Rectoly for Zotero vs Recto Writer

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.

Recto is a word processor for people writing books. Arrange your projects on your bookshelf. THE OUTLINE IS THE BOOK For pantsers and plotters alike, arrange your outline or infer it from your book. Your outline is always there for you to quickly glance at and jump to that section of your book. FRONT MATTER THAT KNOWS WHAT IT IS Keep your book's blurb, back cover description, and other information in one place so it's easy to export to EPUB. YOUR WORDS STAY YOURS No proprietary files or storage systems. Every book is stored as Markdown so you can open it in any editor. All files are kept in your own iCloud. WHEN THE DRAFT IS DONE Export to EPUB, Word, PDF, Markdown, HTML or plain text. WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE Kill Your Darlings, except you can also keep them and reuse them later in this book or the next book. Placeholders, for the fact you will look up later. Drop a flag and keep writing. Daily word goals, timed sprints, and a chart of the last thirty days. Find and replace across the whole book, spellcheck, typewriter scrolling, five reading typefaces and three styles of drop cap. FREE Recto is free. There is no trial, no subscription and no in-app purchases lurking in the shadows to steal your lunch money. If it becomes part of how you work and you want to say thank you, there's an opportunity to send me a tip. But it's not necessary. You can also email me and just say hi. WITH THANKS Recto is a native rewrite of NEO, the word processor Hugh Howey wrote and released under the MIT License. The outline, the scene breaks, and the idea that a writing app should get out of the way are all his. Recto shares none of his code and all of his intent.