Hey Product Hunt :)

I’m Ashish, and this is my first ever app. I’ve been a software dev for a while and always wanted to ship something of my own, so this one means a lot to me.

Why I made it: I read a lot of research papers on my Mac, and after a few hours the bright, glossy screen just felt tiring. I wanted it to feel more like reading on paper. There are a few apps that do this, but none of them let me try it for free, so I decided to build my own.

How it works: Shoji is a small menu bar app written in Swift. It places a very light paper texture over your whole screen. Clicks go straight through it, so you use your Mac like normal. The textures are generated in code instead of being photos, so they look the same at any resolution and you don’t see a pattern repeating. Getting them to look right in both light and dark mode took way longer than I expected.

What you get:

7 papers: Plain, Rice, Linen, Newsprint, Washi, Cold Press and Parchment
Works on every display and over full screen apps
Hidden from screenshots and screen recordings
Separate strength for light and dark mode
Pause it whenever you want
No tracking, and it never reads your screen

Coming soon:

Shoji for Windows
Per-app rules, to turn the paper off in apps where you don’t want it
Dynamic theme switching
More papers/textures

Pricing: Plain Paper is free forever, and Pro unlocks all 7 textures. $5 ($3 promotional offer) once for a lifetime license on up to 3 Macs, 14-day no-questions-asked refund and lifetime updates. Use code HUNTTWO to get Pro License at just $2 (First 200 users only).

Since this is my first app, I’d really love your honest feedback, good or bad. Which paper do you like most, and what should I add next?

Thanks for checking it out!