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Screenshots

  • Rectoly for Zotero screenshot 1
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About Rectoly for Zotero

Rectoly is the research-focused PDF reader built for Zotero users. Your library stays in Zotero — Rectoly makes reading and annotating on iPhone, iPad and Mac a genuine pleasure. READING MODE Academic papers are often formatted in two columns, making them hard to read on a phone. Reading Mode reflows the content into a single, clean column — without losing access to the original PDF. Jump back to the exact page anytime. ANNOTATE IN READING MODE Unlike other readers, Rectoly lets you highlight, underline, add sticky notes, and draw with Apple Pencil — all while staying in Reading Mode. No need to switch back to the raw PDF just to mark something up. ON-DEVICE TRANSLATION Read an English paper in your own language, in Reading Mode and on the PDF page. Translation runs on this device; the paper is never sent to a translation service. If you agree, translations are saved to your Zotero library for your other devices (using your Zotero storage). The app's translation model (about 2.5 GB) needs 8 GB of memory or more. Translates English papers into the app's 19 other display languages: Hindi by the system's translator (iOS 26 or later), all the rest by the app's own model. TOOLS FOR READING Read Aloud: hear the text in Reading Mode, in the system voice or the VoiceOver one. Choose the typeface and line spacing in Reading Mode. “Darken PDF pages” softens text and paper to gray tones while leaving figures and photos in their original colors when possible. SPLIT VIEW INSIDE THE READER Keep Reading Mode open while glancing at a figure, the original layout, or another section — side by side, all within a single window. No multi-window setup required. RESEARCH THEMES Send a passage to a theme, with its source. Keep the theme beside the paper, or open it as a sheet. Export as Markdown or Word (.docx). ACROSS PAPERS The library column has a new Across papers tab: search the annotations, the text and your handwriting in your whole library at once. FIGURES, TABLES AND A COMPARISON Save a figure as PNG and a table as CSV — one paper at a time, or your whole library in one go. Compare many papers' abstracts, methods, results and conclusions in one table, one row per paper. YOUR DRAFT BESIDE THE PAPER Open the document you are writing (.docx, .doc, .odt, .rtf, Markdown, plain text — password-protected ones too) in a column next to the paper. It re-reads the file every time you save. CITING AND NOTES Copy with page, copy BibTeX or citation keys (Zotero 7's keys and Better BibTeX's are used), and a Notes folder for Obsidian and others — with keyboard shortcuts you can change. ZOTERO SYNC Annotations you create are written back to Zotero automatically. Highlights from Zotero Desktop or other apps appear in Rectoly automatically. Your notes are always in one place. WEBDAV AND LINKED FILES If Zotero syncs your files over WebDAV, Rectoly can now open them — and PDFs you add in the app go to your WebDAV server too. Files that ZotFile or ZotMoov keep in Dropbox or Google Drive open once you choose the folder. WORKS OFFLINE Downloaded PDFs and annotations are stored locally. Read anywhere, anytime — even without an internet connection. SEARCH YOUR HANDWRITING Notes you write with Apple Pencil are now read as text on your device, so you can search them (iPadOS 27 and later). 14-DAY FREE TRIAL → ONE-TIME PURCHASE Try every Pro feature for free for 14 days. Unlock with a one-time payment — no subscription, no recurring charges.

What’s new

Version 5.1.3 · Updated October 19, 2026

Reading Mode and translation improvements • Reading Mode now shows formulas as they are printed in the paper, with superscripts, subscripts and ligatures intact. • A sentence that runs across columns or pages is now joined into one paragraph. • Reference lists are detected more reliably: a “References” entry in a Supporting Information table of contents no longer turns the body text into references, and “REFERENCES” headings with a leading symbol are recognized. • Margin stamps such as “Downloaded from … by …” are now kept out of the text, so the purchaser’s name no longer appears in Reading Mode, in translations or in selected text. • When a PDF has no spaces between words (ACS papers, for example), spaces are now restored from the gaps between letters, so words no longer run together. • Translation now covers headings too, both in Reading Mode and in the translation shown on the PDF. • With “Show Translated Text”, notation common in chemistry and biology papers (Cl−, Na+, n = 6 …) no longer counts as a formula, so more paragraphs are translated. Also • Files that live in OneDrive or another cloud and are not yet downloaded to this device can now be picked with “Locate…”, when adding a PDF, and with “Open a PDF…”. • While the Zotero sign-in page opens, and while your account connects after you sign in, the app now shows what it is doing. • A note under the sign-in button now says to choose “Accept Defaults” on Zotero’s permission screen to finish signing in. Fixes and improvements • Fixed the reader slowing down or freezing while a paper is being translated, by making the progress display lighter. • Fixed an old translation sometimes coming back when you redo the translation right after stopping it. • Fixed a PDF that had just been replaced by a new file sometimes showing its old content, or old darkened page images, when reopened. • Annotations that Zotero refused are no longer re-sent again and again; they are shown as a refused count, and a manual sync tries them once more. • When saving handwriting to WebDAV times out, it is no longer treated as an error: it is sent again automatically a little later. • Fixed the welcome screen running off the sides of the screen on iPhone.

App privacy

The developer, Takaki Takemura, reported these privacy practices to Apple.

Data Linked to You

The following data, which may be collected and linked to your identity, may be used for the following purposes:

  • Purchases: Purchase History
  • Contact Info: Email Address
  • Identifiers: User ID

Used for: App Functionality

Data Not Linked to You

The following data, which may be collected but is not linked to your identity, may be used for the following purposes:

  • Usage Data: Product Interaction
  • Identifiers: Device ID
  • Diagnostics: Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data

Used for: Analytics, App Functionality

Alternatives to Rectoly for Zotero

Looking for apps like Rectoly for Zotero? Here are 6 similar apps on the App Store. The highest rated is DjVu Reader: Scanned Books (5.0/5), and all 6 are free to download.

Rectoly for Zotero vs. alternatives
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