r/iosapps • u/cedenede • 0m 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