Thorium Reader icon
Thorium Reader icon

Thorium Reader

 17 likes

Thorium Reader is a free, open source multi-language EPUB reader for Windows 10, MacOS and Linux. It's privacy aware and highly accessible for visually impaired and dyslexic people.

Thorium Reader screenshot 1

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Application types

Country of Origin

  • FR flagFrance
  • European Union flagEU

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
3.6 / 5 Avg rating (7)
17likes
6comments
0news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features
  1.  Ad-free
  2.  Full-Text Search
  3.  Fullscreen support
  4.  Bookmarks

Thorium Reader News & Activities

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Recent activities

  • lucasffg liked Thorium Reader
    15 days ago
  • superstickynotemealt reviewed Thorium Reader  
    about 2 months ago

    You can't have a book open without having the library window open in a Separate window. If you try to close the library window, it closes the book you're reading. Which means you just can't simply click on the icon on the dock to switch between things and you have a useless window all the time in your task switcher.

    Otherwise it seemed good, but to me this is completely workflow breaking and is a complete show stopper.

  • zilinux commented on Thorium Reader
    4 months ago

    Nice one! Quick, simple and functional without too much unnecessary settings. For a moment my favorite.

  • zilinux liked Thorium Reader
    4 months ago
  • zilinux rated Thorium Reader  
    4 months ago
  • alternativeto-deviant and megyland liked Thorium Reader
    6 months ago
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Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Top Positive Comment
Jo Roberts
Jun 10, 2023
3

I would like to offer a glowing review for Thorium, because I feel other reviews have not been left by its target audience. Thorium isn't the best EPUB reader for the average user, but is the undisputed best option for those with reading disabilities.

I've tried using a wide variety of EPUB readers, but none have been customizable enough to accommodate my dyslexia. Thorium's custom font options, precise controls for editing the spacing of words and lines, and even choice in terms of how you move through pages are unbeatable.

Though Thorium is not the best in its class overall, it is the best in terms of accessibility. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in EPUB as an accommodation for dyslexia.

Top Negative Comment
superstickynotemealt
May 29, 2025
0

You can't have a book open without having the library window open in a Separate window. If you try to close the library window, it closes the book you're reading. Which means you just can't simply click on the icon on the dock to switch between things and you have a useless window all the time in your task switcher.

Otherwise it seemed good, but to me this is completely workflow breaking and is a complete show stopper.

Žilvinas Badaras
Mar 8, 2025
0

Nice one! Quick, simple and functional without too much unnecessary settings. For a moment my favorite.

Alabaster3632
Aug 20, 2022
0

It's cool but not the best choice, you need to select dark theme for every book, it doesnt have any fancy features, if you need any. Not feels like a complete app when compared with Calibre or Sumatra PDF. Shame, it have a good UI actually.

naarcissus
Jul 23, 2022
1

Just tried it briefly. On top of being electron, when I clicked the installer, it automatically installed itself in %appdata% with no warning, so if that drives you as crazy as it does me, stay away. On top of that, when I uninstalled it, it left the settings and the installer behind %appdata%, necessitating manual removal. That said, you can crack the installer open with 7-zip and retrieve the app-64.7z file inside, then un-zip that wherever you want.

As for the actual functioning of the program, I only tried it briefly, the installation issues sucked all the fun out of it for me. Looked like it might at least work though and had simple formatting options and a dark mode.

francoispascal
Dec 28, 2020
0

It is an ebook reader with an open source alternative to Adobe DRM (as Adobe Digital Edition) This open source DRM is called READIUM LCP

_ So THORIUM reader is an LCP ebook reader_ it can allow ebook borrowing and lending in a public library for example via the READIUM LCP standard other apps dealing with LCP

https://www.edrlab.org/readium-lcp/certified-apps-servers/#link_acc-1-3-d

i

Readium LCP is a Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology developed by the publishing industry, for the publishing industry. It is a vendor-neutral, interoperable and distributed DRM solution, created and promoted by Readium members and managed by EDRLab.

The Readium LCP is used by Japanese , French, Canadian, and Belgium libraries as an alternative to Adobe DRM (Adobe Digital Edition)

LCP defines a simple passphrase-based authentication method, which is minimally intrusive for end users AND fulfills the requirements of public libraries, booksellers and publishers regarding content protection.

LCP is designed for privacy and GDPR compliance (required for EU adoption) since no third-party is collecting user data.

Client applications can be developed on mobile devices, desktop computers and e-readers. Browser based applications cannot integrate LCP, as such applications cannot handle DRM details safely enough.

LCP is free from transaction costs. The only mandatory cost for using the DRM is a yearly certification fee for each server or client application supporting LCP.

LCP is built using standard & best practice technology for content encryption:

AES 256 bits encryption for content and content keys SHA-256 for user passphrases RSA with SHA-256 for signing licenses. Supported Formats Different publication formats can be protected by LCP; this includes:

EPUB 2 and EPUB 3, including with embedded audio and video content PDF documents Readium Packaged Web Publications (audiobooks and DiViNa)

related links https://readium.org/lcp-specs/

https://www.editionguard.com/compare-drms/

What is Thorium Reader?

Thorium Reader is a free, open source multi-language EPUB reader for Windows 10, MacOS and Linux. It's privacy aware and highly accessible for visually impaired and dyslexic people. This application is free, with no ads and no leaks of private data.

This desktop reading app is based on the Readium Desktop toolkit and is developed by the European Digital Reading Lab (EDRLab), a non-profit development laboratory based in France.

Why developing Thorium Reader?

Until now there was no modern EPUB 3 compliant reading application usable on Windows, OSX and Linux, properly accessible for print disabled people, with a good support for the LCP DRM and capable of browsing OPDS catalogs.

EDRLab decided to build such an application and release it for free, in order to provide users a great way to enjoy on a large screen EPUB publications, comics / manga / bandes dessinées, audiobooks, LCP protected PDF documents.

Print disabled people now benefit from an EPUB 3 reading app which supports screen readers like Jaws and NVDA on Windows, Voice Over on Mac.

Technology

Thorium Reader is based on the set of open-source chrome-less modules, a toolkit named Readium Desktop. Thorium Reader and Readium Desktop both rely on Electron.js, node.js and typescript, which are efficient cross-platform technologies. Thorium is also using React components based on HTML 5/CSS 3.

Official Links

Thorium Reader information

  • Developed by

    FR flagEuropean Digital Reading Lab (EDRLab)
  • Licensing

    Open Source (BSD-3-Clause) and Free product.
  • Written in

  • Rating

    Average rating of 3.6
  • Alternatives

    7 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English
    • French
    • Portuguese
    • Swedish
    • Russian
    • Lithuanian
    • Italian
    • Japanese
    • Dutch
    • Spanish
    • German
    • Finnish
    • Chinese
    • Korean
    • Georgian

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GitHub repository

  •  2,188 Stars
  •  182 Forks
  •  91 Open Issues
  •   Updated Jul 16, 2025 
View on GitHub

Our users have written 6 comments and reviews about Thorium Reader, and it has gotten 17 likes

Thorium Reader was added to AlternativeTo by RemovedUser on Sep 30, 2020 and this page was last updated May 16, 2022.