Where to find ePubs (and how to get them into Fovea)
Fovea reads your own files: ePub, PDF, docx, plain text, or anything you paste. The good news is that the free, legal shelf is far deeper than most people realise. Here is where to look, what DRM means for you, and the sixty-second import.
Why ePub is the one you want
An ePub holds the book's actual text, chapters, cover and metadata in one portable file that any decent reading app can open. Import one into Fovea and the cover lands on your shelf, the table of contents works, the reading time comes from the real word count, and the text reflows cleanly at any size.
PDFs import too, and they are the right format for articles, papers and anything with a fixed layout. But a PDF describes a printed page, so chapters and paragraph flow have to be inferred. When you have the choice, choose ePub. Word documents and plain text files also work, and for everything else there is paste.
Eight places to fill a library for nothing
Every source here is free because the books are out of copyright or because the publisher or author chose to give them away. Nothing on this list sits in a legal grey area.
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Standard Ebooks
Public-domain classics rebuilt by hand: careful typography, clean chapter structure, proper covers. The nicest ePub files on the internet, and the source of Fovea's own starter shelf.
standardebooks.org → -
Project Gutenberg
The original ebook library: over seventy-five thousand books whose copyright has expired, every one downloadable as ePub. If it was published before the 1930s, it is probably here.
gutenberg.org → -
Internet Archive & Open Library
Millions of scanned and digitised books. Public-domain titles download freely; in-copyright ones can often be borrowed through its lending program.
openlibrary.org → -
Baen Free Library
A real publisher giving away full science-fiction and fantasy novels, DRM-free, because they found it sells the rest of the series. Exactly the deal it sounds like.
baen.com/freelibrary → -
Smashwords
A huge indie catalogue where authors set their own prices. Tens of thousands of titles are free, and everything is DRM-free by policy.
smashwords.com → -
Leanpub & Humble Bundle
Tech and non-fiction: Leanpub authors often price at pay-what-you-want, and Humble's recurring book bundles sell DRM-free ePub stacks for a few dollars to charity.
leanpub.com → -
Author newsletters: BookFunnel & StoryOrigin
Working novelists give away full starter books to newsletter subscribers, delivered as clean ePubs. Find an author you like and their mailing list is often a free book on the spot.
bookfunnel.com → -
Wikisource
The Wikipedia sibling for source texts: speeches, essays, historical documents and books, exportable as ePub from any page.
wikisource.org →
Your public library almost certainly lends ebooks too, through apps like Libby. Borrow freely. Just know those files are locked to the library's own app, so they can't move into Fovea or any other third-party reader.
A plain word about DRM
Most books bought from Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books or Google Play are wrapped in DRM, digital locks that tie the file to the store's own apps. Fovea cannot open a DRM-locked file, and neither can any other independent reader; that is the point of the lock. It is a frustrating deal: you bought the book, but the file answers to the store.
The practical advice is to notice which stores sell books DRM-free and favour them when you can. Everything in the list above is DRM-free, and so are many indie storefronts and some publishers. Wherever your ePubs come from, the import below works the same: Fovea reads the file you give it and asks no questions about its biography.
Adding a book takes about a minute
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Open the reader
Go to the Fovea app in your browser, on a phone or a computer. You do not need an account, and there is nothing to install or configure first.
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Add the file
Tap the + button and choose Upload a file, then pick your ePub from your files or downloads; PDF, docx and txt work the same way. On a computer you can drag and drop, and there is a paste box for articles and anything else that is just text.
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Check the details
Fovea reads the cover, title, author and chapters out of the file and shows you what it found. Fix anything, swap the cover if you like, add tags, save.
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Read anywhere
The book now lives on your device and works completely offline. Sign in with Google only if you want your shelf and progress to follow you across devices. Otherwise nothing ever leaves your phone.
If you arrive empty-handed, the library offers a starter shelf of ten classics (Pride and Prejudice, Dracula, Frankenstein, Meditations, The Great Gatsby and friends), each one tap away with covers and chapters intact.
Frequently asked
Can I read my Kindle books in Fovea?
Usually not. Books bought on Kindle, Kobo or Apple Books are typically DRM-locked to the store's own apps, and Fovea cannot open them. Kindle formats like AZW3 and MOBI also aren't supported directly. If you have a DRM-free MOBI, the free tool Calibre converts it to ePub in seconds.
Is downloading free ePubs legal?
From the sources in this guide, yes. These books are free because copyright has expired or because the publisher or author decided to give them away.
Do PDFs work as well as ePubs?
They import fine and are the right choice for papers and articles. For books, prefer ePub: a PDF describes a fixed page, so chapters and reflow have to be guessed at, while an ePub declares them outright.
Is there a size limit?
Books live in your browser's own storage on your device, and ordinary novels, even the thousand-page kind, are no problem. Everything stays local unless you turn on sync.
Can I try Fovea with no files at all?
Yes. Open the app and take the starter shelf: ten classics, one tap each. It exists so the first book involves no homework.
Your first book is one tap away.
Grab something from the shelf above, or take a starter classic, and read the first chapter tonight. It is free, it works offline, and you do not need an account.