Helicon: PDF & EPUB Reader

Helicon is a reader for the non-fiction you want to keep. Open a PDF or an EPUB, pin notes in the margin, and meet what mattered again a few days later.

Helicon is free. Every feature, every pin. No account, no ads, no tracker.

NOTES IN THE MARGIN Long press the margin to pin a note beside the line it is about. Type in it, draw in it with Apple Pencil or a finger, add a photo, or record your voice. Tap the pin and the note opens where you left it.

MARK WHAT MATTERS Select text to highlight it or look it up. Save a line as a pin: a claim, a term or a question. A pin asks for one sentence in your own words, so you keep fewer marks, and better ones. Write on a PDF with Apple Pencil, with inks, shapes, a ruler and an eraser. Snip a figure out of a page.

READ FASTER Speed read lights a line, a group of words, or both, and moves at your pace. It opens paused on the first line in view: tap a line to begin there, then tap Play. Change the pace in steps of 5, 10 or 25 words a minute. It waits while the page scrolls, so your eyes can find the line, and the screen stays on while it runs.

MEET IT AGAIN Review brings back the pins that are due. Not yet brings one back tomorrow. Got it spaces it out. Jump to the page from any card.

KEEP YOUR PLACE Helicon keeps your page, your zoom and your place on the page. Pick from 4 light and 4 dark page themes. Your library syncs between iPhone and iPad through your own iCloud. Search finds the author's words and your own. Export a book's pins as Markdown, to anywhere the share sheet reaches.

WHAT IT DOES NOT DO There is no account and no sign-up. There is no Helicon server: your books and notes stay on your devices and in your own iCloud. Helicon counts which features are used, and never sends a title or anything you write. There are no ads and no trackers. Crash reports come from Apple's own system, are written to a file on your device, and are sent only if you choose to send one.