nowfound

Work · June 6, 2026

AB

A beautiful and local-first PDF reader for studying dense things

Recently, I found myself having to read the book "C++ primer" and I just couldn't do it. Maybe my attention span is too little now with Claude and Codex, maybe I'm lazy... but I just couldn't get myself to focus. While reading, I needed something to do. I wanted to talk to the text, I wanted to leave notes, I wanted to use to use my keyboard to quickly flip through pages. The only good available option on a Mac was "Preview" and it was ok, but definitely not there. So I built Quincy primarily for myself. With it you can - "Talk" to the page you're reading, create a quiz about the page, and…

What it does

In the maker’s words, at launch

Recently, I found myself having to read the book "C++ primer" and I just couldn't do it. Maybe my attention span is too little now with Claude and Codex, maybe I'm lazy... but I just couldn't get myself to focus. While reading, I needed something to do. I wanted to talk to the text, I wanted to leave notes, I wanted to use to use my keyboard to quickly flip through pages. The only good available option on a Mac was "Preview" and it was ok, but definitely not there. So I built Quincy primarily for myself. With it you can - "Talk" to the page you're reading, create a quiz about the page, and get a good summary - "Read" the page out-loud. Have your Mac read to you while you follow along. This helps with comprehension. - Copy text (to paste into an LLM), leave notes, bookmarks, etc.... - Anything else you'd want with a nice PDF reader It's fully local. No cloud-sync (yet). All LLM calls are based on your keys. And TBH, you don't even need to use the AI features for this to be useful. Try it out. Let me know what you guys think. This has been a quick project, so very rough around the edges. I plan on keeping it going (still haven't finished my book), and potentially open-sourcing down the line.

Does the same job

all alternatives →
  • LA
    Lurnby, a tool for better learning, is now open source2022 · github.com · ▲162

    I've been working on Lurnby for 2 years. It's kind of like a mix of pocket + kindle + anki. It lets you => add add epubs, pdfs, and web articles to the app => highlight and add comments => tag and organize highlights => review them with a spaced repetition system Today I made the decision to open source the project. I'm passionate about helping other people learn to learn better and hope that this will allow a lot more innovation in the tool and the space. I'm very new to open source and development in general really, but looking forward to receiving the guidance of the community.

  • AW
    A WebPDF Reader with AI assistance, for research and studying2025 · pdf-hub.com · ▲7

    Hey, I've made a pdf reader with ai assistance, you can quickly ask questions about the text and the images, and it will have context about all of your reading material so you can ask questions freely, try it now, I'm in open beta to find bug and get feedback. upcoming features: - Highlighting - Highlighting with Notes - Bibliography - Automatic Reference file opening - Improved UX and robustness currenlty alot of bugs so please let me know if you found any. feedback appreciated

  • AU
    A user powered copy editing tool (running on Ars Technica)2011 · ▲56

    I blew off a bunch of "serious" side work last month and built a tiny little embeddable editing tool that I've wanted to have for Ars Technica since, well, the beginning of internet time. It lets any random user make edit suggestions for writers/editors to consider and act on. I think it's pretty cool and it's gotten some good use over the last few weeks. Of note, it's uses a single-field signup form. Edit administration is currently email based, so all it needs is an email address to get people going. I'm sure I'm not the only person to ever do this, but I basically just turned it on one…

  • IB
    I built an opinionated minimalist ePub/pdf online readerJun 2026 · epub.mirror.forum · ▲7

    Hey so I am making my own book reader and wanted to share it with y'all on hackernews and I saw a submission talking about DRM free books[0] so I decided to submit this submission on Hackernews to show what I am upto :-D I prefer minimalism so I have created three different flavors of it depending upon the particular use-cases and I have linked the most minimalist one as the submission. If someone is interested in a Epub/pdf reader, I have recently made one: https://epub.mirror.forum/ After making that, I was also feeling the need of having standard book downloads and…

  • JA
    Jeff Atwood's "Effective Programming" on Hyperink's new Crowd Reader2012 · hyperink.com · ▲38

    Hey everyone, I'm Michael, a product engineer at Hyperink. Over the past month or so, I've been developing a rich, social reading experience for our content, freeing us from the stranglehold of MOBI and EPUB file formats. Today, Jeff Atwood generously granted us permission to release half of his book completely free on this Crowd Reader (paid customers get to see all of it there).<p>The problem: paperback/print always wins over digital and arguably e-ink. Our solution: make reading a unique and asynchronously social experience.<p>I've love to get some beta feedback and…

  • EM
    Experimental Mac app for reading HN2011 · ▲20

    Yesterday I decided I wanted to experiment with different ways of reading HN. After considering a few options, I settled on a Mac app and spent a couple of hours planning/sketching on paper. This morning I fired up Xcode and spent 4 hours hacking away and I must say I'm liking how it's looking. Since the project is in its very early stages, I though that it could be a very good time to get some feedback. I've posted a few screenshots at http://imgur.com/a/rCbVN and uploaded a binary at http://abra.rm-fr.net/~fiam/HackerNews.zip If you have some free time, give a try and let me know what you…

More work this month

the category →
  • Let agents source clips from terabytes of your local video

    Work · 18d ago · clipto.com

  • Free local transcription that is 100% Private

    Work · 17d ago · hynote.ai

  • The app store for voice native apps that lives in your notch

    Work · 28d ago · voiceos.com

  • Ask any question, get a video back instantly

    Work · 24d ago · scrimba.com

  • Handle all of the work before, during, and after meetings

    Work · 17d ago · calendly.com

Launched alongside, June 2026

the whole month →
  • Fundraisly1,544

    AI fundraising agent that finds investors and books meetings

    AI · Jun 2026 · fundraisly.com

  • H6

    Today, I’m proud to announce Homebrew 6.0.0. The most significant changes since 5.1.0 are a new tap trust security mechanism, the new faster, smaller, default internal Homebrew JSON API, sandboxing on Linux, better defaults informed by our user survey, many brew bundle improvements, improved performance and initial support for macOS 27 (Golden Gate). Happy to discuss any questions here!

    Dev tools · Jun 2026 · brew.sh

  • PU

    hope you enjoy

    Life & fun · Jun 2026 · vorpus.github.io

  • Upstream977

    The inbox designed for humans and agents

    AI · Jun 2026 · upstream.do

  • Goldfish962

    Press Option. It knows your work and replies like you

    AI · Jun 2026 · goldfish.sh

  • IM

    Life & fun · Jun 2026 · hackernewstrends.com