Overview

Payas Reader is a free, open source document reader that runs entirely in your browser. Read PDF, EPUB, Markdown, and plain text files with a clean, distraction-free reading experience — no server, no backend, no installation required. Open the HTML file locally and it works on any device with a modern browser.

Payas Reader is Version 1.0.0, released under the MIT License, and built and maintained by Saman Udayanga Wijesinghe as part of the Payas Webkit project.

Supported Formats

Payas Reader handles four document formats out of the box:

Format Description
PDF Standard portable document format — powered by PDF.js
EPUB The open e-book format — powered by epub.js
Markdown Plain text with lightweight markup — rendered with marked.js
Text Plain .txt files displayed with clean typography

Key Features

  • Multi-format support — PDF, EPUB, Markdown, and plain text in one reader
  • Distraction-free reading — clean, minimal interface designed for focus
  • No server required — runs entirely client-side in the browser from a local file
  • No installation — download, extract, open index.html — done
  • Free and open source — MIT licensed, free to use, share, and modify
  • Cross-platform — works on Linux, Windows, and macOS in any modern browser
  • Modern web stack — built on Bootstrap 5, PDF.js, epub.js, and marked.js

Built With

Library Purpose
Bootstrap 5 Responsive layout and UI components
PDF.js PDF rendering in the browser
epub.js EPUB parsing and rendering
marked.js Markdown to HTML conversion

The Payas Webkit Suite

Payas Reader is one of four tools under the Payas Webkit umbrella — a collection of lightweight, serverless web utilities:

Tool Purpose
Payas Reader Document reader — PDF, EPUB, Markdown, and text in the browser
Payas Editor WYSIWYG rich text editor — write and save documents as Markdown
Payas Player Media player — play audio and video in the browser
Payas Imager Image viewer — view and browse images in the browser

Each tool in the suite shares the same philosophy: zero server dependency, open source, and runs from a single HTML file.

Get Payas Reader

Resource Link
GitLab Repository gitlab.com/samanscode/payas-reader
Download ZIP payas-reader-main.zip

Quick Start

  1. Download the ZIP package from the link above
  2. Extract the archive
  3. Open index.html in your browser — no setup needed
  4. Load any PDF, EPUB, Markdown, or text file and start reading

Credits

Creator & Lead Developer — Saman Udayanga Wijesinghe

License

Payas Reader is released under the MIT License — free to use, share, and build upon.