3dslibris

Nintendo 3DS homebrew ebook and manga reader based on the original Nintendo DS project dslibris.

Features

• Reads ebooks and manga on Nintendo 3DS hardware and Azahar.
• Library browser with grid and list views, cover thumbnails, metadata titles, and touch navigation.
• Six reading themes with matching splash screens and reader gradients.
• Supported formats: EPUB, FB2, TXT, RTF, ODT, MOBI, PDF, CBZ and XPS.
• EPUB reflow with TOC support, bookmarks, go to page, cached pagination, and broad inline/block formatting support.
• Fixed-layout viewer for manga and document formats (CBZ, PDF and XPS) with zoom, pan, outline navigation, and full-page preview.
• Bundled fallback fonts for broader language coverage (Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, CJK, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, and more).

Screenshots

Installation

Recommended install (.cia via Universal-Updater):

1. Install 3dslibris from Universal-Updater.
2. Launch it once so sdmc:/3ds/3dslibris/ is created if needed.
3. Copy your books to sdmc:/3ds/3dslibris/book/.
4. Launch the installed title.

Manual install (.3dsx):

1. Download 3dslibris-sdmc.zip and 3dslibris.3dsx from GitHub Releases.
2. Extract it to the root of the SD card so it expands into sdmc:/.
3. Copy 3dslibris.3dsx to sdmc:/3ds/3dslibris/3dslibris.3dsx.
4. Copy your books to sdmc:/3ds/3dslibris/book/.
5. Launch sdmc:/3ds/3dslibris/3dslibris.3dsx from Homebrew Launcher.

Manual install (.cia):

1. Install 3dslibris.cia.
2. Launch it once so sdmc:/3ds/3dslibris/ is created if needed.
3. Copy your books to sdmc:/3ds/3dslibris/book/.
4. Launch the installed title.

Notes:

• The .cia includes default font/ and resources/ assets in RomFS.
• Books are read from sdmc:/3ds/3dslibris/book/ and optionally romfs:/3ds/3dslibris/book/.
• Runtime data can also be installed under sdmc:/config/3dslibris/ (for example book/, font/, resources/, cache, prefs, and log files).
• If the same filename exists in both places, the SD version wins.
• Releases also provide 3dslibris-debug.3dsx and 3dslibris-debug.cia, which enable verbose logging to sdmc:/3ds/3dslibris/3dslibris.log.

Controls

Library:

• D-Pad: move selection
• A: open selected book
• L / R: previous or next library page
• Touch: select and open books
• Y / Select: open GENERAL settings

Standard reading:

• A / B / L / R: turn pages
• ZL / ZR (New 3DS): previous or next page
• D-Pad Left / D-Pad Right: jump between bookmarks
• Y: toggle bookmark; hold Y on a page with inline links to enter link-focus mode, then D-Pad to move and A to follow
• X: change background color
• SELECT: open BOOK settings
• START: return to library

Fixed-layout documents (PDF / CBZ / XPS):

• A: zoom in
• B: zoom out
• Left, L, ZR / Right, R, ZL: previous or next page
• Up / Down: next or previous chapter when available, otherwise page navigation
• Touch / Circle Pad / C-Stick: move the viewport on the page preview
• SELECT: open BOOK settings
• START: return to library

Supported Formats

Strong support:

• EPUB: EPUB2 and EPUB3 reflow, NAV and NCX TOC support, cached pagination, bookmarks, configurable fonts, and broad inline/block formatting support.

Good support:

• FB2
• TXT
• RTF
• ODT

Experimental or best-effort:

• MOBI: can be slow on first open, TOC quality depends on file structure, and some files may fall back to safer but more limited parsing.
• PDF: viewer mode with zoomed reading area and full-page preview.
• CBZ: viewer mode for manga and image-based books.
• XPS: viewer mode with the same fixed-layout reader controls.

Limitations

• No DRM support.
• EPUB is a reflow renderer, not a full browser engine. Complex CSS, JavaScript, multi-column layouts, and wide tables are simplified.
• EPUB tables are converted into text-oriented blocks for readability on 3DS screens.
• SVG support in EPUB is limited to common wrappers that reference supported raster images.
• Some malformed EPUB anchors and MOBI tables of contents can produce approximate navigation.
• Large or malformed MOBI files may open slowly or lose some rich formatting in safer fallback paths.
• After changing layout-related settings such as font size, spacing, orientation, or some format-specific options, reopening the current book may be necessary.

Star History

Build

Docker build flow:

docker build -f docker/Dockerfile.cia -t 3dslibris-build .

docker run --rm \
  -v "$(pwd):/project" -w /project \
  -e DEVKITPRO=/opt/devkitpro \
  -e DEVKITARM=/opt/devkitpro/devkitARM \
  3dslibris-build \
  sh -lc 'make clean && make -j2 && make zip-sdmc && make debug-3dsx && make cia && make source-release'

Expected outputs:

• 3dslibris.cia
• 3dslibris-debug.cia
• 3dslibris.3dsx
• 3dslibris-debug.3dsx
• dist/3dslibris-source.tar.gz

Documentation

• CONTRIBUTING.md
• THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md
• docs/PDF_SOURCE_RELEASE.md - source release and rebuild notes for distributed binaries

License

This repository contains code under multiple licenses, but the distributed application is effectively governed by GNU AGPL v3 or later because it links against MuPDF.

• The inherited and base 3dslibris code remains under GNU GPL v2 or later.
• MuPDF is included under GNU AGPL v3 or later.
• When distributed together as the 3dslibris application, the combined work must be treated as AGPL v3 or later.

See:

• LICENSE
• LICENSES/GPL-2.0-or-later.txt
• LICENSES/AGPL-3.0-or-later.txt
• THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md
• docs/PDF_SOURCE_RELEASE.md

Credits

• Original dslibris: Ray Haleblian
• 3DS port and maintenance: Rigle