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Lector
Read real books in a new language, free and open source
Lector turns whatever you want to read into a language course. Import an EPUB, a web article, a YouTube video or a podcast. Every word shows its state: new, learning or known. Tap for a translation, save the word, then practise it as frequency-ordered cloze and push it to Anki. Fourteen language packs ship with an offline dictionary and a graded first-1,000-words series. Self-host it free under the AGPL, or let Lector Cloud host it from $0.
I built Lector because my language study lived in three places that never spoke to each other. LingQ had my reading. Clozemaster had my sentence practice. Anki had my cards. Two of them charged me monthly, and none of them agreed on which words I already knew.
Lector is that whole loop in one app you own:
📖 Extensive reading: import an EPUB, a web article, a YouTube video, or a podcast episode. Every word is coloured by how well you know it. Tap any word for a translation: the offline dictionary answers first, an LLM only for obscure words, or for phrase translation. 🧠 Practise: Use spaced repetition to drill words from a huge bank of sentences 🃏 Keep: Push cards to Anki as basic translations or as cloze deletions. The add-on syncs your Anki reviews back into Lector so as you learn words in Anki, they will be upgraded in your Lector vocabulary. ✍️ Ask: a tutor for grammar questions, and a journal that corrects your writing inline.
18 language packs ship today. Ranging from globally popular languages such as Mandarin, Spanish, French, Japanese, to more niche languages like Swedish and Afrikaans, to classical languages like Latin and Koine Greek. Each language pack ships with an offline dictionary and large sentence bank. A graded "first 1,000 words" series is on the roadmap for each, so there's something readable on day one instead of an empty library.
Two ways to run it: • Self-host with Docker. Free, unlimited, AGPL. Your books and your data stay on your hardware, and you bring your own LLM key or point it at a local model. • Lector Cloud, if you'd rather not run a server. Free tier, no card, and optional paid plans. Same app, same export button, so you can leave with your data.
What I'd love feedback on: 1. The first ten minutes. Does the starter library actually give you something you can read? 2. Which language pack next? Hindi, Arabic, Tagalog (and many others) are on the list. 3. Self-hosters: did `docker compose up` work first try? Tell me exactly where it didn't.
About Lector on Product Hunt
“Read real books in a new language, free and open source”
Lector was submitted on Product Hunt and earned 0 upvotes and 1 comments, placing #82 on the daily leaderboard. Lector turns whatever you want to read into a language course. Import an EPUB, a web article, a YouTube video or a podcast. Every word shows its state: new, learning or known. Tap for a translation, save the word, then practise it as frequency-ordered cloze and push it to Anki. Fourteen language packs ship with an offline dictionary and a graded first-1,000-words series. Self-host it free under the AGPL, or let Lector Cloud host it from $0.
On the analytics side, Lector competes within Open Source, Education, Languages and GitHub — topics that collectively have 203.8k followers on Product Hunt. The dashboard above tracks how Lector performed against the three products that launched closest to it on the same day.
Who hunted Lector?
Lector was hunted by Luke Boyle. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
For a complete overview of Lector including community comment highlights and product details, visit the product overview.
Luke Boyle
Hey Product Hunt.
I built Lector because my language study lived in three places that never spoke to each other. LingQ had my reading. Clozemaster had my sentence practice. Anki had my cards. Two of them charged me monthly, and none of them agreed on which words I already knew.
Lector is that whole loop in one app you own:
📖 Extensive reading: import an EPUB, a web article, a YouTube video, or a podcast episode. Every word is coloured by how well you know it. Tap any word for a translation: the offline dictionary answers first, an LLM only for obscure words, or for phrase translation.
🧠 Practise: Use spaced repetition to drill words from a huge bank of sentences
🃏 Keep: Push cards to Anki as basic translations or as cloze deletions. The add-on syncs your Anki reviews back into Lector so as you learn words in Anki, they will be upgraded in your Lector vocabulary.
✍️ Ask: a tutor for grammar questions, and a journal that corrects your writing inline.
18 language packs ship today. Ranging from globally popular languages such as Mandarin, Spanish, French, Japanese, to more niche languages like Swedish and Afrikaans, to classical languages like Latin and Koine Greek. Each language pack ships with an offline dictionary and large sentence bank. A graded "first 1,000 words" series is on the roadmap for each, so there's something readable on day one instead of an empty library.
Two ways to run it:
• Self-host with Docker. Free, unlimited, AGPL. Your books and your data stay on your hardware, and you bring your own LLM key or point it at a local model.
• Lector Cloud, if you'd rather not run a server. Free tier, no card, and optional paid plans. Same app, same export button, so you can leave with your data.
What I'd love feedback on:
1. The first ten minutes. Does the starter library actually give you something you can read?
2. Which language pack next? Hindi, Arabic, Tagalog (and many others) are on the list.
3. Self-hosters: did `docker compose up` work first try? Tell me exactly where it didn't.