English | 简体中文
Eye Rest reminds you to look up and rest your eyes while reading on KOReader, so long sessions on a Kindle, Kobo, or other e-ink reader don't leave your eyes aching. It's a Stretchly-style break reminder built around the 20-20-20 rule: short mini breaks and periodic long breaks, paced by how long you actually read. It also adds a one-shot sleep timer for bedtime reading. A pomodoro-style, enhanced alternative to KOReader's built-in Read timer.
When a break is due, a full-screen countdown takes over the page — skip it, postpone it, or (in strict mode) just rest your eyes until it ends:
The rest of the plugin stays out of the way until then:
 Status bar — ☕ in N min to the next break, shown in the header and footer |
 Menu — enable, skip ahead, set a sleep timer, or reset; the title shows the next break inline |
 Settings — intervals and durations to the second, long-break cadence, strict mode, postpone |
 Sleep timer — a one-shot bedtime reminder that ends the reading session |
Compared with the built-in Read timer:
| Read timer | Eye Rest | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Alarm and/or interval, plus auto-start / stop | One Enable breaks switch |
| Timing | Wall-clock, including idle time | Counts only while a book is open; pauses on book close and sleep |
| Break UI | A dismissable message popup | A full-screen countdown that ignores stray taps |
| Controls | — | Skip, postpone, or enforce with Strict mode |
| Break tiers | Basic | Mini breaks + periodic long breaks |
| Sleep timer | A wall-clock alarm | One-shot countdown → full-screen "time to sleep" reminder |
| E-ink refreshes per break | One per second | ~5 (segmented countdown) |
Eye Rest is a single eyerest.koplugin folder placed in KOReader's plugins/ directory.
Download a release (recommended): grab eyerest.koplugin.zip from the
latest release, unzip it, and move
the eyerest.koplugin folder into KOReader's plugins/ directory so the path is
…/koreader/plugins/eyerest.koplugin/. The zip contains only the files the plugin needs.
On a Kindle / remote device (enable KOReader's Tools → SSH server first):
scp -P <port> -i <your_key> -r eyerest.koplugin \
root@<device-ip>:/mnt/us/koreader/plugins/Cloning the repo works too, but it also pulls in development files (
tests/,assets/) that the plugin doesn't need. Run./package.shto produce the cleaneyerest.koplugin.zipyourself.
Then disable the built-in Read timer — the two share a menu slot, so run one at a time:
- Tools → Plugin management → untick Read timer.
- Restart KOReader.
Eye Rest appears under Tools → Eye Rest. No KOReader files need editing.
Everything lives under Tools → Eye Rest (the entry shows the next break inline):
- Enable breaks — the main switch.
- Skip to next — go to a mini break or long break now.
- Sleep timer — a one-shot countdown (e.g. one hour); when it runs out a full-screen reminder tells you to stop reading. Independent of the eye breaks.
- Reset breaks — restart the cycle.
- Settings:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Mini break interval | Reading time between mini breaks |
| Mini break duration | Length of a mini break (minutes : seconds) |
| Long break: every N mini breaks | Mini breaks before a long break (0 = off) |
| Long break duration | Length of a long break (minutes : seconds) |
| Strict mode | Hide Skip / Read-more; the break must run out |
| Postpone | How long Read a bit more defers a break |
| Show countdown in header / footer | Show time-to-next-break in the status bar |
Eye Rest follows KOReader's interface language. Translations are bundled for:
- English
- 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
- 繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
Other languages fall back to English. All strings live in l10n_zh.lua — contributions for more languages are welcome.
Inspired by Stretchly; built on KOReader. Licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 — see LICENSE. Copyright © 2026 Caleb Lin.