# Marginalia

> An iOS EPUB & PDF reader built for active reading: highlight a passage, attach a typed, voice-dictated or handwritten note, tag it, and export every note for a book as Markdown, plain text or PDF. Free notes work the same way for printed or borrowed books with no file at all.

## Key facts

- Platform: iPhone & iPad, iOS 15.5+. No Android yet.
- Opens: EPUB and PDF files stored on the device — or no file (free notes for printed/borrowed books).
- Highlighting: five colours, persistent across sessions in both readers.
- Notes: typed (free), voice-dictated (Premium), or handwritten (Premium); tagged with nine reading tags in three groups (Stance, Content, Action — Stance is free, Content/Action are Premium).
- Voice dictation: live transcript, 8 languages, set independently of the interface language. Speech is converted to text; audio is never stored.
- Export: Markdown (free), plain text .txt (Premium), PDF (Premium). Each book's notes are one file with page links, quotes, comments and tags — built for Obsidian, Notion, Logseq.
- Storage: on-device plain Markdown files. No account, no sign-up, no sync server.
- Interface languages (8, free): English, Turkish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian.
- Price: free to use; an optional Premium in-app purchase unlocks voice dictation, handwriting, plain-text/PDF export and the full tag set. Pricing is shown in the app and varies by country — this page does not quote a fixed price.
- Version: 1.1.0 (September 2026) — added PDF reading/annotation, free notes without a file, a redesigned library (recently read, reading progress, a finished shelf, automatic covers/titles), and persistent highlight colours.

## Links

- Landing page: https://usemarginalia.app/
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/marginalia-active-reading/id6786065821
- Contact: marginalia.mobile@gmail.com

## FAQ highlights

- Formats: EPUB and PDF files on the device, plus free-standing notes for books with no file.
- Notes to Word: Marginalia exports plain text (.txt), not a formatted .docx.
- Offline: books and notes are local; a small helper file downloads on first opening a book (EPUB or PDF); voice dictation needs a connection unless the device supports on-device speech recognition.
- Privacy: no account; translate sends only the selected passage to Google Translate; dictation never stores audio, only the transcribed text.