diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..abfaaed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+# PHPExcel - OpenXML - Read, Write and Create spreadsheet documents in PHP - Spreadsheet engine
+PHPExcel is a library written in pure PHP and providing a set of classes that allow you to write to and read from different spreadsheet file formats, like Excel (BIFF) .xls, Excel 2007 (OfficeOpenXML) .xlsx, CSV, Libre/OpenOffice Calc .ods, Gnumeric, PDF, HTML, ... This project is built around Microsoft's OpenXML standard and PHP.
+
+
+## File Formats supported
+
+### Reading
+ * BIFF 5-8 (.xls) Excel 95 and above
+ * Office Open XML (.xlsx) Excel 2007 and above
+ * SpreadsheetML (.xml) Excel 2003
+ * Open Document Format/OASIS (.ods)
+ * Gnumeric
+ * HTML
+ * SYLK
+ * CSV
+
+### Writing
+ * BIFF 8 (.xls) Excel 95 and above
+ * Office Open XML (.xlsx) Excel 2007 and above
+ * HTML
+ * CSV
+ * PDF (using either the tcPDF, DomPDF or mPDF libraries, which need to be installed separately)
+
+
+## Requirements
+ * PHP version 5.2.0 or higher
+ * PHP extension php_zip enabled (required if you need PHPExcel to handle .xlsx .ods or .gnumeric files)
+ * PHP extension php_xml enabled
+ * PHP extension php_gd2 enabled (optional, but required for exact column width autocalculation)
+
+
+## Want to contribute?
+Fork us!
+
+## License
+PHPExcel is licensed under [LGPL (GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE)](https://github.com/PHPOffice/PHPExcel/blob/master/license.txt)
\ No newline at end of file