Reader tablets
A reader tablet is a kiosk tablet placed in a venue (a restaurant, a bar, a shop, a convention table) where anyone can walk up and read. It is run by FoundryInk and the venue, not set up by you, and there is nothing tablet-specific for you to configure. What matters for you is what a walk-up reader can do with your work on one: read your free issues, buy, tip, and unlock comics they own. This page explains how a reader tablet treats your work and the one thing you need to earn from it.
1What a reader tablet is
A reader tablet is a shared, public device sat on a table or counter at a venue. Nobody signs in on it, and it never takes card details. It shows a catalog of FoundryInk work for whoever picks it up. The tablets are deployed and run by FoundryInk and the venue that hosts them; you do not own, pair, or configure a tablet, and there is no reader-tablet setting in your studio.
2Walk-up readers read your free issues
The main thing a reader tablet does is let anyone read free issues in full, with no sign-in. On the open web a logged-out visitor gets your covers and a few preview pages before a sign-in wall, even on a free comic. On a reader tablet that wall is lifted for free work, so a walk-up reader can read it in full. A tablet is there to give people a free way to try the platform in a venue.
3Buying from the tablet, on a phone
A reader buys without touching card details on the tablet. The tablet shows a code they scan with their phone, which opens their picks on their own device to pay there. A digital copy needs just an email, no account: the receipt and a reading link arrive by email, and they can claim an account later. A print copy asks them to sign in. Prices are never carried in the code; every item is re-checked, so a tampered link can change what is shown, never what it costs.
4Tips, with no account and no platform cut
A reader can tip you from a tablet with no account. They scan the tip code, enter an email for the receipt, and pay on their phone. The tip is a direct charge to your studio, and the platform takes no cut: every cent goes to you. Tipping on the tablet only shows when your studio is set up to accept tips.
5Unlocking a comic you own, for an hour
A reader who already owns a paid comic can read it on the tablet for a while without the tablet ever signing in as them. They scan the tablet, which opens a page on their phone titled Read on the tablet; they sign in with the account they bought the comic with and tap Unlock on the tablet for 1 hour. The tablet can then read the comics they unlocked for one hour, after which it goes back to its public catalog. It is reading only, and the tablet never gets a download.
6What you need to take part
There is nothing tablet-specific to switch on. Your work reaches tablets because it is published on FoundryInk, and the earning paths need only what any sale or tip needs: a connected payout and seller-ready status. Once your studio can sell and accept tips, a reader at a tablet can buy your digital work by email, buy prints, and tip you, and owners can unlock what they bought. Keep a free issue available and that is the piece a walk-up reader actually reads.
7A few honest edges
A reader tablet is reading and buying, never a download: no source file, PDF, or model ever goes to a tablet. Walk-up reading is for free issues only; paid issues stay previewed unless an owner unlocks them for the hour. You cannot choose which venues or tablets carry your work, and tablets only exist where a venue runs one. And a just-bought comic can take a minute to unlock on the tablet, because the purchase has to clear first.
Be ready for tablets
Short, because the work is your normal work. Links into the app. Saved on this device.
Questions creators actually ask
No. Tablets are deployed and run by FoundryInk and the venues that host them. There is no reader-tablet setting, pairing step, or dashboard in your studio. Your work appears on a tablet because it is published on FoundryInk, and you cannot pick which venues carry it.
Read your free issues in full with no sign-in, buy a digital copy with just an email, buy a print (signing in for that), and tip you with no account. If they already own a paid comic, they can unlock it on the tablet for an hour from their phone.
The same way any FoundryInk sale or tip does. Buying uses the normal guest checkout (email, pay on the phone, emailed receipt and reading link), and tips are a direct charge to your studio with no platform cut. You need a connected payout and seller-ready status, which is the only setup required.
No. Walk-up reading is for free issues only. A paid issue keeps its normal preview on a tablet. The only way a paid comic reads in full on a tablet is a reader who already owns it unlocking it for an hour from their phone, which is reading only, with no download.
Never. Tablets read and sell; they never receive a source file, PDF, or model. An unlock lets the tablet display a comic the reader owns for an hour, then it reverts to the public catalog.
Keep at least one issue free. The free issue is what a stranger actually reads on a tablet, and it is what leads them to buy the rest, tip you, or follow you. After that, just be set up to sell and take tips.
Your work, on a table somewhere
A reader tablet puts your free issue in front of someone at a bar or a con, lets them buy by email or tip you with no cut, and lets your regulars read what they own for an hour. You do not run the tablet; you just keep a free way in and stay ready to take a sale or a tip.
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