Sutra
Release notes

Changelog

Every Sutra release, one thread at a time — what's new, what's improved, and what's fixed.

2.1
Shipped

Manga support, WebDAV servers, reading stats, a free trial before Sutra Pro, two-panel iPad reading, a high-contrast theme, and the most accurate comic panel detection yet — plus a broad pass of reliability and polish improvements.

New
  • Manga mode: Switch any comic to right-to-left reading from the reader's Aa menu — the setting is remembered per book. Panel order flows top-right to bottom-left, and dedicated panel tuning improves detection on manga-style pages on top of general improvements for all comics.
  • WebDAV server support: Browse and download EPUB and PDF files directly from any WebDAV host. Self-signed certificates are accepted via a one-time trust prompt — no extra configuration needed.
  • Reading Statistics: A dedicated Stats tab tracks time read, your current reading streak, a swipeable activity chart, and progress across every book in your library in one place.
  • Try Before You Buy: CBZ comics and comic-shaped MOBI books now open with a free 7-page preview — read the first 7 pages of anything in your library before deciding whether to unlock Sutra Pro.
  • Two-Panel Reading on iPad: EPUB, MOBI, and PDF books show a facing-page spread in landscape — like a real book held open.
  • Pinch-to-zoom on images: Tap and pinch any embedded image in a book to zoom in and examine it.
  • Contrast reading theme: A new theme with a pure-black background and full-white text — maximum legibility on top of the existing Night theme. The Dark theme's selection highlight no longer clips at the screen edge.
  • Page-curl animation for comics: CBZ archives, comic-shaped EPUB/MOBI, and scanned comic PDFs now animate with the same page-curl as text books. Previously the Page Curl Animation setting had no effect in Panel View.
  • Smarter library: Books are cached on-device so your library opens instantly on relaunch. An unreachable catalog is badged rather than failing silently. Per-library filtering and a Group by Author option are now available in the Library tab. Long-press any cover to enter multi-select and bulk-add or bulk-remove books from collections.
  • Allow HTTP Connections: A new setting (Settings → Network) enables connections to self-hosted servers without HTTPS — off by default with a clear warning. Includes guidance for VPN setups on why a raw IP address doesn't work and what to use instead.
Improved
  • Continuous scroll (EPUB) is smoother and more accurate: no longer advances chapters from a stray sideways swipe, stops exactly at the page you actually reached, and no longer stalls partway through a chapter.
  • Comic panel detection is more accurate across the board — better handling of margin variance, dark interior areas (window glass, tire treads), and the dense staggered grids common in manga.
  • FAQ and in-reader help is consolidated in one place; the Sort & Filter sheet now dismisses immediately on making a selection; multi-select checkmark no longer overlaps the book's status badge.
  • Feedback and bug links now point to sutra-reader.com; a "Where to Legally Buy DRM-Free Books" link added to Settings.
Fixed
  • Books occasionally opening to a blank page.
  • Auto-scroll on iPad in Two-Panel landscape mode: tapping the auto-scroll button hid reader chrome but text never moved — extended the layout-reflow wait so scrolling reliably begins.
  • iPad: switching to scroll mode no longer resets the Margins reader setting.
  • PDF auto-scroll: a crash when text was selected while scrolling was active.
  • Page-curl animation briefly stretching or zooming the page at the start of a flip, and the panel tooltip staying visible through a turn instead of dismissing when the flip began.
  • Panel cropping edge cases: a narrow outer margin that merged several panels into one, and a dark interior area that shredded a single panel into several overlapping crops.
  • A load-error toast that reappeared after being dismissed; stale icons in the Panel Mode quick tour.
2.0
Shipped

The biggest Sutra update yet — native Komga support, panel-by-panel comic reading, sideloading, EPUB auto-scrolling, DRM-free MOBI, Sutra Pro, and a sweeping pass of reliability improvements.

