Stillpoint

A clean interface and a straightforward workflow often matter more than having dozens of extra features. Simplicity is a big plus for this type of tool. https://tombofthe-mask.com/

Hi Fazier. I built Stillpoint because I wanted to actually finish the PDFs and EPUBs piling up on my devices, and every RSVP reader I tried either wanted an account and a subscription or wanted my files on their server. So it runs entirely in the browser: parsing, library, highlights and positions all stay on your device, and you can verify that in the network tab. Tables and figures are shown as the real thing instead of being streamed as word soup, and progress is chapter-scoped like an audiobook, because minutes left in this chapter keeps you going and a 17-hour countdown does not. It's free, with no account. If you have a PDF you've been avoiding, feed it this and tell me where it stumbles. I reply to everything.

I like that it focuses on reducing distractions and making reading feel more natural while keeping files private on the device. The offline support and clean approach make it a great tool for finishing books and documents more easily.

"Privacy you can verify: there is no server" is the right way to make that claim credible, and it resonates with how we think about privacy too. Curious about two things: how do highlights and reading positions move between devices without a server (export file?), and does the phrase mode adapt to punctuation or use fixed chunk sizes?

Reading friction solved for real. Most PDFs and long documents trap you in endless re-reading cycles - your eyes jump around paragraphs, you lose focus, and hours evaporate in inefficiency. Stillpoint's focal-point approach changes that completely by anchoring your eye to one word at a time. The speed reader becomes accessible without sacrificing comprehension like speed-reading hype always does. Privacy-first matters too - highlights and reading positions staying on your device removes the surveillance tax other tools impose. Offline PWA means flights, commutes, and offline time don't force you back to browser tabs. The ADHD-friendly angle especially smart - re-reading friction disappears when your attention naturally wanders. Real win for knowledge workers buried in documents.

I like this, the speed of my thoughts are faster than my eyes and hands. This should help.

The chapter-scoped progress is a smart detail. A 17 hour countdown on a big PDF is exactly why I abandon most readers, but minutes left in this chapter is a promise you can keep. Also respect for the verifiable no-server approach, I did open the network tab and it holds up. Question: how do you handle two column academic layouts? That is where every PDF parser I have tried falls apart.

The self-contained backup file is a smart substitute for cloud sync. For sensitive documents, does the export include the original PDFs/EPUBs or only library metadata, highlights, and positions—and can it be encrypted before moving devices? That detail determines whether the privacy model stays intact during backup.

As someone who reads a lot, this might actually be super useful.

Looks cool! SOLID!!!

The on-device, offline model is a refreshing fit for long reports and sensitive material, and chapter-scoped time remaining sounds far more motivating than a huge document-wide countdown. The honest limits are appreciated too. A particularly useful next detail would be a short guide or sample showing how Stillpoint treats common academic PDFs—two-column pages, footnotes, inline citations, and code blocks—because that is where many readers lose their place.

Reading overload solved. Most professionals drown in documentation - dense research papers, long reports, compliance documents - and lose focus by paragraph two. The eye-scanning problem is real: we jump ahead, miss context, then have to re-read. Stillpoint fixes this at the mechanical level by anchoring your eyes to one word at a time, which forces active reading and eliminates that cognitive tax. The beauty is it works offline and doesn't need account creation, so no friction on adoption. For researchers, students, and people managing ADHD or dyslexia, this removes a massive accessibility barrier. The chapter-scoped progress tracking is clever too - it converts reading from a dreaded obligation into something trackable and achievable. Real win for knowledge workers who need to absorb dense information without losing hours to re-reading.

Stillpoint has great potential! A few improvements could make it even better. I'd love to share my feedback and suggestions. WhatsApp: https://wa.me/447307349530 Telegram: t.me/rforrank

Rewind-on-unpause and sentence replay are the details that make this ADHD-viable rather than just ADHD-mentioned — most RSVP readers assume you never look away, but the real failure mode isn't losing focus mid-stream, it's an interruption yanking you out entirely (Slack ping, someone walks in) and coming back with zero memory of the last 30 seconds. We deal with the same problem building Unstuck, just for calendar gaps instead of reading. Does rewind-on-unpause use a fixed lookback window, or does it try to detect how long you were actually away and scale the rewind to that?