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Ista

Ista is a fast, minimal, terminal-based speed reader inspired by RSVP (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation). It helps you read text efficiently by displaying words (or chunks of words) at a controlled WPM, with optional focus highlighting (ORP-style).

Features

  • Blazingly Fast
  • Focus/ORP Highlighting
  • Chunked reading
  • Command Line first
  • Read text from files or stdin

Demo

demo.mov

Installation

Prerequisites

  • Nim (recommended: latest stable)
  • Nimble (usually packaged with nim)

Build

nimble install https://github.com/arashi-software/ista

Usage

Basic Usage

ista myfile.txt
ista -w 300 myfile.txt
cat article.txt | ista -w 400
ista --chunk 2 -w 200 book.txt

Options

Flag Description Default
--wpm Target words per minute 300
--chunk Number of words displayed at once 1
--no-focus Disable focus highlighting off
<file> Input file stdin

Example

ista book.txt --wpm 500 --chunk 2 --no-focus

Timing

Ista keeps true WPM accurate by:

  1. Calculating the target time per word (or chunk)
  2. Measuring how long terminal rendering takes
  3. Sleeping only for the remaining time This makes sure that:
(render time + sleep time) ≈ target delay

Even at high speeds, the effective reading rate stays consistent.

Focus Mode (ORP)

By default, Ista highlights the Optimal Recognition Point (ORP) of each word in red. This helps your eyes fixate consistently and reduces saccades. You can disable it with:

ista -f

Roadmap

  • PDF parsing
  • Epub parsing
  • Better text scrolling

Housekeeping

As always, contributions, issues, and suggestions are welcome.