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Sofer lets you put together a Sefer of your own and have it printed and sent to you. You choose the Sefer (or several), which part, the commentaries, a translation, the look of the pages and the cover, and Sofer typesets it as a printed Sefer is set. Order one copy or many, or download a PDF to print at home.
Every book is made to your choices - a Chumash with the commentaries you learn, a Siddur with only the Tefillos you say, a Sefer with your family’s dedication - and we keep prices as low as we can.
Sofer’s library comes from free digital editions of Sefarim:
We offer a text only when its edition may be printed and sold. Every month we check each library for new and corrected texts.
The back of every book’s title page names each edition used, its licence, where it came from and when, so any mistake can be traced.
Please know before you order: not everything in the library has been checked by a person, so there will be mistakes. Many texts were typed or scanned by volunteers, some were converted by computer, and some Nikud was added by computer (see Dicta’s Nakdan below). Well-known Sefarim have been read and corrected by many people; less-known ones may not have been.
Sofer prints each text as its edition has it, and corrects the problems it knows of. Some of what Sofer adds is also done by computer - for example marking the Shva Na, Kamatz Katan and Meteg in a Siddur - following the rules of Dikduk, which have exceptions.
If you find a mistake, please , so it can be fixed for everyone.
Thousands: Tanach with Onkelos, the Haftaros and many commentaries; Mishnah; the Gemara with Rashi, Tosafos and other Rishonim; the Rambam and Shulchan Aruch with their commentaries; Siddurim, a Kiddush book and Zemiros; Midrash, Zohar, Mussar, Chassidus, Machshavah, poetry and Piyyut, and much more. Browse them by shelf on the Home tab, or search by name or author in English or Hebrew, in any common spelling (Koheles, Kohelet and Ecclesiastes all work).
Most often because no edition of it may be printed and sold: many modern editions and translations are under copyright. Some books are left out because they are not suitable for the readers Sofer is made for. If you have a Sefer that is yours to share, or free of copyright, you can upload it (see “Uploading Sefarim” below).
Yes. Under “Which part” press + Add another part for more parts of the same Sefer, and add other Sefarim after it - with commentaries too. The title page and the cover show each Sefer on its own.
A Sefer with commentaries is set page by page, as in a Mikraos Gedolos: the text at the top, and each commentary in columns under it, on the same page as the words it explains. Supercommentaries (Siftei Chachamim on Rashi, for example) follow their commentary, with letters in it marking each note.
Under “Technical details” you can choose the commentaries’ fonts (one for all, or one for each, such as Rashi script) and whether their names are printed above them or in the margin.
Yes, in English and many other languages, where a translation may be printed. It can go after each passage, beside the Hebrew or on the facing page - or print the translation alone. A translation that covers only part of a Sefer says so. Commentaries can be in Hebrew, with their translation, or in translation alone.
Every Sefer that has an edition with Nikud can be printed with or without it. A Sefer with no such edition can have Nikud added by computer, by Dicta’s Nakdan (see the next question).
Tanach is printed with its Ta’amim, in a font made for them.
The Nakdan is a program made by Dicta that adds Nikud to Hebrew text. It reads the whole sentence to decide how each word is read, and it learned from a great many Sefarim with Nikud, so it knows rabbinic Hebrew and recognizes verses quoted in a Sefer. Dicta allows Sofer to use it, and every book with its Nikud credits Dicta.
Its Nikud is usually right, but no one checks it word by word, so there will be mistakes - more in rare words, names and unusual phrasing. It is used only when you choose it, for a Sefer with no edition with Nikud of its own; never in place of an edition with real Nikud.
Onkelos beside the verses, as a commentary, or as Shnayim Mikra v’Echad Targum (each verse twice, then its Targum, the first reading in Sefer Torah script if you like); commentaries; the Haftaros, after each Parsha or all at the end, by Ashkenazi or Sefardi custom or both; and a chart of the Ta’amim. The Aliyos are marked, and the Aseres Hadibros are given with both sets of Ta’amim.
Yes. Tick the sections you want (and the Zemiros, in the Kiddush book). Siddurim have their own look, with the first word of each paragraph larger. In a Sefardi Siddur the Kavanos are printed after Hashem’s names. The Shva Na and Kamatz Katan are marked, and a Meteg shows the stress where it is not on the last syllable.
Yes. Choose the page size, the text size (small, medium, large or your own), and under “Technical details” the fonts, margins, line spacing, headers, page numbers (digits or Hebrew letters), columns and more. The layout adapts to whatever you choose.
So the Nikud never touches the line above. A text with Nikud or Ta’amim gets as much room between its lines as its font needs - some need more than others - so the top of a ל never meets the vowels above it. You can set the line spacing yourself under “Technical details”; if it is tighter than the font needs, you are told that letters may touch.
