A canvas-style PDF workspace for research and deep reading. Open multiple PDFs, arrange their pages freely on an infinite GPU-accelerated canvas, annotate with highlights, pen strokes, and note flags, and save your entire layout as a project file. A side panel lets you read pages closely and browse all your captured highlights in one place — export them as HTML with a single click.
Designed and built by @ARMMRDN (2026).
| Platform | Status |
|---|---|
| macOS | Fully functional — universal binary (Apple Silicon + Intel) |
| Windows | Fully functional — x64 MinGW build, bundled DLLs |
| Linux | Functional — x86_64 build (Scholion-Linux.zip) |
Canvas
- Infinite pan and zoom — arrange pages from multiple PDFs in any layout
- Color-coded document stacks with thread wires connecting related pages
- Tile-based GPU rendering keeps the canvas smooth across 100+ pages at any zoom level
- Event-driven rendering — idle CPU and battery use drop to near zero during long reading sessions (macOS/Linux)
- Page rotation in 90° clockwise steps (repeat for any orientation); annotations persist through rotations
- Full-text search (Cmd+F / Ctrl+F) with hit highlights on the canvas and in the sidebar
- Text boxes — drag to size, style with color and font size, with an optional per-box "scale with zoom" so margin notes stay proportional to the page; undo/redo
- Normalize an under- or over-sized document or image to the standard page size on the canvas (right-click → Normalize Size)
Annotations (on pages, and on the canvas)
- Highlighter — two modes (toolbar toggle): Box drags a rectangle to reliably capture text into the References tab; Freehand swipes like a marker. Both capture the text they cover; over non-text, Box leaves a highlight rectangle and Freehand a persistent translucent marker
- Freehand pen — draw on a page, or directly on the empty canvas (canvas marks stay locked to the canvas, in front of everything); hold Shift to lock the line straight (snaps to 45°)
- Note flags (A–Z, 2A–2Z…) stamped on pages, visible on canvas and in panel
Sidebar Panel
- Viewer tab — page-by-page view of the open document with page navigation
- References tab — all text highlights collected in one list; expand any reference to read its full passage (line breaks preserved); exportable as a standalone HTML file
- Open Documents list — always shown at the bottom; toggle a document's threads (they take that document's color); double-click to reveal in Finder or re-link a missing file
- Edge tabs on the right side of the canvas open the panel without taking up canvas space
Project Files
- Save and restore full canvas layouts as
.scholionfiles — portable: move, share, or sync a project folder and its PDF links keep working - Autosave every 60 seconds plus save-on-quit; atomic, power-loss-safe writes with an automatic crash-recovery backup
- Format-versioned with an integrity checksum — a corrupt or newer-version file is detected on open and won't be silently overwritten
- A standing save-status indicator shows whether your work is safe (
Saved <time>/Editing.../Saved!) - Missing PDFs are kept as placeholders — positions and annotations survive a re-save; re-link when the file is found
Pre-built binaries are on the Releases page.
| Platform | File |
|---|---|
| macOS (universal) | Scholion.dmg |
| Windows (x64) | Scholion-Windows.zip |
| Linux (x86_64) | Scholion-Linux.zip |
# One-time dependency
brew install glfw
# Build from repo root
cmake -S scholion -B scholion/build \
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
-DSCHOLION_WITH_MUPDF=ON
cmake --build scholion/build -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)
open scholion/build/Scholion.app# From an MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit shell
cmake -S scholion-win -B scholion-win/build \
-G Ninja \
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
-DSCHOLION_WITH_MUPDF=ON
cmake --build scholion-win/buildMuPDF static libs must be placed in scholion-win/third_party/mupdf/lib/ before building. See scholion-win/CLAUDE.md for the full setup guide.
scholion/ macOS build + all shared cross-platform source
src/ application logic (main.cpp, renderer.cpp, …)
include/ public headers
third_party/ Dear ImGui, MuPDF, tinyfiledialogs
resources/ AppIcon.icns, Info.plist
scholion-win/ Windows CMake overlay + platform stubs
.github/workflows/ CI/CD (build.yml)
RELEASE_NOTES.md Release notes — embedded into each CI release
All application logic lives in scholion/src/ and scholion/include/. Both platforms compile from the same files; platform differences are handled with #ifdef __APPLE__ / #ifdef _WIN32 guards.
A single workflow (.github/workflows/build.yml) covers both platforms.
| Trigger | What happens |
|---|---|
Push to main or develop |
Both platform builds run as a compile check — no release created |
Version tag (v*) |
Full sequential build + automatic release |
Release sequence: macOS builds first and creates a draft release with the DMG and release notes attached. Windows builds after (needs: build-macos) and uploads its zip to that draft. A publish job then makes the release live. No artifact storage is used.
Cutting a release:
# 1. Update RELEASE_NOTES.md, push to main
git push origin main
# 2. Create the version tag via the GitHub API
gh api repos/armmrdn/Scholion/git/refs \
--method POST \
--field ref="refs/tags/vX.Y" \
--field sha="$(gh api repos/armmrdn/Scholion/git/refs/heads/main --jq '.object.sha')"Once a tag name has been used with a published release, GitHub locks it permanently. Always use a new tag name for each release (e.g.
v1.0,v1.1,v2.0).
© 2026 ARMMRDN.
This project makes use of open source libraries including Dear ImGui, MuPDF, GLFW, and tinyfiledialogs. Each library retains its own license.