Zimlite

Offline ZIM/Markdown reader for Linux, Windows, and handheld game consoles. Browse Wikipedia without internet — even on devices with just 1GB of RAM.

Why Zimlite

Built for 1GB devices

No browser engine, no webview. Zimlite renders ZIM articles directly with a native SDL2 renderer, so it stays fast and light on RAM-constrained handhelds with as little as 1GB of memory.

How it's different from Kiwix

Kiwix apps embed a full web browser to render articles as web pages. Zimlite skips that entirely: it parses ZIM/HTML content straight into its own document model and draws it pixel-by-pixel, avoiding the memory and CPU cost of a browser engine.

What it does

ZIM Archives

Read Wikipedia and other Kiwix ZIM files offline. Full article tree browser with radix-tree navigation.

Markdown & HTML

Renders Markdown and HTML files directly. Convert and read any web content offline.

Keyboard, Mouse & Gamepad

Navigate with keyboard and mouse on desktop, or full controller input on handhelds — no touchscreen required.

Emoji & SVG

Embedded Twemoji SVGs rendered via LunaSVG. Animated GIFs and inline SVG images.

Online Library

Browse and download ZIM archives directly from the Kiwix Library catalog.

Themes & Zoom

Light and dark themes. Adjustable font size for any screen.

Get started

Download a prebuilt release for Linux, Windows, or PortMaster — or build from source.

Download Build Instructions