Convert / Read
Podalls Convert includes a free PDF and e-book reader for Windows 10 and 11. It opens PDFs with thumbnails, outline, search and zoom, reads e-books as real pages, and reopens each file where you left off.
How it works
Three steps, all on your PC. Nothing is uploaded.
Open a file from Reader, drop it on the window, or right-click it › Open with.
Search, zoom, jump through the outline, or switch to the two-page book layout.
Close it. Next time it reopens on the same page.
Try it
The Reader as it looks in the app, with a sample report and a sample book. Search it, turn the pages, then switch to the book and change its type.
Swipe across to explore the app
PodallsConvert·ReaderInteractive preview · sample documents
Two ways to read
PDFs keep the pages they were made with. E-books are laid out for your window, your type and your colours.
Pages exactly as they were printed, with the tools to find your way.
The quiet hours
A place to begin
The first light arrived slowly, moving across the desk until it reached the open notebook. There was no message to answer and no meeting to prepare for. For a little while, the morning belonged entirely to the person sitting beside the window.
1 of 4 in this chapter
A place to begin
A good workspace does not need to be large. It needs a few familiar things: room to think, a place for unfinished work, and the confidence that what you leave there will still be waiting when you return.
Outside, the street was beginning to wake. A bicycle passed the gate. Someone lifted the shutters of the shop across the road. Inside, a single page was enough to hold the whole morning.
2
E-books laid out as real pages that fit your window, never a long scroll.
What it opens
Every kind of file it reads, the view it opens in, and what the Reader does with it.
.pdfPDF view
Every page as printed: thumbnails, outline, search, zoom, print and the two-page layout.
.epubBook view
The usual e-book format, with the contents from the book itself. DRM-locked books are refused.
.fb2Book view
Its titles and subtitles become the chapters and the contents.
.txtBook view
Chapters found from lines like “Chapter 3”, “Bab 3”, “XIV” or “第三章”. Project Gutenberg books drop their licence text and keep the title and author.
.htm.html.xhtmlBook view
Headings become the contents. Styling is kept to bold, italic and centring.
Keyboard
The Reader’s shortcuts. The keyboard button in the app’s title bar lists them too.
PDF view
Book view
Around the Reader
Good to know
What this tool does not do, said plainly.
First time? The install guide shows every screen, including the Windows warning.
Questions
7 answers
Another question? Everything about Podalls Convert.
Yes. Podalls Convert reads EPUB 2 and 3 e-books on Windows 10 and 11 for free, laid out as real pages with your choice of typeface, size and colours. It also reads FB2, plain-text and HTML books.
You can open PDFs with it any time through right-click › Open with. The installer adds it there for PDFs and for EPUB and FB2 books (both ticked by default), without taking over your default app.
Yes. Choose Night for e-books, or Match the app to follow the app’s light or dark look. The app itself has light, dark and system appearances.
Not ones that need a password to open. PDFs that only restrict printing or changes open normally, and Document properties (Ctrl+D) shows the restriction.
The Reader is for reading. Press Ctrl+E to open the same PDF in the Editor, where you can highlight, draw, add text and white out, then save.
E-books have no fixed pages, so they are laid out and numbered per chapter. The status bar says “in this chapter”.
No. Podalls Convert does the work on your PC and saves the result there. It only goes online to check for and download its own updates.
From the Reader
The Reader hands the open PDF to these tools from its Convert menu, right-click and Edit button. Same app, same queue, nothing uploaded.
What you are getting