation and reading with popular screen readers like JAWS, NVDA, Narrator and Voiceover. Other accessibility features include support for high-contrast, customizable font including dyslexia font), color themes, text size and Text To Speech (TTS) read aloud.

Thorium supports publications in all languages and the Thorium user interface is available in 13 different languages.

Download Thorium Reader

The information about latest version of Thorium Reader can be seen on EDR Lab website.

The Thorium download links for Windows, MacOS and Linux is maintained on the EDR Lab website

Nightly builds of the Windows 10, MacOS and Linux versions can be downloaded from the Readium Github platform.

Accessibility Feature Videos

Thorium User Interface

The Thorium UI consists of the Bookshelf and the Reader views. The user interface is very simple, can be accessed with the keyboard using the TAB key and keystrokes.

The Bookshelf View

The first screen you see after launching Thorium is the Bookshelf. The various components in the Bookshelf view are as follows:

• My books: This screen includes the following controls to view and manage book collection.
  • Grid view or List view: Choose how you want to view the titles in your bookshelf
  • Search: Books can be search by title, this is useful when many books have been added to the shelf
  • Import a publication: Click this button to browse the device memory and add new books to Thorium
  • Books list: This is the main part of the Bookshelf screen. You can see the titles available in your bookshelf here in grid view or list view. The last opened book will be shown at the top
  • More information: Click on this button to get more information about Thorium features, developers and supporters
• Catalogues: This is the second main tab in the Thorium Bookshelf view.
  • Add an OPDS feed: Thorium supports Open Public Distribution System catalogues. If such catalogues are added to Thorium using its link, you can browse the available titles and download them from this screen.
• Settings: Thorium application settings is opened by clicking this button. It provides the following two options.
  • Language: Choose the language in which you want to use the Thorium UI
  • Keyboard shortcuts: The default keystrokes are listed here with the option to customize them

Reader view

When you select a book in the bookshelf it opens in the Reader view. The various controls for reading and navigation are described below.

• Back to Bookshelf button
• Information button: Provides book metadata in a popup window
• Detach the window button: On clicking this button, the Reader view is shown in a separate application window. This feature can be used to view two different EPUB files side-by-side in adjacent windows
• Bookmark button: Click this button to add a bookmark at the current location
• Settings button: On clicking this button the following options are revealed.
  • Theme: The background and foreground colour can be changed using any of the three available themes – Neutral, Sepia and Night.
  • Text: The font size can be increased or decreased using the slider. The font can also be changed, the available options include – Default, Old style, Modern, Sans, Humanist, Readable (Dyslexia), Dualspace and Monospace.
  • Display: You can choose between scrollable or paginated layout, automatic or justified alignment and automatic or 1 or 2 columns presentation. Here also MathJax can be enabled, for the display of math expressions.
  • Spacing: Margins, word spacing, letter, paragraph, and line spacing can be adjusted.
  • Readaloud: provides options for an uncluttered ‘clean view’ and for skippability.
• Navigation button: On clicking this button the following options are available for navigation in the currently open book.
  • Table of contents: Click on this to bring up the list of all chapters and sub-sections available in the currently open book
  • Landmarks : This shows the available landmarks in the book such as Title page and Start of Content
  • Bookmarks: This will show the list of bookmarks added in the currently opened book. You can navigate to any of the bookmark listed here, rename or delete it. When no bookmark has been added, this option is unavailable.
  • Annotations
  • Search: for navigating between search results
  • Go to page: You can type a page number here and press the Go to button to directly navigate to it.
• Open full screen toggle button: Use this to view the book in full screen or return to normal view.
• Book content view: This is the central part of the screen which displays the book content.
• Scroll bar: This is at the bottom of the screen and can be used to move forward or backwards in the book.
• Left/Previous button: This is used to move to the previous screen or page.
• Right/Next button: This is used to move to the next page or screen

Opening and reading EPUB files

You can set Thorium to be the default reader for EPUB on your device. Alternatively, open Thorium, in My Books tab click on “Import a publication” (plus button). Now you can browse the device memory and select an EPUB file. The file will be added to the bookshelf and you will be able to view its cover page if available with the book title and author name.

You can click on the menu button with the book (three dots shape) to get more information about the book or to delete or export it (save a copy).

Click on the book cover or title to open the book for reading. If the book was opened earlier then Thorium will open the last page read or else the first page in the book will be shown. Now you can use the Left or Right buttons or the Scroll bar to flip through the book. You can also click on the navigation button and then on Table of Contents button to see the list of Chapters and sub-sections in the current title.

Keystrokes for Windows

The default keystrokes that can be used in Thorium are listed below. The keystrokes can be changed in the application settings in case of conflict with assistive technology tools or just for convenience.