Yuedu
Featured in iOS Dev Weekly #751 — From WebView to CoreText: Building a Native EPUB Reader for iOS.
Yuedu is a source-available reading application focused on a high-quality local and open reading experience. One app for EPUB3, comics, audiobooks, RSS, and open catalogs — rendered natively with CoreText, no WebView.
Features
| |
|---|
| Formats | EPUB3 · TXT · CBZ Comics · Audiobook · PDF (WIP) |
| Content | Local Library · WebDAV · OPDS · RSS · Content Sources |
| Reading | Vertical Writing · Themes · Annotation · Bookmarks |
| More | Reading Statistics · iCloud Sync |
Why CoreText, not WebView
Most readers wrap content in a WebView. Yuedu renders every page with CoreText, which gives precise pagination, true CJK vertical writing, frame-accurate text-to-speech sync, and native text selection — at native performance. The full story is in From WebView to CoreText.
Architecture
UI (SwiftUI)
↓
Reader (CoreText)
↓
Parser (EPUB / TXT / CBZ / RSS / Audio)
↓
Storage (Local-first)
↓
Sync (WebDAV / iCloud / OPDS)
Build
Requirements: Xcode 16+ · iOS 17.0+ · Swift 6.0
git clone https://github.com/CHANG-JUI-LIN/Yuedu-reader.git
cd Yuedu-reader
open Yuedu-Reader.xcodeproj
Then select a simulator (or your device) and run. Self-built versions need their own signing configuration and bundle identifier, and are for personal, noncommercial use only: the license does not permit distributing builds or modified versions. See License.
Official App Store build
The source code is publicly available. The App Store version is the official build maintained, signed, reviewed, distributed, and supported by the project owner. Its purchase price supports ongoing development and release maintenance.
Documentation
User guides
- Book sources (Legado-format): Guide index · 常见症状对照表 — import, five-stage validation, rule debugger, syntax cheat sheet, differences from Legado, and symptom→fix troubleshooting.
- Battery SVG templates: English · 简体中文 · 繁體中文 — template format, dynamic markers, supported SVG subset, and import troubleshooting.
Developer reference
Contributing
Contributions are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md for conventions and the PR process.
License
Source code is source-available under the PolyForm Strict License 1.0.0: you may read it and build it for personal, noncommercial use, but you may not distribute it or publish modified versions. This is not an open-source license. The Yuedu name, app icon, logo, screenshots, and other brand assets are not covered by the source license; see TRADEMARKS.md. Revisions published before each license change remain available under the license that applied when they were published (MIT, then MPL-2.0); see LICENSING.md.
