Language guide

Multilingual RSVP reader for iPhone

Absorb is built for readers who want one-word-at-a-time reading across more than one language. The app can turn books, documents, website text, and scanned pages into a fixed-gaze RSVP reading session when the text extracts cleanly.

Direct answer

Absorb supports books and reading content in English, Polish, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Hungarian, Swahili, and Czech. It is a strong fit for multilingual readers who want RSVP speed reading, ORP highlighting, and local-first imports on iPhone.

Download Absorb on the App Store

Supported book languages

European languages English, Polish, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Hungarian, and Czech.
Asian languages Japanese and Chinese, with best results when the imported or scanned text is segmented cleanly enough for RSVP reading.
Additional language Swahili, for readers who want public-domain or imported text in that language.

How multilingual RSVP reading works

RSVP reading depends on a reliable stream of words or short text units. For alphabetic languages with visible spaces between words, Absorb can usually present each word cleanly. For Japanese and Chinese, results depend more heavily on the source text and segmentation, because these writing systems do not always use spaces between words.

What to import

Practical caveats

Language support does not mean every document will be perfect. Old scans, unusual typography, mixed-language passages, footnotes, tables, formulas, and low-quality page photos can produce awkward RSVP output. For important material, slow down, check the original page when needed, and treat WPM as a comfort setting rather than a score.

Related Absorb guides

Learn more about RSVP reading, reading websites in RSVP, scanning pages into RSVP text, and local-first private reading.