It’s possible to replicate some of the core functionality of Readlang on an e-ink device such as a Kobo e-reader, even for free. Use of a document viewing software called KOReader, and a plug-in called AskGPT makes it possible to display items such as dictionary definitions, phrasal and idiomatic translations, grammatical explanations, and cultural contexts on a given word or passage. As prompts to AI are customizable, the output is highly flexible and can be tailored to one’s needs.
I don’t think this is the right forum for a detailed description on how to install and configure the software, but these are the requirements for usage:
- A compatible device, such as a tablet from Kobo, reMarkable, or any number of e-reader manufacturers.
- Installation of KOReader on the device: https://koreader.rocks/
- Installation of the AskGPT plugin: https://github.com/drewbaumann/AskGPT
- An API key from an AI service, such as OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google Gemini, etc. There is a fork of the AskGPT plugin that accommodates a wider selection of APIs than the original project. An API key is akin to a passcode to use the AI service without going through its website.
This is a sample output, based on my customized prompt:
https://ibb.co/C45YY36
For me, the biggest advantage is the ability to look up AI powered translations and explanations from an e-reader. My apologies to Steve for discussing software that can possibly obviate Readlang, but I thought that perhaps some of the readers here would like to know about it, and Readlang offers additional features that aren’t available with AskGPT.