Resources

• 1: Technical Specification for Thorium Reader Desktop
• 2: Minimum system requirements
• 3: Keyboard default shortcuts
• 4: Supported publication formats
• 5: Glossary
• 6: Frequently asked questions
• 7: Stuck?

1 - Technical Specification for Thorium Reader Desktop

Thorium Reader Technical Specification have moved to a dedicated webpage. You will be redirected to it.

2 - Minimum system requirements

Platform support is provided by Electron as defined in Electron github repo Readme

Each Electron release provides binaries for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

• macOS (Monterey and up): Electron provides 64-bit Intel and Apple Silicon / ARM binaries for macOS.
• Windows (Windows 10 and up): Electron provides ia32 (x86), x64 (amd64), and arm64 binaries for Windows. Windows on ARM support was added in Electron 5.0.8. Support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 was removed in Electron 23, in line with Chromium’s Windows deprecation policy.
• Linux: The prebuilt binaries of Electron are built on Ubuntu 20.04. They have also been verified to work on:
  • Ubuntu 18.04 and newer
  • Fedora 32 and newer
  • Debian 10 and newer

Thorium 3.0 has memories issues under Linux, as documented in Issue 2519

3 - Keyboard default shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are available from the application settings panel third tab. It help you check and manipulate keyboard driven actions within the application. Figure out the three dots menu aside of the Panel title with extra actions (Reset, Edit and Load). The Edit one opens system folder application to the localisation of the stored user setting .json file, allowing you to edit it outside of the application (at your own risks), save it for future uses or share it within your devices or with who you want.

The following list is showing the default keyboard shortcut settings.

The table is built by merging keyboard defaults with the English localization entries under settings.keyboard.list.*.

4 - Supported publication formats

EPUB

(Electronic PUBlication) is an open file format for electronic publications. EPUB is a native semantic format allowing to use numerous standardised languages such as HTML, ARIA, MATHML, SVG and others. The actual version 3 is known to provide the best up to date reading experience. Obsolete EPUB2 files are also readable in Thorium.

DAISY

Usually produced and distributed by specialized libraries or NGOs, the DAISY format offers a significantly enhanced reading experience for ebooks that are not available in EPUB3. Thorium supports reading DAISY 3 and 2.02, both in their text only, audio only, and syncronised text and audio.

PDF

despite a well-known lack of flexibility (no reflow option) and accessibility, many ebooks are still available in PDF only, especially in public libraries.

Audiobooks

a standardized format for audiobooks has been designed by the W3C Publishing Working Group in 2020, and EDRLab was part of this WG. Thorium is supporting the packaged (LPF) audiobook format, which will soon be widely used by booksellers, or so we hope.

Visual narratives

EDRLab has designed a standard format for comics, manga, webtoons and other styles of digital works based on sequances of images. Divina is the name of this format. This is still an experimental format, and we hope that publishers will size it in 2021+.

5 - Glossary

Book information panel (Book Details)

Gives information about the digital book. This information is extracted from the file's metadata, its quality and quantity depends on the the attention paid during the production of the file by the publisher.

Adapted books

These are digital books produced by associations and made available to people with disabilities for reading. Worldwild, this system is governed by The Marrakech Treaty .

OPDS

Open Publication Distribution System

6 - Frequently asked questions

How can I enjoy Thorium in Fullscreen?

Ctrl + F11 in a reader window, will toggle this window fullscreen. Note that this is different from the Zen mode available from the top right pictogram. Keyboard shortcut is the only way to go full screen.

Why can't I open an ebook without it being save in the Thorium Reader library?

Thorium, like several other ebook readers and reading systems stores imported publications in its own filesystem space, as this provides a guarantee that per-publication state and external metadata (e.g. bookmarks, settings, highlights, DRM status, etc.) can be reliably attached.

Why is there no read aloud nor annotations for PDFs?

EDRLab prioritises its work on offering a great experience to EPUB users. In Thorium Reader, advanced features like TTS and annotations are consequently available for EPUB first, and we expect that other app developers will get the best from PDF files. It does not mean that advanced features will never be available on PDF in Thorium, simply that our limited budget is used for what we consider best for ebook readers.

I accidentally rotated my PDF pages, how can't get it back?

The shortcuts for rotating PDF pages are:

• Rotate the document clockwise: r
• Rotate the document counterclockwise: shift + r

I can't select the adequate voice for read aloud function (TTS)

Thorium uses the voices from the computer's operating system, in combination with the language information provided by the book.

• If you are using windows you can follow Microsoft’s guide Download the language pack for voice.
• If you are using Mac OSX the guide Change the voice that the Mac uses to pronounce text.

Once the required voice is installed, Thorium will choose the voice corresponding to the language of the book.

It may happen that the book has the wrong language. In this case, Thorium allows you to change the voice to one that is present in the system via the Voice menu

How can I transfer the entire book collection from one machine to another?

Having a UI for exporting the whole catalog is not a priority currently.

The publications are stored in a well-known directory.

• on Windows10: C:\Users\ user name \AppData\Roaming\EDRLab.ThoriumReader\publications\
• on MacOS: /Users/ user name /Library/Application Support/EDRLab.ThoriumReader/publications/
• on Debian: /home/ user name /.config/EDRLab.ThoriumReader/publications/

In case of a migration from one computer to another or similar usecases, you can copy all ebook files in this repository and open them in the new installation of Thorium.

Self build instances alternatively stores publication in a publication-dev folder.

If I downgrade Thorium to an older version, what happens to my bookmarks and highlights?

Since Thorium 3.4.0, the storage of notes has been modified for better performance and reliability, which brings an important evolution in how Thorium persists your highlights and bookmarks.

Important: If you plan to downgrade to an earlier version of Thorium (such as 3.3.0 or older), any notes you have created in Thorium 3.4.0 or later will not be accessible in the older version, as they use a different storage format.

To preserve your bookmarks and highlights before downgrading:

1. Open Thorium Reader
2. Go to the Library view
3. For each book with notes, open it and export your bookmarks and highlights
4. Use the Export notes button to save your bookmarks and highlights to a file
5. Then downgrade to your desired version

We recommend staying on version 3.4.0 or later to benefit from the improved note storage and avoid compatibility issues.

7 - Stuck?

If you do not find the answer to your problem on this site, you can tell us your problem via our support tracking tool or contact form.

Here is the information we need:

• Operating system and it version
• Thorium version (it is indicated at the bottom of the library under the title About Thorium)