Readcape.Read with ease. Explore further.
01 · YOUR READING, AT A GLANCE
Build your vocabulary record as you read. No quizzes or estimates.
Illustrative data · Recorded vocabulary across five frequency bands
02 · A LITTLE HELP, RIGHT HERE
Mark it as unknown automatically. Tap "Mark as known" when you feel comfortable.
Down the Rabbit-Hole
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
To look quickly or secretly at something.
Interactive demo · Tap an underlined word
03 · FIND YOUR NEXT READ
See how much of each book you already know. Choose one you can comfortably finish.
Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland
Illustrative data · Your books and their vocabulary
04 · YOUR READING, YOUR DATA
Import books, paste text, or add a web page. Keep your library on your device, back it up to iCloud Drive, or export a copy whenever you want.
Add to your library
EPUB, TXT, or MOBI
Import a book or web article
Add something you want to read
Books, articles, and text.
All in your own library.
Backups are saved automatically after library changes.
Illustrative screens · Import options from Books and Articles
ENGLISH READING FOR NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS
Built for English learners, Readcape turns your reading into a personal vocabulary record. Know the words you know, see your progress, and find your next read with confidence.
You want to enjoy novels in English, with help that doesn’t interrupt every page.
You’d rather meet words in articles and stories you care about than only study isolated lists.
You can follow some English already and want support as you work toward longer books, articles or study materials.
Story
As an adult, there are two main frustrations when reading books in English.
The first is looking up words. Every time you want to understand a word, there are several steps: First, press and hold, and make sure you’ve selected the word. Then, find Look Up or Dictionary (sometimes it isn’t shown at first, and you have to tap > to find it). Next, tap to look it up. Finally, wait for a large dictionary panel that covers the context. Many people don’t realise how cumbersome these steps are. Every step slows us down as learners: we’re used to the speed and rhythm of reading in our native language, and once that rhythm is broken, it’s easy to give up reading. In Readcape, all of this takes just one tap. It’s very simple. Previously, I might have given up at any one of those steps. Now, there’s less chance of that happening.
The second is memorising vocabulary. Like a lot of people, I’ve started with “abandon” and ended up abandoning the whole thing. Or I’ve decided to work through a word list, only to spend most of my time on words I already knew, never getting to the ones I really needed to learn.
I thought it would be wonderful to have a tool that could first get to know me—which words I know and which I don’t—and help me from there. Readcape’s first step is to record unfamiliar words directly as I look them up while reading, gradually building my own personal vocabulary. That way, I won’t have to keep starting from a word list that feels both familiar and unfamiliar, only to give up on it all over again.
With Readcape, I finished Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Happy Prince in the original English for the first time. Of course I was happy to finish them, but what made me even happier was how much I loved and enjoyed reading them. With a little help, the originals weren’t as difficult as I’d imagined. Nothing else can replace the pleasure of reading.
Later, I finished The Old Man and the Sea, Sidney Sheldon’s Bloodline, and more books I might not have tried before.
That’s how Readcape came about. At first, it was just a way to solve my own problems. But now, I hope it can help you read books in English more easily and enjoy them, too. After all, it’s that mysterious cape with magical powers.
A FEW THINGS TO KNOW
Read + cape: a reader’s cape. A little space of your own, and an invitation to step into another world through a book.
It’s designed for learners who can already follow some English and want to read real books and articles with support. It doesn’t replace a structured beginner course.
Yes. Import EPUB books and text from Files, including iCloud Drive, or download from a URL. Use files you’re entitled to read. Encrypted or DRM-protected books aren’t supported.
Looking up a word marks it unknown unless you mark it known. As you finish reading a page or article, eligible words you read without looking up are recorded as known. This is a record of your reading, not a certified vocabulary test. Different forms of a word are grouped where possible.
Not for ordinary reading of imported content or the bundled dictionaries. URL downloads, iCloud syncing and optional text repair need a connection.
The app is being developed for iPhone and iPad. There isn’t a public App Store or TestFlight download available on this site yet.
The aim is comfortable, sustained reading and useful vocabulary review. We don’t promise a particular reading speed or language level.
YOUR NEXT CHAPTER
Readcape is in development for iPhone and iPad.
Public download links will appear here when it’s ready.