Read

The paper, rebuilt for a screen

Two columns are made for print. Rectoly reads the structure of the paper and lays it out again as one column: figures where they are first mentioned, equations at full width, page headers and footers gone.

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The printed page fills the pane on Windows, and one click on Reading lays it out again as a single column beside the original

Reading Mode beside the original page

The reflowed text on one side, the real PDF page on the other, following along as you read. One click takes you to the same spot in the PDF.

Two papers side by side

Open a second paper next to the first, each with its own page, zoom and notes. Or open the same paper twice: the text here, the figures there.

Citations that answer on the spot

Click or hover over a citation like [12] and see the reference behind it, without losing your place. A mention of Fig. 3 brings the figure to you instead of sending you scrolling back.

An outline, even when the PDF has none

When a PDF comes without bookmarks, Rectoly estimates the outline from the paper itself and says that it did. Jump by section in any paper.

New — translation that runs on your device

Every paper, in the language you read in.

Rectoly translates a paper into the language you read in, and the model that does the translating runs on your own machine. Download it once and translation keeps working with the network switched off — a paper under review, a draft nobody has seen, never leaves the device. And a tablet too small to run the model can hand the work to your computer and get the translation back.

English into 19 languagesRuns on the deviceWorks offlineThe paper never leavesOriginal ⇄ translationTranslated ahead of youYour computer can do the workIncluded in the purchase

See how translation works

New — AI that runs on your device

The power of AI, inside Rectoly.

Rectoly puts AI to work after the reading is done. Organize with AI groups the notes you wrote across many papers by topic and saves them as a research theme — it writes only the headings. Paper cards write out each paper’s research question, method, data, findings and stated limitations into a literature review table, every sentence with its page. Both run on your own device, with the model translation already uses, so nothing leaves it — unless you choose to bring your own API key.

Organize your notes with AIPaper cardsLiterature review tableYour notes stay as writtenEvery sentence carries its pageRuns on the deviceOr your own API keyIncluded in the purchase

See how the AI works

Think

Your notes, across every paper

Annotate where you read, on the PDF page or right on the reflowed text. Every mark is placed at its real position in the PDF, so it syncs to Mendeley or Zotero like any other annotation.

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One search across every paper on the computer: typing reflow brings up hits in several papers, and opening a hit lands on that page

Annotate without leaving Reading Mode

Highlight, underline, add notes and write by hand on the reflowed text. There is no going back to the two-column page just to mark a sentence.

Search every note at once

One search covers the full text and the annotations of every paper on your computer, and each hit opens at its page.

Compare papers section by section

Pull Methods, Results, Limitations and the other sections out of many papers into one table, a row per paper. No AI and nothing uploaded: Rectoly reads the structure that is already in the PDF.

Research themes

Keep one plain Markdown note per research question, open beside the paper. Send a passage to it with one shortcut, drag fragments between Claims, Evidence and Objections, and press Enter on a fragment to jump back to the sentence it came from.

Write it up

Handed to wherever you write

Rectoly is not one more editor. Its job ends when what you read reaches what you write: Word, LaTeX, Obsidian or your reference manager.

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The export menu on Windows: annotated PDF, notes as Markdown, figures as PNG and tables as CSV, BibTeX, the citation key, and notes back into Mendeley or Zotero

Figures as images, tables as cells

Export every figure as a PNG and every table as a CSV, for one paper or a whole shelf. Copy a table and it pastes into Excel as cells, not as a picture. Tables Rectoly is unsure about are marked for a check.

Notes that keep their source

Export your highlights as Markdown grouped by the sections of the paper, each quote with its citation key and page number. A CSL-JSON file goes with it for other tools.

Quote with the right page number

Copy from the reflowed text and the printed page number comes along: p. 312, not page 5 of the PDF. The BibTeX entry and the citation key are one click away.

From a theme to Word

Export a research theme as Markdown or a Word file, with a reference list built from the papers you quoted. Or let Rectoly keep one note per paper in your Obsidian folder, named by citation key.

Your draft beside the paper

Open the .docx, .odt or Markdown file you are writing next to the paper you are reading. The preview follows every save from Word.

Back into your library

Send the notes of a paper to Mendeley or Zotero as a note on the item. Or export a PDF with your highlights and handwriting drawn in, which anyone can open.

Handwriting sync

Your handwriting, on every screen

Write on a tablet, and the same strokes appear on your Windows or Linux PC, or your Mac, right where you wrote them. With Zotero, handwriting syncs as Zotero ink annotations, so it shows in Zotero itself too. Mendeley's annotation format has no type for handwriting, so Rectoly for Mendeley carries the strokes itself, from one Rectoly device to the next.

✎

Write by hand

In Rectoly on your tablet

⇅

Synced with the paper

Stored with the paper in your Mendeley or Zotero library

✓

See it on your computer

In Rectoly on Windows, Mac or Linux, in the same place on the page

Highlights and notes sync as regular Mendeley or Zotero annotations, so they appear there too.

Buy once, read everywhere

No subscription. The same one-time price as on iPad, and it covers every platform.

Try every feature free for 14 days.

Rectoly for Mendeley

$ 49.99

One-time purchase · No subscription

Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone and Android
Mendeley account sync
Reading Mode & side-by-side view
Handwriting from your tablet, on your computer
Dark mode & 20 languages
Works offline once synced
On-device AI translation of the paper
Organize with AI and paper cards, on your computer

Download for Windows Download for Mac Download for Linux

Rectoly for Zotero

$ 19.99

One-time purchase · No subscription

Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone and Android
Native Zotero library sync
Reading Mode & side-by-side view
Handwriting from your tablet, on your computer
Dark mode & 20 languages
Works offline once synced
On-device AI translation of the paper
Organize with AI and paper cards, on your computer

Download for Windows Download for Mac Download for Linux

Ways to pay

Which of these you see at checkout depends on your country.

WeChat Pay works from a computer only

WeChat Pay is offered to buyers in mainland China, and only on a checkout opened in a computer's browser. A checkout opened on an Android phone or tablet does not show it. To pay with WeChat Pay and use Rectoly on your phone or tablet, buy on a computer:

Install Rectoly on a computer (Windows, Mac or Linux) and sign in with the same Mendeley or Zotero account as on your phone or tablet.
Start the purchase from the Purchase screen. On the checkout that opens in your browser, choose WeChat Pay and scan the QR code with WeChat on your phone.
The purchase belongs to your account, so Rectoly unlocks on your phone or tablet as well. If it doesn't, press Restore purchases there.

Step-by-step guide

Already bought Rectoly on iPad or iPhone? Sign in with the same Mendeley or Zotero account and the Windows, Mac and Linux versions are included.

Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) · macOS 14.0 or later on Apple silicon · iPadOS / iOS 17.0 or later · Linux: Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint 21, Debian 12 or later (64-bit x86)

On Linux, handwriting recognition (and so handwriting search), reading aloud, OCR in the Zotero edition and screen readers are not available; everything else works as on Windows and Mac.

Buying for a university or research institute? At the checkout on our website, enter its name, address and tax number, and the invoice and receipt are made out to it and emailed as a PDF. The details can be corrected once after the purchase. Payments are handled by Paddle. Information for universities, research institutes and companies

Bought on our website? Full refund within 14 days.

Business Information

Read it, think it through, write it up — in one app

The work between the PDF and your draft