OPDS catalog browsing
OPDS Reader for Android
Aurora Reader browses OPDS catalogs: search a public-domain library, tap a book, and it lands in your shelf without a browser or a file manager. OPDS browsing is a Premium feature, included in the 7-day free trial.
- Search catalogs in-app
- Downloads straight to your shelf
- Premium, 7-day trial
- Books stay free at source
Standard Ebooks Catalog
The northern sky unfurled in slow ribbons of green and violet, and for a while she forgot the cold entirely.
She turned the page the way one turns a thought over, gently, unhurried, letting the light do its quiet work above the pines.
Somewhere far below, a single lamp glowed in a cabin window, the only warm thing for miles.
What an OPDS reader actually does for you
OPDS is an open standard for publishing a book catalog in a form software can read. Roughly, it is RSS for libraries. A reader app that speaks it can search a catalog, show you the results, and download a book directly into your library.
The practical difference is the number of steps. Without OPDS, finding a book is: open a browser, search the site, pick the right format, download, find the file in your downloads, import it. With OPDS it is: search, tap, read. That sounds like a small saving until you are browsing seventy thousand titles, at which point it is the difference between using a catalog and not bothering.
- What is OPDS?: the standard itself, explained without the product angle.
Catalogs in Aurora Reader
Three public-domain catalogs ship with the app: Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks and Feedbooks. Between them they cover most of what is legally free to read in English.
None of these organisations is affiliated with Aurora Reader, and none of them endorses it. They publish open catalogs, and an OPDS-capable app reads them. The books belong to their libraries, not to this app.
- Reading Project Gutenberg on Android: the browser route, and how the OPDS one differs.
- Where to find free ebooks: every legitimate source, including the ones OPDS cannot reach.
| Catalog | What it is good for | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Project Gutenberg | Breadth: over 70,000 titles | Volunteer transcriptions, plain but reliable |
| Standard Ebooks | Production quality on a smaller list | Re-typeset and proofread by hand |
| Feedbooks | A clean public-domain selection | Overlaps Gutenberg, presented more tidily |
Search, download, read
- 1
Open the catalog browser
Pick one of the built-in catalogs, or add another OPDS feed by URL if you have one you use.
- 2
Search or browse
Search by title or author, or work through the categories the catalog publishes. Results come from the library, live.
- 3
Tap to download
The book downloads into your library directly. No browser, no downloads folder, no import step.
- 4
Read it like anything else
It joins the same shelf as your imported books and gets the same themes, fonts, spacing and annotation tools.
What is free, and what Premium is actually for
Worth being precise about, because it would be easy to imply something untrue. The books in these catalogs are free from the libraries that publish them. That is their doing, not ours, and it does not depend on any app.
You can get every one of them without paying anything: open the catalog in a browser, download the EPUB, and import it into Aurora Reader, which is free and takes about a minute per book. OPDS browsing is a Premium feature in Aurora Reader, and what it buys is the removal of those steps, not access to the books.
- The books: free from Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks and Feedbooks, always
- Importing downloaded books: free in Aurora Reader, unlimited
- Browsing those catalogs from inside the app: Premium, with a 7-day free trial
- Premium is a one-time purchase rather than a subscription
- Features: the whole feature list, with the Premium items marked.
What talks to the network, and when
Catalog browsing is the one part of reading that needs a connection, and it only talks to the catalog you are browsing. Searching Project Gutenberg sends your search to Project Gutenberg.
Nothing else about reading requires the network. Once a book has downloaded it is on the device and behaves exactly like a file you imported yourself: no sign-in, no licence check, no connection needed to open it again.
OPDS compared with downloading in a browser
Both routes end with the same file on your phone. They differ in effort, and in how well browsing scales.
| Browser download and import | OPDS in the app | |
|---|---|---|
| Steps per book | Around six | Two |
| Choosing the right format | Yours to get right | Handled by the catalog entry |
| Browsing a large catalog | Workable but tedious | Practical |
| Cost | Free | Premium feature |
| Works offline afterwards | Yes | Yes |
Who this is genuinely useful for
- You read a lot of classics and public-domain fiction
- You browse for something to read rather than arriving with a title in mind
- You are working through an author or a period and want the next one immediately
- You already run your own OPDS server, such as a calibre library at home
Who does not need it
If you buy your books, or your reading comes from a library-lending app, OPDS will not touch either. Store purchases and library loans are DRM-protected and live in their own apps.
- You mostly read current titles bought from a store
- Your books come from a public-library app such as the one your library uses
- You import a handful of files a year, where six steps is not a burden
- Ebook reader for Android: the free app itself, with all six formats.
Aurora Reader is free on Android 8.0 and up, with no ads and no account. Premium is a single one-time purchase with a 7-day free trial.
Related reading
Frequently asked
What is an OPDS reader?
A reading app that can browse OPDS catalogs directly, so you can search a library and download books without going through a web browser. OPDS is an open standard, roughly RSS for book catalogs.
Which catalogs does Aurora Reader include?
Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks and Feedbooks are built in, and you can add other OPDS feeds by URL. None of those organisations is affiliated with Aurora Reader.
Is OPDS free in Aurora Reader?
Catalog browsing is a Premium feature with a 7-day free trial. The books themselves are free from the libraries that publish them, and you can always download them in a browser and import them into the free version instead.
Can I add my own OPDS catalog?
Yes, by URL. If you run a calibre library at home with its OPDS server enabled, that works the same way as the built-in catalogs.
Do OPDS books work offline?
Yes. Browsing needs a connection, but once a book has downloaded it lives on your device and opens with the network off.
Browse seventy thousand free books
Aurora Reader is free on Android 8.0 and up, with no ads and no account. Premium is a single one-time purchase with a 7-day free trial.