Close Reader

Connect your own library

If you keep your books on a server of your own, Close Reader can browse it, search it and download books to your phone or tablet in one tap, without a cable, email or cloud drive. It works with any library server that speaks OPDS, the catalog standard of e-book servers, such as Calibre, Calibre-Web, Kavita and Komga.

Close Reader comes with no catalogs: you add the address of your own server.

Add a catalog

  1. In the Library, tap +, then Add catalog.
  2. Enter the catalog’s address (see your server below), and a login and password if your server asks for them. The name is taken from the catalog; you can change it.
  3. Tap Save. Close Reader checks the address and opens the catalog.

A catalog opens on its search: type a title, an author, a series or a topic, and narrow it down with the filters your server supports (language, topic, author, series, publisher, format, “Not in library”) and the sort order. With nothing typed, you see its newest books and, below them, the server’s own sections. Tap a book to see its description, series, rating, topics and formats; a topic searches the catalog for it. If your server answers with menus (“New books → By genre → …”) rather than lists, Close Reader goes down them to the books.

For a home library of up to 20,000 books (10,000 on devices with less than 3 GB of memory) you can turn on Fast offline search in the catalog’s settings (the pencil): Close Reader keeps the list of its books on your device, so search is instant, works without the network and forgives typos. It’s updated when you open the catalog, at most once a day. Kavita catalogs are always searched on the server.

Download on a cover or in the card puts a book in your library, and books you already have are marked “In library”. If the same book is already in your library from another file, Close Reader offers to open that copy instead of downloading a second one. Your catalogs are always under + in the Library; the pencil next to one changes or deletes it.

Your device has to reach the server: be on the same Wi-Fi as a server at home, or reach it over the internet or your VPN. On iPhone and iPad, allow Local Network access when Close Reader asks (you can change it later in Settings → Close Reader).

Calibre

In Calibre, click Connect/share → Start Content server. The catalog’s address is http://<computer address>:8080/opds, where the computer address is its address in your network, such as 192.168.1.20, and 8080 is the port set in Preferences → Sharing over the net.

If you turned on Require username and password there, enter the same login and password in Close Reader. Calibre’s password check over plain http is supported.

Calibre-Web

The address is your Calibre-Web address followed by /opds, for example http://192.168.1.20:8083/opds. Sign in with your Calibre-Web username and password. To download books, your Calibre-Web user needs download permission.

Kavita

In Kavita, open your user settings and copy the OPDS URL (with the third-party clients). It looks like http://192.168.1.20:5000/api/opds/<your key>. Paste it as the address and leave login and password empty: the key in the address signs you in, so keep that address to yourself. If you can’t find the URL, the server’s administrator can turn OPDS on in Kavita’s server settings.

Komga

The address is your Komga address followed by /opds/v1.2/catalog, for example http://192.168.1.20:25600/opds/v1.2/catalog. Sign in with your Komga email and password. The newer /opds/v2/catalog works too.

Formats

When a book comes in several formats, Close Reader downloads EPUB first, then AZW3 or MOBI, FB2, PDF, CBZ and TXT. The book’s card lists the other formats if you’d rather have one of them. Books protected with DRM (Adobe, Readium LCP) can’t be opened in Close Reader and aren’t downloaded.

Privacy and security

Close Reader connects straight to the server you entered; nothing goes through our servers. The catalog’s address and login stay on your device, and the password is kept in the system’s secure storage. Catalogs aren’t synced between devices; the books you download are ordinary books in your library. See the Privacy Policy.

An http:// address isn’t encrypted. That’s usual at home, but over the internet your password would travel in the clear, so use https:// for a server outside your home network.

Download only books you have the right to use (Terms of Use).