Hello everyone,
I want to be upfront: I am the developer of the app I am writing about. But I am also, increasingly, part of this community's world — so I hope a personal post is the right way to do this.
I am a physicist from Germany. A few years ago I was diagnosed with Usher syndrome type 2A. My field of vision is closing, and it will not come back. I had always wanted to write books — and I found that the tools we write books with are built for eyes: menus, palettes, mouse pointers.
So I spent the last months building the tool I could not find. It is called Lunaver, and it is a book studio for the Mac, designed for ears from the first line of code.
What it does, in plain terms: you create a book and either write it yourself or let the built-in AI draft chapters with you. The central paths — creating a book, having chapters written, reading aloud, exporting — work by voice. When the book is done, Lunaver exports it in four formats from a single source: print-ready PDF, EPUB, audiobook, and braille. The braille side matters to me personally: German full braille (Vollschrift) following DIN 66008, plus UEB Grade 1 and a simplified Grade 2 — because one day I will need that edition myself.
The app is free, works locally on the Mac, and needs no account. There is an optional Pro subscription, but I did not want the core to sit behind a paywall.
I will be honest about the limits too: voice covers the central workflows, not every corner of the app yet. Some settings still mean regular VoiceOver navigation. And on-device AI generation takes patience on smaller Macs — the app announces progress, but it is not instant. It is version 1.0.5, and I am fixing things every week.
Which is really why I am posting: I built this with my own ears, and my ears are not everyone's. If you try Lunaver and something fights you under VoiceOver, I genuinely want to know. Accessibility reports go to the top of my list — this is the app I myself will depend on.
Mac App Store link: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6760931487
It requires macOS 26 or later on Apple Silicon. Interface is in English and German.
The longer personal story, if you want it: https://lunaver.app/pages/brief.html
Thank you for reading — and for this community. It has taught me more about working by ear than any documentation ever did.
Klaus
Comments
Good For You!
I don't have a Mac, so I can't help, but I just wanted to pop in w/a word of encouragement & say good for you! I'm an author also, & it's hard enough w/o having to fight the writing tools you use on the daily. You're having to adapt to a whole new way of doing stuff, & that makes it even harder. So again, good for you by realizing you're opening up a new chapter in your life & facing the challenge head on. It won't be easy at times, but you already know that. I think it'll be gratifying, though. Keep it up, Klaus. In a world seemingly increasingly full of entitled whiners, you're such a refreshing exception! If you need anything & think I can somehow help you, by all means hit me up.
Have you thought about trying Quill?
Not to take anything away from what you're building, but I did want to mention something that might be worth looking at.
There's an app called Quill, and I believe the website is quillforall.org. It's designed as a fairly comprehensive writing tool for blind users. It's available on both Windows and Mac, supports creating and organising your own books, and while it does include AI features, using them is entirely optional.
I'm a Windows user, so I wouldn't be able to try the app you're developing anyway, but I was wondering whether you've had a look at Quill. It may already do quite a lot of what you're trying to achieve, and being cross-platform gives it a bit of an advantage as well.
Follow-up: a second app for your own AI keys
A short follow-up, since a few people asked about stronger AI models and about how this compares to other tools.
Since today, August 10, there is a second app: Lunaver Studio. Same accessible studio, same four export formats — but it works with your own Claude and Gemini API keys. Your keys, serverless, and a one-time purchase of 99.99 EUR instead of a subscription.
To keep things clear: the free Lunaver app does not use or need any API keys — it works locally on the Mac. Studio is for writers who already have their own keys and want to bring the big cloud models into the same accessible workflow.
Mac App Store link: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6793892216
It requires macOS 26 or later on Apple Silicon.
And thank you both for the replies. AbleTec, your words meant a great deal — I will take you up on that offer. kool_turk, I did not know Quill; I will look at it properly. If it already serves people well, that is good news for all of us. What I set out to build is a bit narrower and a bit stranger: a studio that assumes you work by ear from the first line of code, and that produces the braille edition from the same source as the print book. Whether I got that right is for you to judge, not me — which is exactly why I posted here.
Klaus
I’m totally new to this field but really curious
Hello! First and foremost, it’s wonderful that someone actually decided to build something with the accessibility in mind!
As a person who might consider writing a book one day, I’d love to know why things like Pages and Microsoft Word is not enough? Especially for the blind?
Thank you in advance :)
Keep up the great work fantastic
Hello, I just wanted to say this is really fantastic that you’re doing this. I don’t have a Mac so I won’t be able to test what you’re developing, but I think this is great that you’re taking this challenge on. I can’t imagine how much of a challenge that must be losing your vision. What does this let me admirable that you’re going and taking on challenges and keeping to learn new things. I’ve been totally blind since birth. This is great to see what you’re doing though.
Re: Have you thought about trying Quill?
I tried it. Feels like a vibecoded mess with a confusing and weirdly grandiloquent user manual. It tries to hit all boxes: from book writing to journal managing, without actually doing anything well according to my tests. I'd rather use Joplin instead.
The worst part is that they have release notes for a 1.0 version which isn't anywhere on their site. Moreover, some addons require Version 1.2, which is even more bonkers.
Re: Quill
Quill feels very much like an app that was made by someone getting over-excited by vibe coding. There are way, way too many features for a v1. I am a little bit concerned by what happens when the novelty wears off. Will they have the commitment to spend countless hours fixing bugs and making it work properly? The thing about vibe coding is that it's much more fun to add a big new feature than refine an existing one. The wizard you get at the start of the app feels like a bit of an admission of guilt.
The first version I tried didn't support me typing in the letter "s" into the editor. I opened the app, tried to type in "Test" and failed. The second build didn't even open on the Mac. The next one (and currently 0.9 release) does work now.
To be fair, the Mac isn't the primary platform so I'm guessing it wasn't being actively tested, and the app is still in beta but even so I think this was a little indicative of where the priorities were.
Anyway I don't want to be down on a free app that has the possibility to be very useful - a screen reader first app of this kind could be great for us. But I am going to wait and see what happens before trying to make it my daily editor of choice - let's see if we start seeing loads of bug fixes, or just endless new niche features.
The dev did give an interview on Double Tap, and you could tell he was just having an amazing time with this and he came across as very passionate and likeable. But development isn't all excitement, bells and whistles - it's mostly spending hours and hours fixing a tiny boring bug in reality, and I think time will tell how many of these vibe coded apps really stand the test of time.
Re: Re: Quill
It tries to be Scrivener, but fails. It tries to be notepad++, but fails. It also tries to be a day one like thing, but fails. Even the addons aren't compatible with the program itself. Without a proper developing team, it won't last much longer IMO.
impressions of the app and some other options
What you've done here is really neat. especially for ai-first writing, it's the best I've seen in this space.
However I do want to politely push back slightly about the lack of writing apps available. I'm idly working on something for this myself (in a slightly different niche) but even before that both Ulysses and, perhaps unexpectedly the coding application vscode both work really well for writing. Ulysses has no ai features, but vscode can integrate with anything you already use.
What do I consider essential features?
Not trying to dissuade you from your app--as I said, I tried it and really like it. Just hoping o give you some more options to consider in deciding what you want to make, or what tools might work for you.