About reading a PDF aloud
This page reads your PDF aloud with the voices that are already in your browser and your computer or phone. Open a PDF, press Read aloud, and listen. The sentence you hear is marked on the page, and the page scrolls with the voice, so you can read along.
You can start anywhere: click a sentence and the voice starts there. Skip a sentence forward or back, change the speed, or pause and go on later. The page remembers where you stopped in each file.
The PDF is opened in your browser and is never uploaded. See below which voices keep the text on your device.
Features
- Read aloud — the whole PDF, page after page, sentence by sentence
- Start anywhere — from the page you are looking at, or click any sentence
- Follow the voice — the sentence being read is marked, and the page scrolls with it
- Voice and speed — every voice your browser has, voices in the PDF's language first, speed from 0.5× to 2×
- Pause, stop and skip — pause and resume, or jump one sentence back or forward
- Two-column pages — one column is read to the end before the next, and words broken at the end of a line are joined
- The full reader — zoom, page list, search, night and sepia pages, full screen
- Remembers your place — the page and sentence where you stopped, for each file
Which voices you get
The voices come from your browser and your system, not from this site. So the list is different on every device:
| Where you open the page | Voices you usually get |
|---|---|
| Chrome on Windows or Mac | The voices of your computer, plus Google online voices |
| Edge on Windows | The Windows voices, plus many natural Microsoft online voices |
| Safari on Mac, iPhone or iPad | Apple voices; more can be added in the system settings |
| Chrome on Android | The Google voices of your phone; more in the phone's settings |
| Firefox | The voices of your computer only |
The list shows the voices for the PDF's language first. The page finds the language from the file, or from the words on the first pages. All other voices are below them, under "Other voices".
Online voices and your privacy
Voices marked online in the list are made on a server of the browser maker (for example Google or Microsoft). To use one, your browser sends each sentence to that server. This site never sees the text, but the browser maker does.
Voices without "online" are device voices: the sound is made on your computer or phone, and the text never leaves it. The page picks a device voice first when there is one for your language. A short note under the voice list always tells you which kind you have.
For a private document, keep a device voice. For the most natural sound, an online voice is often better.
How the text is read
A PDF stores words with their place on the page, not as sentences. Before reading, the page puts the words back in order:
- Each column is read from top to bottom, then the next column;
- Lines are joined into sentences, and a word split with a hyphen at the end of a line ("exam- ple") is read as one word;
- Headings and list items are read as their own sentences;
- A page number alone on a line is skipped.
Each sentence is spoken on its own, so the mark on the page always shows what you hear. Very long sentences are cut at a comma, because some online voices stop on very long text.
Scanned PDFs hold only pictures of pages, with no text inside. The page tells you when this happens. Make the text readable first with OCR PDF, then open the new file here.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Space | Read aloud / pause |
| Shift + → | Next sentence |
| Shift + ← | Previous sentence |
| ← → | Previous / next page |
| + − | Zoom in / out |
| Ctrl + F | Search |
| N | Day → night → sepia |
| F | Full screen |
Click on the pages first, so the reader has the keyboard.
Good to know
- Pause stops the voice and keeps your place. Resume says that sentence again from its start.
- The voice reads the PDF's text as it is: tables, footnotes and page headers are read too, in the order the PDF stores them.
- Some PDFs store their text in a strange order. If the voice jumps around, the PDF itself has its words out of order, and PDF to Text will show the same order.
- On a phone, keep the screen on. Many phones stop the voice when the screen turns off.
- There is no audio file to download: the browser only plays the voices; it does not let a page record them.
Frequently asked questions
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The file is opened and read in your browser. If you pick an online voice, your browser sends the sentences it speaks to the voice maker's server. Device voices keep everything on your device.
Why are there no voices, or only a few?
The voices come from your browser and system. Firefox and some Linux systems have few. Install more voices in your system settings, or open the page in Chrome, Edge or Safari.
Can I start reading from the middle of a page?
Yes. Click any sentence on the page. The voice starts there and goes on to the end of the PDF.
Can it read a scanned PDF?
Not directly: a scan is a picture with no text. Run it through OCR PDF first. The new PDF has a text layer, and this page can read it.
Can I save the reading as an MP3?
No. A web page cannot record the browser's voices. For a short text with your own settings, use Text to Speech.
Does it remember where I stopped?
Yes. Open the same file again in the same browser, and the page opens at your last page. Press Read aloud to go on from the sentence where you stopped.
Related tools
- PDF Reader — the same reader without the voice
- Text to Speech — read typed or pasted text aloud
- OCR PDF — add a text layer to a scanned PDF so it can be read aloud
- PDF to Text — copy the text of a PDF
- EPUB Reader — read EPUB ebooks in your browser
- TXT to PDF — turn a text file into a PDF
How to use it
- Click Open a PDF and pick your file
- Choose a voice and a speed above the pages
- Press Read aloud to start at the page you see, or click any sentence to start there
- Follow the marked sentence; untick Follow the voice if you want to scroll by yourself
- Use the sentence buttons to skip back or forward, and Pause to stop for a while
