About Oktob

It began with one Arabic book that had nowhere to go.

Oktob is a Mac app for making books, for authors writing in any language, right to left or left to right. This page says why it exists, what it holds to, and who makes it.

Made by: Mo Elkholy
For: macOS
Status: Development alpha. Not available for download yet.

Why Oktob exists

A proper book in Arabic should not need a workaround.

The same chapter opening, set right to left and left to right. Illustration, drawn for this page.

Oktob started with an Arabic author who wanted to make a proper book: a print edition and an ebook, set right to left, with English words left in place and tashkil where it mattered. The tools for making books assumed left to right. The tools that handled Arabic were not made for books. Every finished page needed a workaround.

So the work began on a tool that treats right to left as normal, not as an exception: paragraphs, page numbers, running heads, footnotes, punctuation, and which way the pages turn.

Along the way it became clear that the same care helps every author. A novel in English, a collection of stories, a bilingual book of poems: each deserves type set properly and pages you can check before you export. Oktob grew into a tool for any book, in any language. Arabic is still where it starts.

Today Oktob is in development alpha. Nobody can download it yet. When there is something you can try, the waitlist hears first.

What we believe

Three things we hold to.

They decide what goes into Oktob, and what we say about it.

Honest

We say what Oktob does today, and mark everything else as planned. No invented numbers, no reviews we did not earn, no countdowns.

Precise

A book is made of small, exact decisions: where a line breaks, how a footnote is numbered, which way a page turns. Oktob shows every page before you export, so you can check each one.

Your books stay on your Mac

Oktob keeps your books as files on your Mac. We do not keep a copy. If you connect an AI app, that app sends what it reads to its own provider.

Who is behind it

An author building for authors.

Oktob is designed and built by Mo Elkholy, an entrepreneur and author whose books include Twelve Monkeys. Writing books and building useful tools meet here: in the work of helping an author finish something they can put into a reader’s hands.

Write to me: hello@oktob.press

From the desk of Mo Elkholy

Dear author,

I’m Mo Elkholy, an entrepreneur and an author. My latest book, Twelve Monkeys, is about giving the things you want to do a clear direction. Building Oktob comes from a closely related belief: a good idea deserves a way to become something real.

A book asks a lot of its author. You find the words, question them, rewrite them, and eventually decide they are ready for someone else to read. The care you put into the writing deserves to carry through to the page.

Oktob began with a frustration close to home: wanting to make a proper Arabic book, and finding tools that made its language and direction a problem to work around. I started building the tool I wanted to use. As it grew, the purpose grew with it: to help authors make books they are proud to put their names on, in their own language.

I’m still building it. I will be clear about what works today and what is still planned. I want you to be able to check every page and keep control of your files.

And if something is wrong, write to me. There is a person behind Oktob, and a fellow author on the other end.

Mo Elkholy

Entrepreneur, author and maker of Oktob

Your book, in your language, in its own direction.

Join the waitlist. We write when there is something you can try. Nothing else.

Development alpha. Not available for download yet.