This paper presents a single-aperture single-pixel reader for communication with Optical Frequency Identification (OFID) tags. By virtue of its single-aperture architecture, the reader’s optical system provides a shared optical path for the receive and transmit communication channels. Also, physical alignment between the reader and an OFID tag is visually guided using the reader’s emitted light, securing a robust data link as long as the OFID tag is illuminated. Besides a description of the reader’s optical sub-system, this paper also presents the electronic sub-system design with an emphasis on the transmitter and receiver circuits. The transmitter, built with a linear LED driver, achieves a power efficiency of nearly 87%. The receiver, featuring a third-order bandpass filter, reduces both low-frequency and high-frequency ambient noise. A prototype of the reader, with both optical and electronic systems outfitted in a 3D-printed enclosure, was built and tested. Test results show that the reader is able to receive modulated luminescent signals from an OFID tag.