Language Reader

Synthetic speech, and the subsequent Text-To-Speech technology developed from it, allows Language Reader to read aloud any piece of text and even full documents in a simple and straightforward way.

You can copy and paste text onto the program’s interface or load entire PDF and Office documents in a dozen languages, including double-byte character ones, such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.

English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, and Russian are the other languages supported by this free tool. If your computer doesn’t have a synthetic voice installed for any of these languages, the program will download it and install it for you. Actually, you can tell Language Reader to install all of them in just one go. You can also download in the same package four cartoon characters that will provide you with assistance in using the program.

Actually, this simple tool requires very little help to start enjoying it. Its one-window compact interface consists mainly of a white blank space where you are supposed to paste your text or open the required document. PDF, HTML, TXT, and all Office document formats are supported, and you can even write your own texts in the panel provided and have them read aloud for you. You can tell the program to read the entire document or select the word, sentence, or paragraph that you would like to listen to. The interface itself is multilingual, too.

Equally useful for persons with a print disability who are unable or have difficulties to read regular text, for those who wish to give their eyes a rest at work, or for persons wanting to practice their pronunciation in a foreign language, Language Reader is a cost-free application that will surely help all of these groups to achieve their goals.