RSVP Reader: Speed Reading

RSVP Reader is a speed reading app for the books, PDFs and articles you already have.

Instead of dragging your eyes across line after line, it flashes your text one word at a time at a fixed point on the screen. The technique is called RSVP — Rapid Serial Visual Presentation. Your eyes stop moving and the words come to you. Most people read at 200-300 words per minute. RSVP Reader runs from a gentle 50 all the way up to 1200, so you choose the pace and build up.

Open a PDF, EPUB, text file or web page, read it normally, then tap RSVP to speed through what you want to cover fast.

📚 READS WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE

• PDF — real pages, not a stripped text dump. Pinch to zoom, fit width or page, paged or continuous scrolling

• EPUB — chapters, covers and images intact

• TXT — plain text files of any size

• Web pages — paste a URL and get the clean article, without the navigation and ads

• Pasted text — notes, emails, reports, anything on your clipboard

• Share from any app — send a link or a selection straight to RSVP Reader from the Android share sheet

⚡ RSVP SPEED READING

• 50 to 1200 words per minute, adjustable while you read

• The focal letter of every word is pinned dead center and marked in red (Optimal Recognition Point), so your eye never has to hunt for where the word starts

• Show 1 to 5 words per flash — classic single-word mode, or wider chunks with context on either side

• Tap any word on the page and RSVP starts from exactly there

• Extra pause at the end of sentences, so paragraphs do not blur together

• Images, tables and code blocks pause the stream and are shown full screen, then you tap to continue

• Per-word scaling, or a fixed size that stays rock steady at high speed

• Portrait and landscape layouts

📖 A FULL READER UNDERNEATH

• Table of contents — jump to any chapter

• Search inside the whole document

• Highlight passages and keep them, saved per book

• Text-to-speech with voice and speed selection, and the current word highlighted as it reads

• Adjustable font size

• Jump to any page number

• Your position is remembered to the exact word, in both reader and RSVP mode

• Reading speed can be remembered separately for each book

📗 FREE CLASSICS BUILT IN

The Project Gutenberg Top 100 is available inside the app. Browse the list, download a book in EPUB or TXT with one tap, and read it offline. Frankenstein, Moby Dick, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights and more — all free and legal.

🌙 BUILT FOR LONG SESSIONS

• Light, dark and system themes, plus a true-black mode for OLED screens

• Screen stays awake while you read

• Scan your device to find the documents already on it, grouped by folder

• Search your own library

• Edge-to-edge display support

• Phones and tablets, portrait and landscape

🔒 YOUR READING STAYS YOURS

No ads. No account. No subscription. No tracking. Your books, your highlights and your reading position live on your device, and everything except downloading a book or importing a URL works with no connection at all. You can export all of it to a backup file at any time and import it again later or on another device.

WHO IT IS FOR

Students working through reading lists and papers. Professionals clearing reports and long email threads. Developers and researchers going through technical PDFs. Anyone with a backlog of saved articles, or a stack of books they never finish.

TRY IT IN YOUR BROWSER FIRST

There is a free web version with a 2,500 character limit you can try before installing, at mindfasting.com/online-rsvp-reader/ — the app removes the limit and adds full books, PDFs, highlights and speech.

WANT TO SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT?

RSVP Reader Premium is a separate one-off purchase that adds reading statistics and streaks, highlight export to Markdown, text or CSV, extra reader typefaces, and RSVP speed warm-up and rewind on resume. The free app stays complete and free either way.

Questions, bugs and ideas are welcome — get in touch and they get read.