Read PDF Aloud: PDF Text to Speech & Voice Reader

Listen to PDFs with natural text-to-speech. Highlights sentences & words as you read. Perfect for research papers and dyslexia.

Read PDF Aloud is a free PDF text to speech reader: listen to research papers, textbooks and reports right in your browser. It reads your PDF files out loud and highlights each sentence as it's read, so you can follow along with your eyes. No sign-up, no account, no email: open the reader, drop in a PDF and press Play. It's built for students reading textbooks and research papers, professionals working through long reports and contracts, language learners, and anyone who would rather listen to PDFs than read them, including people with dyslexia or ADHD. It's also a simple accessibility tool when your eyes are tired of reading on screen. KEY FEATURES 1. Reads two-column papers in the right order Many PDF readers jump across columns and mix sentences together. Read PDF Aloud detects two-column layouts, common in scientific journals and arXiv papers, and reads each column from top to bottom. 2. Follow along with highlighting The sentence being read is highlighted, and with voices that support it, so is the current word. Click any sentence to start reading aloud from there. 3. Skips page clutter Running headers, footers and page numbers at the very top and bottom of each page are skipped, so you hear the main text. 4. A voice that matches your document The extension detects the language of your PDF and picks a voice that speaks it. You can switch to any voice built into your browser or installed on your device, and your choice is remembered for each language. 5. Full playback control Play, pause, stop, skip forward or back by one sentence, and set the speed from 0.8x to 2x. The extension remembers where you stopped in each document. 6. Your files stay on your computer Your PDF is opened and processed inside your browser and is never uploaded to our servers. No account, no tracking, no ads. FREE VS PRO • Free: listen to the first 4 pages of any PDF, with highlighting and all playback controls. • PRO ($9.99, one-time payment): documents up to 100 pages, lifetime access, no subscription. 30-day money-back guarantee. ABOUT VOICES Read PDF Aloud uses the text-to-speech (TTS) voices available in your browser and operating system. In Google Chrome, voices that start with "Google" usually sound the most natural. In Microsoft Edge, look for voices with "Natural" in their name. These browser voices need an internet connection. You can also add free voices to Windows, macOS or ChromeOS: the "Add Voices" button in the player shows you how. HOW TO USE 1. Click the Read PDF Aloud icon in your browser toolbar. 2. Drag and drop a PDF (up to 50 MB) into the window, or click to choose a file. 3. Press Play and start listening. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Can I listen to a PDF for free? Yes. The free version reads the first 4 pages of any PDF, with highlighting and all playback controls. PRO ($9.99, one-time payment) reads documents up to 100 pages. Does it read two-column research papers correctly? Yes. Two-column layouts, common in journals and arXiv papers, are detected and read one column at a time, from top to bottom. Does it work offline? Your PDF is always processed in your browser and never uploaded. Whether playback works offline depends on the voice: browser voices such as "Google" voices in Chrome or "Natural" voices in Edge need an internet connection, while voices installed on your device usually work without one. Which voices can I use? Any text-to-speech voice built into your browser or installed on Windows, macOS or ChromeOS. The extension picks a voice that matches the language of your document, and you can change it at any time. Can it read scanned PDFs? Not yet. A scanned PDF is a set of page images with no real text inside, so there is nothing to read aloud.