Read papers the way they deserve to be read.

railreader2 is a desktop PDF viewer for reading dense academic documents at high magnification. It uses deep-learning layout analysis to understand each page's structure — text, headings, figures, tables, equations — then guides you through it line by line, block by block.

• Built for academic reading Papers packed with equations, tables, and multi-column layouts, read in comfort at 3× zoom and above.
• Structure-aware, not a magnifier It understands the document, so navigation follows the text instead of fighting it.
• Free & open source Native apps for Linux and Windows, with the AI layout model bundled in.

Layout analysis

It reads the page before you do

A deep-learning model maps every page — text, headings, figures, tables, equations — and works out the reading order. Everything else builds on that.

Docling Heron by default, or PP-DocLayoutV3 as a drop-in alternative.

Rail reading

One line at a time

Past your zoom threshold, navigation locks to the detected blocks and advances line by line. Optional line-focus dimming fades all but the current line, so your eye never loses its place.

Hold Ctrl to free-pan a figure; release to snap back.

Visual comfort

Tuned to your eyes

GPU colour filters — amber, high-contrast, high-visibility, invert — on the page only, at any intensity. Each document keeps its own; press C to cycle.

Find

Anything, in seconds

Full-text search in the side panel, grouped by page with context snippets and on-page highlights. Regex and case toggles; step between hits with F3.

Mark it up

Highlights, notes, and ink

Highlight, underline, pen, rectangles, and sticky notes from a radial menu — saved as native PDF annotations or a sidecar. Select, move, resize, undo; export or import as JSON or a flattened PDF.

Stay organised

Your whole reading list

Open many PDFs in tabs, each with its own state. One side panel holds the outline, bookmarks, an index of every figure, table and equation, search, comments, and portals — and hands focus back to the page when you jump.

Smaller touches, everywhere

Built by a statistics lecturer who reads at high magnification — and almost entirely with an AI coding agent. Read the story →

1. Windows (Microsoft Store): Install directly from the Microsoft Store for automatic updates, no SmartScreen warnings, and clean install/uninstall. Note: the Store release may lag behind the GitHub release by a few days due to certification review.
2. Windows (standalone) or Linux: Download the latest release from GitHub Releases — an AppImage for Linux or an installer for Windows. The AI layout model is included in all packages.
3. Linux: Make the AppImage executable (chmod +x railreader2-linux-x86_64.AppImage) and run it. Windows (standalone): Run railreader2-setup-x64.exe and follow the installer wizard.
4. Windows SmartScreen warning (standalone installer only): Windows may show a “Windows protected your PC” dialog because the standalone installer is not code-signed. This does not apply to the Microsoft Store version. To continue: click More info, then Run anyway. If your browser flags the download, choose Keep (Chrome) or Keep anyway (Edge). The full source code is available on GitHub.
5. Open a PDF with Ctrl+O or pass it as a command-line argument. Zoom in to activate rail mode and start reading.

Advanced: A standalone headless CLI for automated batch extraction is also available from GitHub Releases.