What is macreflower?

aonez/macreflower — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-07-18 · repo last pushed 2016-11-27

★ 1Objective-CAudience · generalComplexity · 2/5DormantSetup · moderate

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Reformats PDFs for Kindle
      Drag and drop interface
      Shows conversion progress
    How it works
      Wraps k2pdfopt tool
      No terminal needed
      Mac desktop app
    Use cases
      Read academic papers on Kindle
      Read technical reports on Kindle
      Read PDF-heavy content on e-reader
    Audience
      Mac users
      Kindle Paperwhite owners
      Non-terminal users
    Tech stack
      Objective-C
      macOS app
      k2pdfopt dependency

mindmap root((repo)) What it does Reformats PDFs for Kindle Drag and drop interface Shows conversion progress How it works Wraps k2pdfopt tool No terminal needed Mac desktop app Use cases Read academic papers on Kindle Read technical reports on Kindle Read PDF-heavy content on e-reader Audience Mac users Kindle Paperwhite owners Non-terminal users Tech stack Objective-C macOS app k2pdfopt dependency

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Reformat academic papers as PDFs to read comfortably on a Kindle Paperwhite.

USE CASE 2

Convert technical reports into Kindle-friendly layouts without using the terminal.

USE CASE 3

Drag and drop a PDF onto the app to get a version sized for a six-inch e-ink screen.

What is it built with?

Objective-CmacOSk2pdfopt

How does it compare?

	aonez/macreflower	burningtyger/gmail-notifr	juanpe/jptoolbox
Stars	1	1	1
Language	Objective-C	Objective-C	Objective-C
Last pushed	2016-11-27	2013-01-22	2014-02-05
Maintenance	Dormant	Dormant	Dormant
Setup difficulty	moderate	moderate	easy
Complexity	2/5	2/5	2/5
Audience	general	general	developer

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires installing the separate k2pdfopt command-line utility and building the Mac app from source in Xcode.

So what is it?

MacReFlower is a small Mac app that reformats PDF files so they read well on a Kindle Paperwhite. If you've ever tried reading a PDF on an e-reader, you know the text is usually tiny and you have to zoom and scroll constantly. This tool fixes that by resizing and reflowing the content to fit the device's screen. You just drag and drop a PDF onto the app, and it handles the conversion. Behind the scenes, it relies on a separate utility called k2pdfopt, which is specifically designed to optimize documents for small screens. The app gives you a simple interface around that conversion engine, showing progress while it works. This is for anyone who reads academic papers, technical reports, or other PDF-heavy content on a Kindle. Instead of squinting at full-page layouts meant for letter-size paper, you get text sized for a six-inch screen. The README notes it's built for the Paperwhite specifically but might work on other e-ink devices too. The project is quite small and focused, it's essentially a front-end for an existing command-line tool, making that functionality accessible to people who'd rather not use the terminal. The README doesn't go into further detail beyond that.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Build a simple drag-and-drop macOS app wrapper in Objective-C that runs k2pdfopt on dropped PDF files and shows a progress bar during conversion.

Prompt 2

Create a Mac app interface that accepts a PDF via drag and drop, passes it to k2pdfopt as a command-line tool, and displays real-time progress to the user.

Prompt 3

Write an Objective-C macOS app that watches for dropped PDF files, runs k2pdfopt to reflow them for a Kindle Paperwhite screen size, and saves the converted output.

Frequently asked questions