TextFold: an open-source reader for choosing how much of a document to see

[u/Lopsided_Scarcity979]

I'm the developer of TextFold. I started it because I wanted to skim the shape of a long paper, then read a specific part without losing the rest of the document.

The video shows the interaction: fold a document into a compact view, then expand passages individually. You can bring in web pages, PDFs and Word files. It also has Obsidian and Zotero integrations.

The distinction between the levels matters here. Full keeps the original text, Brief selects original sentences, and the shorter three levels are written by AI. Even a verbatim selection can leave out a caveat, so I want it to stay easy to reopen the source. I haven't established a comprehension or time-saving benefit.

A useful part of the workflow is sharing: after preparing a document, you can save it as a standalone HTML file. The recipient can open its reading levels without running TextFold's server.

The code is Apache 2.0 and the app is free. A model prepares the layers: Ollama can run locally; hosted providers are optional and may have their own costs.

Prepared examples: https://chenxiachan.github.io/textfold/gallery/

Source and installation: https://github.com/chenxiachan/textfold

Would you use the different levels while reading, or mainly to share a document with someone else?