Name

Lijn — a native BD, comic, and ebook reader for iPad

Synopsis

Import local files (CBZ, CBR, PDF, EPUB, MOBI, AZW3) or connect to an OPDS-compatible server. Read in single page or double page mode.

Description

Lijn is a SwiftUI-native reader built for bande dessinée collectors. It supports local file import via Files.app, drag and drop, and remote library access via OPDS 1.x catalogs.

The library organizes comics by series with 3D stacked covers, format badges (BD, Manga, Comics, Book, Magazine), and an Up Next section surfacing the next unread volume of every active series. Albums can be grouped into user-created collections, including rule-based smart collections.

Reading modes are single page with page-curl animation and double-page spreads. Text ebooks (EPUB, MOBI, AZW3) render in a native paginated book engine — no web view.

All data stays on device. There is no account and no cloud sync. Reading progress, bookmarks, and annotations live in a local SwiftData store, mirrored to a SQLite projection with FTS5 full-text search.

Features

Library

Grid and list views. Filters: All, Favorites, Unread, Reading, Finished, Recent, Books. Sort by recency, title, author, progress, rating, date added, or format. Automatic series grouping by metadata; drag one album onto another to form a series. Multi-select bulk operations: delete, add to collection, move to series, edit metadata, toggle favorite, mark read/unread. Drag-and-drop import.

Search

Full-text search over the whole library via SQLite FTS5: title, series, creators, publisher, ISBN, synopsis, tags, language — plus text recognized on covers (Vision OCR) and machine-generated cover descriptions. Ranked by bm25.

Reader

Two reading modes: single page (page curl) and double page (scrolled spreads; wide pages render alone). Left-to-right and right-to-left directions; RTL is auto-applied for manga. Software brightness, color temperature, contrast, and saturation overlays. Orientation lock. Keep-screen-on. PDFs can switch to the text engine for reflowed reading.

Ebook Reader

Native paginated engine for EPUB, MOBI, and AZW3 — no WKWebView. Page-curl turns, four themes (Light, Sepia, Dark, Black), seven font families, adjustable size, margins, line spacing, alignment, and hyphenation. Table of contents, in-book search, text highlights, dictionary lookup, and translation.

Annotations

Text notes, rectangular highlights, and PencilKit freehand drawings on comic pages. Coordinates stored as normalized 0–1 values relative to page dimensions. Per-session undo/redo. Export to Markdown, JSON, or annotated PDF.

Bookmarks

Per-page bookmarks with keyboard shortcuts ([ and ] to jump). Toggled from reader controls; list view with notes and per-bookmark colors.

Collections

User-created collections with icon and color customization, nestable into hierarchies, pinnable to the library filter bar. Smart collections with rule-based automatic membership (publisher, author, genre, format, tag, reading status, language, dates, rating, progress, page count; match all or any rules).

Metadata

Automatic extraction from ComicInfo.xml (CBZ/CBR), PDF document attributes, OPF/Dublin Core (EPUB), and EXTH (MOBI/AZW3), with filename parsing as fallback. Online lookup via Open Library, Google Books, BnF, MangaDex, AniList, Metron, and Comic Vine (user API key). Cover OCR feeds search and Spotlight. Per-album and bulk editors.

System Integration

Spotlight indexing of the library. App Intents and Siri Shortcuts: continue reading, open comic or collection, search library, mark as read, library counts, import files. Four home-screen widgets (Continue Reading, Recently Added, Library, Up Next) with deep links. QuickLook thumbnails for comic files in Files.app. Localized in English, French, and Japanese.

Caching

Two-tier page cache: NSCache (50 pages, 100 MB) + disk. Cover cache (100 covers, 50 MB). vImage Lanczos resize, max page dimension 2048 px. Archive entry lists cached for up to 10 archives.

Supported Formats

See lijn-formats(1) for the full matrix.

OPDS

Lijn supports OPDS 1.x catalog browsing and download. Compatible servers include Calibre Content Server, Calibre-Web, Kavita, Komga, Stump, and any OPDS 1.x compliant endpoint.

Authentication: HTTP Basic Auth. Search: OpenSearch template supported. Facets: exposed as a filter menu. OPDS 2.0 (JSON) is not supported.

See lijn-opds(1) for configuration details.

Purchasing

Lijn is free for the first 5 imports. A single one-time purchase unlocks unlimited imports. No subscription.

See Also

lijn-opds(1), lijn-formats(1), lijn-gestures(1)

Author

Aymane Bengrina — Studio Alticcio
alticc.io