TesterBuddy
Hey `introduction`: Two years ago I bought an iPad to read my books — novels, comics, manga, whatever. Tried every reading app I could find. Some were powerful but limited. Others were beautiful but useless. None of them felt like _my_ library. So I did what any reasonable person does — I spent two years building my own. --- **The whole app is built around three simple concepts.** 1. **Concept: A Powerfull reader** Well, obviously it's a _reading_ app, so it should probably be good at reading, right? I know, wild concept. Jokes aside, the most important thing is being able to open any format without thinking about it. Books, novels, PDFs, comics, manga, whatever. The story behind the file is what actually matters. One tap and you're reading. No worrying about file size, no waiting, no setup. The app automatically adjusts the settings for that specific format — for those who just want to read and not waste time on anything else. But not everyone reads the same way... For those who love wasting countless hours tweaking every single detail of their reading experience (myself included), don't worry I got you. I spent a lot of time designing limitless reading settings from scratch, organizing them inside collapsible blocks with a clean and intuitive UI. The point is simple: turning a page should feel exactly the way you want it to feel — personal, along with the story you are reading. Easy, right? If that's clear, let's move to the second concept. 2. **Second concept: The Freedom over how the app looks** Most reading apps look the same for everyone. You open it, and that's it, that's how it looks. No options, no control, take it or leave it. This app works the other way around. The UI is minimal by default, most of the screen is your books, big covers, nothing in the way. But from there, you decide almost everything. Icons, colors, navigation modes, how covers look, how information is displayed. Pinch to resize your grid or list on the fly. The interface color can follow each collection or stay fixed globally. There is no intended way of using it. The app doesn't impose its UI on you, you change it. Some will keep it minimal. Others will tweak every corner until it feels completely theirs. Both are right. If the freedom for the UI customization is clear — let's advance. 3. **Concept: Collections & Sections — the real game changer** A collection is simply a space where your books live. You give it a name, a color, a cover. You can go in, go out, nest collections inside collections. A file system built from scratch — which means I have full control over it, and the freedom to implement navigation modes and features you won't find in any other reading app. But collections here are not just folders. The idea is that your collections feel as alive as possible — they grow with you as you import your books, and you shape them however you want. Inside each collection you can create named sections with their own color and order. Drag books and sections freely — into sections, out of them, between them. Build your own mosaic until it looks exactly the way you had it in your head. Sections are also collapsible. A hundred books inside one, hidden with a single tap — there whenever you need them. **This makes it perfect for building massive reading lists and organizing huge sagas.** But you don't have to. You can just import your books and start reading. **It's as simple or as complex as you want it to be.** --- **A few more things worth mentioning** - Advanced reading stats, per collection, per section, and per book. - Per-collection settings, every collection has its own view mode (grid or list), sort order, filters, zoom level, and more. - Reading presets manager, create your own reading presets with a name and color, and apply them to entire collections or individual books. - **Omnibus creator**, merge, reorder and edit multiple books into one big volume. - **Book editor**, delete pages, reorder them, and more. - Smart batch rename with regex rules. Imported a hundred books with weird or inconsistent names? One tap and everything is clean, sorted, and properly indexed. - Scan pages with your camera and convert them directly into a PDF or CBZ. - OCR text selection on image-based pages, works across all formats. - Available in 10 languages. iPhone and iPad. - And much more to discover. **Downside** - The app is local only for now, meaning no connection to external servers. I know, that's a big one. Especially for manga and comics, which can take up a lot of storage. - Only EPUB is fully supported for ebooks at the moment, but AZW3 and MOBI are coming soon. - You need to import your own books. There is no built-in store or public database connected. For some people that's a dealbreaker, for others it's exactly the point. - The notes and highlights system still needs a lot of work. The goal is to be able to highlight phrases from any book or comic, save them with their page, and find or review them easily later. Honestly, I haven't seen a single app that does this really well, so I want to get it right. - The **Omnibus creator** currently only works with image-based formats like comics and manga. EPUB and pdf support is not there yet. --- #### It would be a true honor to introduce you to **Andrea Reader**. This is a serious long-term project, and I genuinely want to build it together with the people who will actually use it. The app is not finished to the point of a full App Store release yet, but it has enough development to be presented publicly. That's exactly why the beta exists. It's on TestFlight right now, free to download and try. All you need is TestFlight installed on your iPhone or iPad. If you like what you see, any feedback means a lot. What works, what doesn't, what you'd love to see. This is the phase where it matters most. Testflight → https://testflight.apple.com/join/sKW8xFz5 Check the website → https://andreareader.com
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