New
  • Sutra Pro — $6.99 one-time: A single in-app purchase that permanently unlocks Komga server integration, .cbz comic reading, and DRM-free MOBI support. No subscription, no recurring charges. EPUB and PDF remain free for everyone.
  • Native Komga integration: Connect your Komga server as a first-class library with full series/collection browsing and page-accurate reading-progress sync — Sutra writes your position back to Komga in real time, the same way it does for Kavita.
  • CBZ comic reading: Open .cbz archives with a fixed-layout, zoomable page reader. Requires Sutra Pro.
  • Comics as Panels: Read CBZ, scanned/comic PDF, and fixed-layout EPUB/MOBI panel by panel — Sutra auto-detects each page's panels and a tap moves to the next one instead of the whole page. Every comic opens on the full page by default; tap the in-reader toggle (▭ ⟷ ▦) to crop to one panel at a time. Falls back gracefully to the full page where no panels are found.
  • DRM-free MOBI reading: Open DRM-free MOBI files you own directly in Sutra — full font, theme, and typography support, same as EPUB. Requires Sutra Pro.
  • Sideloading: Import EPUB, PDF, CBZ, and MOBI files from the iOS Files app, AirDrop, or any share sheet. They appear in your library alongside server books. Re-importing the same file won't create duplicates; files deleted outside the app are cleaned up automatically with a one-time notice.
  • Bookmarks sync via iCloud across all your devices — previously bookmarks were local to each device. Matches how reading progress and highlights already worked.
  • Live download-progress ring on book covers and percentage text in the detail view, download tile, and Downloads tab — plus a sync spinner per library while it's refreshing.
  • Landscape orientation support in the reader on iPhone — every other screen remains portrait-only.
  • "Remove All Imported Files" in Settings → Downloads — bulk-clears the Local Library catalog (previously only downloaded server books had a bulk-remove; imported files could only be deleted one at a time).
Improved
  • Library crawl budget raised substantially (5,000 → 20,000 feeds, 20,000 → 100,000 books) — large self-hosted Komga, Kavita, and Calibre libraries no longer silently lose books from Browse that were still reachable via Search.
  • Returning from the background now re-syncs every connected library (throttled to once per 5 minutes), not just on cold launch.
  • Comics as Panels now opens on the full page by default with a one-time tooltip pointing at the panel-toggle — the toggle itself is larger, translucent, and brand-tinted.
  • Local file imports show a real extracted cover far more often — EPUBs that don't declare their cover the standard way now fall back to the book's own cover or first image instead of generated gradient art.
  • Importing local files now shows a clear summary of anything skipped (unsupported format or Pro-gated) with an Upgrade prompt where relevant, instead of failing silently.
  • Server reachability dots now appear on the Library home page's server chips, not only in Settings.
  • Editing a server connection now has an always-visible Name field to rename it without a full reconnect.
  • Added setup guidance for Komga and Standard Ebooks to Settings → How to Connect a Server. The Add Library URL footer now shows one bullet per supported server type with its concrete URL shape and credentials.
  • Settings now surfaces "Reader Quick Tour" directly instead of burying it inside FAQ & Help. The tour includes a Panel Mode page and shows for comic-shaped books.
Fixed
  • Fixed local file import silently doing nothing on the first tap, or silently discarding a successful pick with no error and no book added.
  • Fixed locally imported files not appearing in the library until a manual pull-to-refresh or relaunch.
  • Fixed the Library "Couldn't refresh" banner persisting after servers had already recovered.
  • Fixed Komga connections failing to discover the library on a bare server address, CBZ comics silently missing from a crawled Komga library, and new Komga connections using a generic name instead of "Komga".
  • Fixed the Sutra Pro paywall for Komga — certain paths through the server-type picker could previously bypass it entirely.
  • Fixed panel detection on older or hand-drawn scans falling back to full-page on nearly every page — detection now tolerates panel borders that are mostly, not perfectly, blank.
  • Fixed comics with black gutters on a dark page not splitting into panels — the detector now retries with an inverted image when its normal pass finds no gutters.
  • Fixed full-bleed splash pages (edge-to-edge art with no gutters) showing a sliver crop in Panel Mode — they now open on the whole page.
  • Fixed Panel Mode flashing the next full page when turning from a page's last panel.
  • Fixed several panel-detection edge cases: staggered panels of different heights, dense grids with small stacked panels, and panels being split at speech bubbles or sound effects instead of real gutters.
  • Fixed auto-scroll silently doing nothing in some sessions, and auto-scroll's pause state getting stuck off after closing the reader mid-scroll.
  • Fixed downloaded books whose on-device file had been deleted (externally or by iCloud) staying listed as available until you tried to open them.
  • Fixed tap zones still turning pages while in continuous-scroll mode or over an active text selection.
  • Fixed catalogs silently showing zero books when their root feed loaded but sub-feeds failed mid-crawl — now surfaced as a real error instead of an empty library.
1.3
Shipped

Reading features and server compatibility — text highlights with iCloud sync, instant word definitions, improved dictionary lookup, plus Calibre-Web-Automated support and enhanced compatibility for Tailscale, Grimmory, and other OPDS servers.

