Getting Started

A short walkthrough of your first ten minutes with Papyrium.

Install

Download the latest .dmg from the releases page, open it, and drag Papyrium into your Applications folder. Launch it from Applications or Spotlight.

First run

The first time you open Papyrium, a short welcome wizard walks you through setting up a library. You can step through it in a couple of minutes:

  • Welcome. Pick a language and choose whether to create a new library or open an existing one.
  • Categories. Select a few starter categories to seed your library, such as Fiction, Non-fiction, or Technical. You can change these any time later.
  • Preferences. Toggle a few defaults: whether to enable an Inbox for new arrivals, automatic folder scanning, and automatic update checks.
  • Done. Confirm your choices and the app finishes setting up. The main window opens to your fresh library.

You can switch to a different library at any time from the folder icon in the bottom-left of the main window.

Adding books

There are a few ways to get books into Papyrium:

  • Connect a folder. If you'd rather keep your books where they already live (like Documents, an external drive, a NAS, or even another app's library folder), connect that folder instead of importing. Papyrium indexes the files in place; nothing moves.
  • File menu. Use File → Import Files… (⌘I) to pick individual files, or File → Import Folder… (⌘⇧I) to pull in everything from a folder. The import dialog lets you choose between copying or moving the files, and where they should land.
  • Drag and drop. Drop one or more files (or a folder) into the main window. A quick import dialog appears so you can review what's coming in.

Supported formats are PDF, EPUB, and FB2. Files inside subfolders are picked up automatically on import; hidden and system files are skipped.

Organizing your library

Papyrium gives you a few ways to organize books, and they're meant to be mixed and matched. You don't have to use all of them.

Tags

Free-form labels you assign to books. For example, tag everything you'd reach for at work with reference, or mark study material with to-review. A book can carry as many tags as you want.

Categories

A nestable tree for broader subject areas (Fiction → Mystery, Technical → Networking, and so on). The wizard seeds a starter set; add or remove categories as you go.

Collections

Saved groupings of books that show up in the sidebar. A manual collection is one you curate by hand by dropping books in, reordering them, or taking them out. A smart collection is rule-based and stays up to date on its own. Two smart collections come pre-built: Favorites and Finished.

Favorites and ratings

Mark a book as a favorite with a single click, or give it a rating. Both are searchable and can drive smart collections — for example, "everything I rated 4 stars or higher, read in the last month."

Reading a book

Click any book to open the reader. By default it opens in a tab inside the main window, but you have three options for where a book opens:

  • In a tab keeps reading inside the main window alongside your library.
  • In a separate window pops the reader out so you can keep the library visible elsewhere.
  • In your system app hands the file to whatever you've set as your default PDF or EPUB reader.

You can change the default in Settings, and override it on a per-book basis from the book's context menu.

Once a book is open, select any text to highlight it in a color, attach a note to a highlight, or jump to the notes panel to see everything you've marked up so far. Bookmarks live next to your highlights and notes in the same panel. Reading progress is tracked automatically, so you can pick up where you left off the next time you open the book.

You don't have to add a book to your library to read it. Right-click a PDF, EPUB, or FB2 file in Finder and choose Open With → Papyrium, the file opens straight in a reader window, no import needed. Handy for one-off documents you don't want indexed. Highlights, notes, and reading progress aren't saved for files opened this way; that needs a book in your library.

Tips for the first ten minutes

  • If you point Papyrium at a large folder, the first scan can take a minute or two while it reads file metadata and pulls covers. You can keep using the app while it works.
  • After importing, Papyrium quietly checks for duplicates. If it finds any, a banner appears at the top of the library. You can review them now or come back to it later.
  • Don't worry about getting tags and categories perfect on day one. Start with a handful that actually help you find things; add more as you go.
  • Try opening one book in a tab and another in a separate window. It's a fast way to figure out which workflow you prefer before you settle on a default.
  • Your books and notes never leave your device. There's nothing to sync or sign in to.

Need help?

If something isn't working or you have a question the docs don't cover, email hello@papyriumlib.com or open a bug report or feature request on GitHub. Including your macOS version, your Papyrium version, and a screenshot if you have one makes it much easier to help. Bug reports and feedback are welcome. Papyrium is built by one person, and hearing from real users is how it gets better.