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An open reader for educators, authors, and learners. A modern web-first reading experience, structured sections, and built-in OER support – designed for open publishing with open, portable, and constraint-free content. Host a single publication or a full collection, all from one install.

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Meet the Open Reader

The Grav Helios Open Reader is a ready-to-run skeleton package, built on a plugin architecture, that transforms the Grav Premium Helios theme into a structured reader for open textbooks, long-form web guides, and OER publications – built on Grav CMS with Markdown file-based content and an integrated Admin panel.

Open Reader – Reader home

Open Reader – Reader home with cover image

Open Reader – Section page

Open Reader – Section page with learning objectives

Open Reader – Reader home with parts

Open Reader – Search

It gives your open content a modern, clean, and organized home on the web: a place to openly publish course readers, textbooks, and learning resources that you keep and control. Content is stored as simple text files you can keep locally, and it runs on nearly any web hosting service.

Your reader. Your content. Your call. A modern, full-featured open reader built on open, portable Markdown files – no database, no vendor dependency, and a reading experience that feels complete from day one.

Who It's For

• Educators publishing open textbooks, course readers, and OER materials
• Students documenting individual or group projects
• Open publishers sharing structured learning resources
• Individuals or teams that want a version-controlled, GitHub or Codeberg workflow

How It's Structured

Helios Open Reader organizes your content into four page types:

Built for Open Publishing and Learning

A single, well-organized reader with a clear section structure – giving learners a focused reading experience and authors full control.

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Clean reading experience A distraction-free, web-first layout optimized for focused reading.

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Structured sections and parts Organize content into sections with optional part groupings for longer works.

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Educational callout blocks Eleven purpose-built block types – Learning Objectives, Exercises, Definitions, Key Takeaways, and more

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Smart search Site-wide search with results grouped by section or part and sorted by relevance – so the most useful content surfaces first.

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