Read Aloud: A Text to Speech Reader

Vocalize any web-page article instantly with a single click using text to speech (TTS), supporting over 40 languages.

Read Aloud employs TTS technology to turn webpage text into spoken words. It’s compatible with a wide range of websites, such as news outlets, blogs, fan fiction, various publications, educational texts, and online course materials.

The tool offers a selection of TTS voices, including those inherent to the browser and others from cloud services like Google Wavenet, Amazon Polly, IBM Watson, and Microsoft. Note that enabling some cloud voices might involve an additional purchase within the app.

Read Aloud is not just limited to web pages; it can also articulate content from PDFs, Google Docs, Google Play books, Amazon Kindle, and EPUBs (using the EPUBReader extension from epubread.com).

This extension is particularly beneficial for those who prefer auditory learning, individuals with dyslexia or other learning difficulties, and children who are learning to read.

To activate Read Aloud, simply go to the webpage you wish to hear, then click the Read Aloud icon in the Chrome menu. Alternatively, use shortcut keys like ALT-P, ALT-O, ALT-Comma, and ALT-Period for Play/Pause, Stop, Rewind, and Forward functions, respectively. For specific text, highlight it first and then right-click to access Read Aloud through the context menu.

For voice customization, reading pace, pitch adjustments, or to enable text highlighting, visit the Options page. Access it by right-clicking the Read Aloud icon and selecting Options, or via the Gear button in the extension popup (note: stop playback to view the Gear button).