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.