Sonarpad

Read it in Italian 🇮🇹

Download the latest release:

• Portable (EXE)
• Installer (Setup)
• Installer (MSI)
• Mac Apple Silicon (DMG)
• Mac Intel (DMG)
• Mac project Sonarpad is a modern, feature-rich Notepad alternative for Windows, built with Rust. It extends traditional text editing with multi-format document support, advanced accessibility features, and Text-to-Speech (TTS) capabilities.

It also includes an integrated media/audiobook player, a bookmark system for both text and audio, the ability to create audiobooks directly from text using Microsoft voices (Edge Neural) and SAPI5, audio transcription with Whisper/faster-whisper, and podcast recording from microphone and system audio.

⚠️ License Notice This project is source-available but NOT open source. Commercial use, redistribution, and derivative works are strictly prohibited.

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Features

• Native Windows UI Built directly on the Windows API for maximum performance and accessibility.
• Multi-Format Support
  • Plain text files
  • PDF documents (text extraction)
  • Microsoft Word (DOCX)
  • Spreadsheets (Excel / ODS via calamine)
  • EPUB e-books
• Text-to-Speech (TTS) & Audiobook Creation
  • Read documents aloud using Microsoft voices (Edge Neural) and SAPI5 (including OneCore)
  • Create MP3 audiobooks directly from text
  • Split audiobooks by fixed parts or by marker text (case sensitive, line start). Example: with "Chapter" it creates one part per chapter; it includes author/introduction in the first part up to the first Chapter. Other options: 2, 4, 6, 8 parts
  • Supports both Microsoft voices and SAPI5/OneCore for playback and audiobook saving
  • Add voices to favorites and switch quickly during reading
  • Dictionary with user-defined word replacements applied during reading and audiobook creation
• Media and Streaming Playback
  • Open and play local media files (including MP3 audiobooks)
  • Open and play direct streaming URLs
  • Seek forward/backward using arrow keys
  • Play/Pause with the Space bar
  • Volume up/down using arrow keys
• Audio Transcription (Whisper / faster-whisper)
  • Transcribe the currently playing audio/media
  • Optional timestamped transcript output
  • Optional CUDA acceleration (NVIDIA GPUs) with runtime package download
  • Automatic bridge/model download on first use
• Bookmarks
  • Create and manage bookmarks for both text files and MP3 playback
  • Quickly jump to saved positions in documents or audio
• Podcast Recording
  • Record from microphone and/or system audio (Voice and audio menu, Ctrl+Shift+R)
• Voice and Audio Menu
  • Start reading (F5)
  • Pause reading (F4)
  • Stop reading (F6)
  • Record audiobook (Ctrl+R)
  • Batch audiobooks (Ctrl+Shift+B)
  • Record podcast (Ctrl+Shift+R)
  • Convert Audio (Ctrl+Shift+A)
  • Transcribe current audio/media
• Accessibility-Focused Designed to work correctly with screen readers such as NVDA and JAWS.
• Accessible Terminal
  • Dedicated terminal window with stable output for screen readers
  • Shortcuts: Ctrl+Shift+P, Alt+I (input), Alt+O (output)
  • Options: auto-scroll, strip ANSI, beep on idle, prevent sleep; choose cmd/PowerShell/Codex CLI
• RSS / Articles Reader
  • Browse and import articles from RSS feeds
• Readable UI Options
  • Text color and text size controls for better readability, including light/dark colors and larger sizes
• Editing tools
  • Find in Files, Strip Markdown Tags, Normalize Whitespace, Hard Line Break
• Voice Tuning Options
  • Set pitch, speed, and volume for voices (Microsoft and SAPI5), applied to reading and audiobook creation
• Modern Tech Stack Written in Rust for safety, performance, and reliability.
• YouTube Transcript Import
  • Import YouTube captions with language selection and optional timestamps.
• Localization
  • English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish.

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Build Instructions

Ensure you have the Rust toolchain installed. Formatting is enforced with cargo fmt --check. Clippy runs in CI as advisory (Windows/TTS glue still emits warnings). Core text logic is the target for stricter linting/tests.

git clone https://github.com/Ambro86/Sonarpad.git
cd Sonarpad
cargo build --release

Run the application:

cargo run --release

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Legal & Licensing

This repository is published for transparency, evaluation, and personal use only.

You MAY:

• View and study the source code
• Build and run the software for personal or evaluation purposes

You MAY NOT:

• Use the software for commercial purposes
• Redistribute the source code or binaries
• Fork this repository for redistribution
• Include this software in other products or projects
• Create or distribute derivative works without written permission

Text-to-Speech features may rely on Microsoft voices and are subject to Microsoft Terms of Service. Commercial usage is explicitly prohibited.

Refer to the LICENSE file for full terms.

Third-Party Binaries and Notices

This project includes third-party binaries (for example BASS-related DLLs and optional CUDA runtime files) and may download additional third-party assets at runtime.

See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for details and upstream references.

If you redistribute binaries, you are responsible for compliance with all third-party licenses and redistribution terms.

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Author

Ambrogio Riili