Pagira was born from a pack of magazines that the iPad couldn't read: HTML folders and PDFs, where the Files app showed a bare page without its styling, images or links. Opening the whole folder and seeing each page as it looks on the web was the whole idea.
But those folders rarely hold only web pages. Next to the HTML there are books in EPUB, comics in CBZ, a contract in Word, notes in Markdown. Version 3.0 opens them too, each in a real reader, with the same principle: your files stay where they are, in Files or iCloud Drive. Nothing to import, no account, nothing sent to a server.
Your HTML sites, as before
What made Pagira is still there. A folder opens with its CSS, JavaScript, images and sub-folders; fetch, ES modules and WebAssembly work because pages are served by a small web server on the device (the details are in reading a local site without a web server). What is new: a link from a page to a PDF, an EPUB or a comic now opens that document in its own reader, instead of a blank page.
EPUB books
- Pages or scrolling, light, sepia and dark themes.
- Text size, font, line spacing and margins.
- Footnotes open in a bubble, without leaving the page.
- Arabic and Hebrew books read right to left.
- Contents, bookmarks and search within the book. A book protected by DRM is refused with a clear message.
Comics: CBZ, CBR, CB7 and CBT
Comics are read straight from the archive, without unpacking or importing them. A .zip, .rar or .7z holding only pictures, or a plain folder of pictures, reads as an album too. Two-page spreads when the device is held sideways, right-to-left manga, vertical scrolling for webtoons, a band of page thumbnails. We wrote a full guide: how to read comics on iPhone and iPad.
A new Home
Home now gathers what you read: Currently Reading, with covers and progress, then Favorites, Recent and Offline. You choose which sections show, their order, and Home's colours.
The Reading List of version 2 becomes Favorites. Your items are brought over, nothing is deleted.
Highlights, notes and bookmarks
In a book or a PDF, select a passage, highlight it, add a note. Everything is gathered in a list, and a tap takes you back to the passage. Nothing is written into your files: the original stays exactly as it was.
Sync between iPhone and iPad
Your page, highlights, notes and favorites follow you from one device to the other through iCloud, in your own private iCloud space. Covers follow too: the other device shows them without downloading the file.
Word, Markdown, RTF and text
A .docx, .md, .rtf or .txt opens like a book: pages, themes, text size, highlights and bookmarks. A password-protected Word file or PDF is unlocked in memory only: the password is not kept, and the document is never indexed.
Sharper search
Search goes through a whole folder at once, scanned PDFs included once their text has been recognized on the device. Results from a PDF now carry the name of their section, and the Files tab finds a document by its name. The Ask tab still takes a question in your own words and opens the page that answers it, without writing anything (more in searching a local documentation set on iPad).
More reliable offline
A folder in iCloud Drive reads without downloading it all. For a flight, Download keeps a full copy on the device; it resumes on its own after an interruption, and Update refreshes a copy when the original has changed.
Price
Pagira is still paid for once, with no subscription: Pagira Pro is $11.99. No ads, no account, no data collected.
- Already have Pagira Pro? All of 3.0 is included.
- Tried Pagira before? 20 new free openings are waiting for you.
- New to Pagira? The trial gives you everything for 20 document openings, and opening a folder doesn't count.
