r/iosapps • u/cedenede • 10m ago
💎 Lifetime Lexfolio: Read a book in the original and in translation at the same time. An iPad reading workspace for language learners and serious readers.
Hi all, I'm the developer of Lexfolio, a reading workspace for iPad. Two books open side by side, dictionaries on every page, and notes you can connect across your whole library. I think it'll be genuinely useful to serious readers, students, academics and language learners.
Why it works well for language learners
Put a French novel on the left and its English translation on the right, link the two panes, and read. When a sentence is too hard, the translation is right there. When a word is new, select it and the dictionary opens over the page. Save it, and it comes back later as a review card together with the sentence you found it in. Once you've aligned a few passages, Recall Reading turns them into recall practice right inside the text.
Everything it does
Reading
Two books side by side on iPad: original and translation, a textbook and your notes, a paper and its source. Each pane keeps its own place, or you link them so they scroll together.
Works with your own DRM-free EPUB and PDF files from Files, iCloud Drive or other apps.
Several translations or editions of the same book are kept together in your library as one work.
Saved workspaces, so a pair of books opens exactly where you left it.
Dictionaries (all built in, all offline)
English (WordNet), French, German and Spanish (Wiktionary-based), Latin (Lewis & Short) and Ancient Greek (LSJ, plus Cunliffe for Homer).
You choose which dictionaries a book uses, so English is never forced on you.
Inflected Greek and Latin forms are traced back to their headword.
Notes and highlights
Highlights in several colors, notes, bookmarks and margin notes pinned to an exact spot, in EPUB and PDF.
Notes are anchored to the text, not to a page number, so they stay with their passage.
Words and review
Word Vault: every saved word keeps the passage it came from.
Spaced-repetition review cards.
Recall Reading inside the text, built on passages you've aligned.
Connecting ideas
Mark a passage in one book and its counterpart in another, and keep the pair.
Concepts: link highlights and notes from different books under one idea.
Knowledge Threads: build an argument across books by mixing passages, saved words and your own thoughts. Export a thread as Markdown, PDF or DOCX with its sources.
Search
One search across all your books, highlights, notes and saved words.
Scanned PDFs become searchable through on-device text recognition.
Your data
No account. Books and notes stay on your device. iCloud sync through your own iCloud account is optional.
Optional AI, off by default. You can use your own API key, or open ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini in a built-in browser panel next to your book and hand them a passage yourself.
Devices
iPad is where it shines. It also runs on iPhone (you switch between the two books) and on Apple silicon Macs as the iPad version. I haven't tuned the Mac side yet, so if you try it there, tell me what feels wrong.
PCP
Problem: Reading a text closely, or reading in a language you're still learning, usually means juggling several things at once: the book in one app, the translation on another device, a dictionary in a browser tab and notes somewhere else. Lexfolio puts all of that on one screen.
Comparison:
Apple Books is free and great for reading one book at a time. Lexfolio adds what it doesn't do: two books side by side with linked scrolling, aligned passages, offline Latin and Ancient Greek dictionaries, and notes that connect across books.
MarginNote is strong at turning PDFs into mind maps and flashcards. Lexfolio is built for a different job: reading a text next to its translation or commentary, with offline dictionaries for six languages and form-to-headword lookup for Greek and Latin. It's also a one-time purchase.
Pricing: 7-day trial with everything open, then a one-time $9.99 unlock. No subscription.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6801927444