How to Convert PDF to Speech

Tired of going through dense PDF books and screens?

If you don’t have time for viewing long PDF documents, why not listen to them instead by using reading apps? 

Here’s a shortlist of the best online tools and browsers for converting PDF text to speech:

• Microsoft Edge
• Google Chrome
• Natural Readers
• ReadAloud 

1. Microsoft Edge

Our first tip is to use Microsoft Edge. It’s available online for free and has a native accessibility feature for reading text out loud – including document files, like PDF. 

Follow these steps:

1. Open your PDF in Microsoft Edge. You can do this by dragging and dropping your PDF into the browser, or right click any PDF and select to open it in Microsoft Edge.

2. Click on Read aloud.

While Microsoft Edge doesn’t give you many read out loud options, you can adjust the settings for a natural voice reader that reads at a pace you can follow. 

2. Google Chrome

Unlike Microsoft Edge, Chrome doesn’t come equipped with native accessibility features. However, you can download extensions to add more functionality to your browser.

A quick search in the Chrome Web Store’s accessibility section can point you in the right direction to find ana pp that reads text. A few notable ones are Speechify and Readme TTS. Both allow you to select specific text passages, adjust the reading voice, come with support for additional file formats, and more.

3. Natural Readers

Natural Readers is a popular and reliable text to speech converter with a free online version. The free version supports PDF, RTF, TXT, and DOCX formats. Signing up for a free account lets you adjust the reading voice, store PDFs, add bookmarks, and turn captions on.

Upgrade your account for more features, like the ability to download an MP3 version of the reading.

4. ReadAloud

Both free and requiring no registration, ReadAloud is a Windows web app that reads text and converts text to speech. You can upload PDFs up to 400 pages long (as well as EPUB, DOC, DOCX, and TXT files). 

ReadAloud has a pronunciation editor where you can correct words that aren’t pronounced well. You can also paste in a webpage URL or your own text, and you can customize font style, color, and text highlights.

Viewing PDFs and more with Xodo

Still looking to do more with your PDFs?

Xodo is the platform to check out for more tools. Its online PDF viewer lets you annotate PDF text and content for free. You can also customize your PDF viewing experience to boost your productivity whether you’re at home or on the go.

And the functionality doesn’t stop there. You’ll have more than 30 online tools for a well-rounded arsenal of PDF tools to edit, merge, and split your PDFs, among other tasks.