hygg
A minimalistic Vim-like TUI document reader supporting PDF, EPUB, DOCX, and more formats with keyboard-first navigation.
What is hygg?
Hygg is a minimalistic terminal user interface (TUI) document reader that simplifies reading with Vim-like keyboard navigation. It supports a wide range of document formats including PDF, EPUB, and DOCX through pandoc integration, and runs locally to ensure privacy and speed. The tool focuses on removing distractions while providing powerful features like search, bookmarks, and command execution from copied text.
Developers, technical writers, and readers who prefer keyboard-driven workflows and want a fast, private document reading experience in the terminal. It's ideal for those familiar with Vim keybindings and command-line tools.
Hygg offers a unique combination of universal format support, Vim-like efficiency, and local-first privacy in a terminal environment. Unlike GUI readers, it provides a distraction-free interface with advanced workflows like command execution and split views, all while being cross-platform and extensible.
Overview
📚 Simplifying the way you read. Minimalistic Vim-like TUI document reader.
Use Cases
Best For
- Reading technical documentation and ebooks directly in the terminal
- Keyboard-centric users who prefer Vim-like navigation for documents
- Privacy-conscious readers who want local document processing without cloud services
- Converting and reading scanned documents with OCR in a terminal interface
- Executing shell commands from text selections within documents
- Maintaining reading progress and bookmarks across sessions without external accounts
Not Ideal For
- Users requiring rich visual annotations or image-heavy document interaction, as Hygg is text-focused in the terminal
- Teams needing instant cloud synchronization without self-hosting setup, since Hygg's sync is optional and manual
- Individuals unfamiliar with Vim keybindings or terminal environments, due to the steep learning curve
- Scenarios where managing external dependencies like pandoc and OCR tools is impractical or unsupported
Pros & Cons
Pros
Hygg uses pandoc to read PDF, EPUB, DOCX, and many other formats, including OCR for scanned documents, making it highly versatile for diverse document types as highlighted in the README.
With familiar Vim keybindings, users can navigate documents quickly, select text, and execute commands, streamlining reading workflows as emphasized in the features list.
Runs locally without a server and offers optional self-hosted sync, ensuring user data remains private and under control, a core part of the project's philosophy.
Allows executing shell commands directly from copied text with split view output, enabling seamless tool integration, a unique feature mentioned in the advanced workflows section.
Cons
Requires pandoc and ocrmypdf for full functionality, adding setup complexity and potential compatibility issues across systems, which the README acknowledges for format support.
Being terminal-based, Hygg lacks rich text formatting, image display, and GUI annotations, making it less suitable for visually complex documents compared to GUI readers.
As a newer TUI tool, Hygg has a smaller community and fewer plugins or integrations than established readers, potentially limiting extensibility and support.
Key features like AI summarization, text-to-speech, and a start screen are listed in the roadmap but not implemented, reducing current functionality for advanced use cases.
Frequently Asked Questions
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