Frank Ruehl (the classic font of printed Sefarim), Frank Sofer (a Frank Ruehl made for Nikud and Ta’amim), Keter YG, Ezra SIL, Simple, Shofar, David, Keter Aram Tsova, Taamey Ashkenaz, Taamey David, Noto Serif Hebrew, Rashi script, and two Sefer Torah scripts, Sefardi and Ashkenazi, with Nikud and Ta’amim. Each shows its letters as you choose. Headings and English text have fonts of their own. A text with Nikud or Ta’amim is offered only the fonts that place them well.
Every font is set so its letters are as tall as the others’ (without crowns and serifs), so changing the font does not make the text bigger or smaller.
Yes. Under “Technical details” the commentaries can share one font, or each have its own - Rashi script for Rashi and Tosafos, for example, and another font for the rest.
Where the two customs read the same verses, the Haftarah is printed once, with short notes where one custom begins, skips or ends (“Sephardim continue here”). Only Haftaros with nothing in common are printed twice, the Sefardi first. A Haftarah read for two Parshiyos in the book is printed once, and the other Parsha says on which page to find it. Where the Haftarah depends on the year (Vayeilech, Ha’azinu), every option is given, each headed with when it is read.
Yes: your own words (a dedication, the owner’s name, a L’iluy Nishmas) at the foot of the title page and, if you like, on the front or back cover. You can also give the book its own name.
The verses of Tehillim 119 for each letter of a name, with נשמה if you like, as said for a Choleh or in memory of someone. Add it at the end of any book, or see and print it on its own under Resources.
No - the text is printed as its edition has it. To print a text of your own, upload it (see “Uploading Sefarim”).
Yes. “Save and preview” shows its first pages, so you can check the look before ordering. The whole book is made once you order it.
Yes, the whole book, to print at home. Each account gets one free PDF a day; after that each PDF takes a credit. You get 100 credits with every order of printed copies, and can buy 250 credits for $5. The same book again, unchanged, is free, and a PDF that fails gives its credit back.
A book of a Sefer you uploaded yourself (or of a Sefer with only your uploaded commentary) is free, up to 5 a day.
Choose a cover look and a colour set (or your own colour). Every word on the cover can be changed where it stands and made bold, bigger or smaller, and you can add text boxes, pictures and a background picture. Or upload a cover you made yourself: the cover page gives its exact size, where the spine and safe area are, and a guide picture to design on.
Paperback, glue-bound hardcover, bindings that lie flat (spiral and Wire-O), and saddle stitch (stapled) for thin books. Cream or white paper, and a matte or glossy cover.
Sizes from a pocket size (4.25 × 6.875 in) through 6 × 9 and 7 × 10 to 8.5 × 11, and many others under “Other sizes”. Not every binding comes in every size; the choices show what can be printed.
Cream or white? Cream is softer on the eyes for long reading, as most Sefarim are printed; white is crisper. Matte or glossy cover? Matte is smooth and quiet and shows fewer fingerprints; glossy is shiny and makes colours brighter.
A thick book gets a wider inside margin, so no words disappear into the binding.
Yes. Each binding has a smallest number of pages. A shorter book is printed with blank pages at the end (you are told before you order), or you can add another Sefer to it.
It depends on the number of pages, the size, binding and paper, and is shown in the cart before you pay, with shipping (and tax, when known). We keep prices as low as we can. We use different printers to get you the best price, so each shipping choice shows its own total.
Yes. Add each one to the cart; they are paid for together and shipped together where possible.
Ordering 5 or more copies of one Sefer? .
For now to the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Israel (orders with up to $75 of books). The cart shows when the books will be printed and sent, and how long each shipping choice takes on the way.
When your order is sent, its page shows “Shipped” with the tracking.
Use “Report a problem” on your order’s page within a week of receiving it (if it never came, within 30 days of when it was sent). Add photos of the problem, and of the box if it was damaged on the way. Once the printer has seen them, the book is printed again and sent to you at no cost (or, if it cannot be reprinted, refunded). You do not need to send it back unless we ask.
This is for printing and shipping problems. A mistake in the text is printed as its edition has it (see “How accurate are the texts?”) - but please tell us about it too, so it can be fixed: choose “A mistake in the text itself” under “Report a problem”.
No. Once you pay, your order goes straight to the printer and cannot be cancelled or changed. Before you pay, look through the preview, and check the size, binding, copies and address in the cart.
By card, on Stripe’s secure payment page; Sofer never sees your card number. Sales tax is added where it applies.
Yes: anyone with an account can upload a Word file (.docx) under Resources → Library of uploaded Sefarim. Put its chapter names in “Heading 1” and section names in “Heading 2”. Text only: pictures are left out, footnotes are kept. The file is checked at once and you are told what to fix. You can also upload a commentary on a Sefer in the library; it is printed like other commentaries.
We check every upload before it is available. You choose how others may use it (CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC); either way Sofer may print it and sell printed copies. You can download your own Sefer as a PDF, free (up to 5 a day), and upload a new version whenever you like.
With a passkey, Google, Microsoft, Apple, or a code sent to your email. We ask the sign-in services for as little as they allow; with a passkey nothing is shared at all. Your books and orders are yours alone.
Use our ; we reply by email.