hygg
A minimalistic Vim-like TUI document reader supporting PDF, EPUB, DOCX, and more with keyboard-first navigation.
What is hygg?
Hygg is a terminal-based document reader designed to simplify reading by providing a distraction-free interface with powerful keyboard-driven workflows. It supports a wide range of document formats through pandoc integration and respects user privacy by running locally.
Developers, technical writers, and power users who prefer keyboard-centric, terminal-based workflows and need to read various document formats without distractions.
Developers choose Hygg for its Vim-like keybindings, universal document format support via pandoc, and privacy-focused local execution, offering a highly efficient and extensible reading environment directly in the terminal.
Overview
📚 Simplifying the way you read. Minimalistic Vim-like TUI document reader.
Use Cases
Best For
- Reading PDF, EPUB, and DOCX files in a terminal with minimal interface distractions.
- Users who prefer Vim-inspired keyboard navigation for efficient document browsing and text selection.
- Privacy-conscious individuals who require a document reader that runs entirely locally without cloud dependencies.
- Power users needing to execute shell commands directly from copied text and view output in a split view.
- Managing reading progress and bookmarks persistently across sessions for long documents or books.
- Converting scanned documents and images to plain text using integrated OCR (ocrmypdf) for terminal-based reading.
Not Ideal For
- Users who need rich graphical rendering or WYSIWYG editing for documents with complex layouts, like magazines or textbooks with images and tables.
- Teams requiring collaborative features such as real-time annotation sharing or cloud-based syncing without self-hosting.
- Non-technical users unfamiliar with terminal environments or Vim keybindings, as the learning curve is steep compared to GUI applications.
- Projects that demand immediate access to advanced AI features like summarization or voice narration, as these are planned but not yet available.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Leverages pandoc to read PDF, EPUB, DOCX, and many other formats, including OCR for scanned documents, making it versatile for various document types.
Implements Vim-like keybindings for fast movement and commands, catering to developers and power users who prefer keyboard-driven workflows.
Runs entirely locally with optional self-hosted sync, ensuring user data and reading progress are kept private without cloud dependencies.
Allows executing shell commands from copied text and viewing output in split view, enhancing productivity for technical tasks.
Cons
Limited to text-based display in terminals, which may not render complex document layouts, images, or formatted text as effectively as GUI readers.
Relies on pandoc and ocrmypdf for format support and OCR, adding setup complexity and potential compatibility issues across different systems.
Roadmap items like AI summarization, text-to-speech, and self-hosted sync server are planned but not yet implemented, limiting current functionality.
Frequently Asked Questions
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