← Readkave

Help

Readkave reads EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2 and CBZ books in Chrome. Your books stay on your computer.

Opening a book

• From the library: click the Readkave icon in the toolbar, then drop book files onto the page or click Add books. One book dropped on its own opens straight away.
• From a website: right-click a link to an ebook and choose Open in Readkave. The first time, Chrome asks to let Readkave download from that one site. On Project Gutenberg this works on the EPUB and Kindle links of every book page.
• From a link you have: Library → From URL, paste the address.
• By double-clicking a file (optional): Library → Settings → switch on Open ebook files in Readkave, and allow what Chrome asks. Then:
  1. In Chrome's extension page for Readkave, switch on Allow access to file URLs (the settings panel has a link to it).
  2. On Windows, right-click an .epub file → Open with → Choose another app → Choose an app on your PC → pick chrome.exe → Always.
  3. In Chrome's settings, turn off Ask where to save each file before downloading; otherwise Chrome still shows its Save dialog next to the open book.

Tip: pin Readkave to the toolbar (the puzzle-piece icon → the pin) so the library is one click away.

Common questions

"This book is protected by Adobe DRM"

Books with DRM (Adobe DRM, Readium LCP) can only be read in the app or store they came from. Readkave can't open them and doesn't try to remove the protection. Books bought without DRM, public-domain books and your own files open fine.

"This book could not be opened"

The file is damaged or isn't an ebook Readkave knows. Download it again, or convert it to EPUB with a tool such as Calibre.

Read aloud uses the wrong voice or none

Read aloud uses the voices of your browser and computer; Readkave lists voices for the book's language first. To add a language on Windows: Settings → Time & language → Speech → Add voices, then restart Chrome. On a Mac: System Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content → System voice → Manage Voices. Microsoft Edge has many natural voices built in. Some languages (for example Uzbek) have no voice on any system yet.

Translate says it needs a language pack or can't translate

Translation runs on your computer with Chrome's built-in translator. The first time you translate into a language, Chrome downloads a language pack, which needs an internet connection; after that it works offline. For languages Chrome can't translate yet, the card offers Open in Google Translate.

Where are my books and notes stored? How do I back them up?

In your browser's own storage on this computer, nothing is uploaded. Highlights, notes and bookmarks can be downloaded as a text file from the Notes tab in the reader. Removing the extension deletes everything; so does Library → Settings → Delete all books and data.

Keyboard shortcuts

In the reader press ? for the full list. The most useful: ← → turn pages, Ctrl+F search, Ctrl+B contents, B bookmark, L read aloud, F fullscreen, Alt+← back after a jump.

Contact

Email hello@readkave.com. Please say which book format and which Chrome version you use.