WhaleRead 1.19 is free and open source — please update

WhaleRead 1.19.1 is now available for Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 15 or later. If you tried the 1.18 preview or 1.19.0, please update from the GitHub release.

October 6 maintenance update: 1.19.1 fixes overlapping source letters and translation in original-position reading of scanned PDFs with a hidden OCR text layer. Saved translations and the original PDF are retained; the display refreshes automatically without translating again. Untranslated passages and figures stay visible.

The application is now free and open source under GPL-3.0, with optional donations instead of paid unlocks or a subscription.

What's new in 1.19:

• Choose compatible local, self-hosted or cloud API models independently for translation, review and Ask AI.

• Use the lighter HY-MT2 1.8B preset alongside the existing 7B/Ollama option.

• Switch between English and Simplified Chinese interfaces; a clean installation starts in English.

• Keep API Keys in macOS Keychain and grant separate sending permission for each feature, including private tunnels.

• Translate research PDFs in batches through a separate PP-OCRv6 service on your DGX or Linux machine. Pause and resume without approving every page; drafts still need human review.

• Import preview reading preferences and authorize previous book/task folders in the sandboxed edition. Restore custom model/API profiles and your preferred default separately; private connections are not included in the download.

Models and third-party API usage are supplied separately. The download contains no personal library, private endpoint, key or model weight. Research drafts currently target Simplified Chinese and export HTML, not a reconstructed PDF.

Download and source: https://github.com/catlovemiaomiao/WhaleRead/releases/tag/v1.19.1

Website and historical 1.18 demo: https://whaleread-astra.kunyu575.chatgpt.site/

Keep your old app/data backup when upgrading. This build is ad-hoc signed and not Apple-notarized; the release includes first-open instructions and checksums. macOS may ask you to authorize the updated app to access its existing Keychain entries.

The original Astra Challenge architecture and demo remain documented; this update extends that project with user-selected models and a free source release.