New
  • Text Highlights: Select text while reading (EPUB or PDF), choose a color, and the passage stays highlighted in the book and automatically saved to Settings → Text Highlights. Tap a highlight to change its color or delete it. Highlights sync via iCloud across your devices, just like reading progress. Also browse all highlights for a book from the reader's Bookmarks sheet.
  • Dictionary lookup: Double-tap a word while reading (EPUB or PDF) to see its definition immediately, instead of having to open the system's Look Up menu and tap through to Define. Copy is now offered directly in the definition popup. Every word you look up is saved to Settings → Dictionary for browsing and reference.
  • Support for Calibre-Web-Automated (CWA), a community fork of Calibre-Web with automatic ebook ingestion — connect it the same way as Calibre-Web (default port 8084), and Sutra handles the setup automatically. Includes a new "How to Connect Each Server" guide in Settings with step-by-step instructions for every supported server.
Improved
  • OPDS server detection now rejects non-OPDS responses (e.g., HTML login portals from reverse proxies or single-sign-on) — Sutra shows a clear error message instead of silently accepting an empty library.
  • Grimmory shelves (and Calibre-Web server collections) now appear as read-only collections in the Shelf tab under "Server Shelves" — these update automatically when you refresh your library and can't be edited in Sutra.
  • Increased the cover-image cache to 1500 images / 200 MB (up from 200 / 64 MB) and added prefetching for the Continue Reading shelf, so covers you've already loaded show up instantly instead of blank for the first several seconds after opening the app.
  • Library screen no longer shows nothing while reconnecting to servers on launch — an in-progress book you've already downloaded now appears in Continue Reading instantly, before your library connections finish loading.
Fixed
  • Fixed connecting to a Kavita or Calibre server over Tailscale using its MagicDNS name (myserver.tailnet-name.ts.net) — this now works over plain HTTP like any other self-hosted server. (A server reached only by its raw Tailscale IP address still needs HTTPS — that's an OS-level limitation.)
  • Fixed a newly added server occasionally reporting "unavailable or not accepting requests" immediately after granting the Local Network permission prompt — Sutra now automatically retries instead of requiring manual pull-to-refresh. The Settings reachability dot also now updates right after adding a server.
  • Online search now works against self-hosted OPDS servers that Sutra doesn't specifically recognize (Komga, Grimmory, Booklore, BookOrbit, OPDShelf) when the server advertises search capability — previously only Kavita, Calibre, and the built-in public catalogs attempted it.
  • Series information from self-hosted servers that tag it the same way Calibre does is now read more reliably, instead of occasionally showing a genre as the series name.
1.2
Shipped

A big reliability and polish update — better cross-device sync, a real page-curl animation, dark mode, and a wide pass of fixes across search, downloads, and the reader.

New
  • Authentic page-curl page turns — tap or drag to peel a page like a real book (turn it off for the classic instant/slide turn in Settings → Accessibility)
  • Appearance: Day, Night, or System — a real dark theme for the whole app; book pages keep their own reading theme
  • Left-Handed Page Turns — tap the left edge to go to the next page, right edge to go back
  • Series info and sorting from Kavita libraries — powers the "More in this series" carousel and a proper Series sort
Improved
  • Standard Ebooks now connects with your Patrons Circle email, verified against the live feed before the library is added
  • Self-hosted servers on your local network with no TLS now connect automatically
  • Paged vs. continuous scrolling is remembered separately for EPUB and PDF
  • "Recently Read" and Continue Reading now rank by when you actually read, not raw progress
Fixed
  • Large self-hosted libraries (Kavita, Komga) could silently lose books partway through loading, so those books never turned up in search — big libraries now load completely
  • Kavita reading position now syncs correctly in both directions for EPUBs
  • Cross-device iCloud progress sync now works reliably for every connected library
  • Books no longer get marked "Finished" from a glance at the last page
  • Fixed a case where a server's feed could confuse two different books with each other
  • The library no longer goes blank after a brief server hiccup
  • Hardened how credentials and cover images are handled
  • A range of smaller fixes across search, downloads, and the readers
1.0
Shipped
  • Kavita, Calibre, and OPDS server support
  • Project Gutenberg one-tap catalog
  • EPUB + PDF reading: themes, fonts, bookmarks, search
  • Offline downloads and storage manager
  • iCloud sync + page-accurate Kavita sync
  • Free — no IAP, no subscription, no ads
Next
Upcoming
  • Library smart-sync: large catalogs will no longer re-scan on every launch — what's already known opens instantly, and background scans load new additions progressively without blocking the app
  • Auto reader theme that follows your device's light/dark appearance, alongside the existing manual theme choices
  • Continuous auto-scroll stop-position accuracy improvements and fixes to the Stats screen session averaging
  • iOS Files integration — connect cloud storage directly as a book source
  • A native Android app, bringing Sutra's OPDS library and reader to more devices