For many people, reading PDF files is an essential part of their daily routine. However, reading lengthy documents can be a time-consuming task, especially if you have other activities to attend to. In addition to being time-consuming, if you have visual impairments like dyslexia, it can be an ever greater challenge to read PDF files. Fortunately, technology has provided us with several tools and extensions available that make it easier to read PDFs. One tool that you can use is a PDF Audio Reader Extension, which allows you to listen to the content of a PDF file instead of reading it. In this blog post, we’ll dive into the 7 best text-to-speech extensions that help you read your PDFs and the benefits and must-have features that make each tool beneficial for anyone who works with PDFs.
7 of the best text-to-speech Chrome Extensions for reading PDFs and other web pages
Speechify
Speechify is a popular text-to-speech Chrome extension that is highly rated by users. Here are some of the reasons why Speechify is considered a good choice:
- High-quality voices: Speechify uses advanced text-to-speech technology to provide natural-sounding voices that are easy to understand.
- Customizable reading experience: Speechify offers a range of customization options, including the ability to adjust the reading speed, speech voice reader volume and pitch, choose from a variety of default voices and text highlighting as you read.
- Supports multiple languages: Speechify offers a wide range of multiple languages and dialects, making it a good choice for people who need to listen to their pdfs or webpages in a different language.
- Easy to use: Speechify has a simple, user-friendly interface that makes it easy to convert text to speech quickly and easily. Our text-to-speech reader was developed to easily enhance the audio reading experience for those with reading disabilities like dyslexia.
- Reliable and fast: Speechify is known for its fast and reliable performance, making it a good choice for users who need to quickly convert large amounts of text to speech.
Overall, Speechify is considered one of the best tts browser extensions because of its premium voice options, customizable reading experience, support for multiple languages, ease of use, and plugin options.
Talkie
Talkie is a text-to-speech Chrome extension that is widely regarded as a good choice for several reasons:
- High-quality voices: Talkie, like Speechify, uses advanced text-to-speech software to provide natural-sounding voices that are easy to understand.
- Good reading experience: Talkie offers a range of customization options, including adjustments of speaking speed, volume, and pitch, as well as a variety of male and female voices.
- Ease of use: Talkie has a simple, user-friendly interface that makes it easy to convert text to speech quickly and easily.
- Integration with Google Drive: Talkie integrates with Google Drive, making it a good choice for users who frequently work with Google docs or use the Google Chrome extension.
Overall, Talkie has considered a good text-to-speech Chrome extension due to its high-quality voices, customizable reading experience, ease of navigation, and integration with Google Drive.
NaturalReader
NaturalReader is a popular text-to-speech Chrome extension that is well-regarded by users for several reasons:
- High-quality voices: NaturalReader uses advanced text-to-speech technology to provide natural-sounding voices that are easy to understand.
- Wide range of supported file formats: NaturalReader can be used to convert text from a wide range of file formats, including PDF files, Microsoft Word documents, HTML pages, and more.
- OCR reading capabilities: NaturalReader has a simple, user-friendly interface that can also support reading screenshots.
Overall, NaturalReader is comprehensive text-to-speech Chrome extension due to its high-quality voices, customizable reading experience, support for multiple languages, wide range of supported file formats, and OCR reading options.
Read Aloud
Read Aloud is a well-regarded text-to-speech Chrome extension that is popular among users for several reasons:
- High-quality voices: Read Aloud uses advanced text-to-speech technology to provide natural-sounding voices that are easy to understand. You can also use voices from other popular platforms like IBM Watson, Google Wavenet, and Amazon Polly.
- Access to different languages: Read Aloud supports multiple languages, making it a good choice for users who need to have text read in a language other than English.
- A large number of supported file formats: Read Aloud can be used to convert text from a wide range of file formats, including PDFs, Microsoft Word documents, HTML pages, epubs, and more.
- Easy to use: Read Aloud has a simple, user-friendly interface that makes it easy to convert text to speech quickly and easily.
Overall, Read Aloud is considered a good text-to-speech Chrome extension due to its high-quality voices, customizable reading experience, access to different languages, wide range of supported file formats, and ease of use.
Snap&Read
Snap&Read is a widely used text-to-speech Chrome extension that is well-regarded by users for several reasons:
- Premium voices: Snap&Read is an advanced tts extension that provides easy-to-understand natural-sounding voices.
- Customizable reader mode: With Snap&Read, you can adjust the speaking speed, volume, and pitch, and choose from different voices.
- Easy to use: Snap&Read has a simple, user-friendly interface that makes it easy to convert text to speech quickly and easily.
- Integration with Google Drive: Snap&Read also integrates with Google Drive which makes it a good plugin shortcut for people needing to quickly access this platform.
Snap&Read is considered a solid text-to-speech Chrome extension because you can integrate the app with Google Drive, use its various voices in different languages and it’s easy to use.
SpeakIt!
SpeakIt! is a popular text-to-speech Chrome extension that is growing in popularity by users for several reasons:
- Great voice selection: SpeakIt! uses advanced text-to-speech technology to provide natural-sounding voices that are easy to understand.
- Unique reading experience: With SpeakIt! reads text in different speaking speeds, volumes, and pitches, and voices.
- Multiple languages options: You can listen to SpeakIt! in multiple languages, which makes it a useful tool for learning new languages or listening to different dialects and pronunciations.
- Integration capability with Google Drive: SpeakIt! integrates with Google Drive and can be found on the chrome web store which makes it an easily accessible app.
SpeakIt! is a pretty good text-to-speech Chrome extension due to its high-quality voices, customizable reading experience, multiple language options, and integration with different Google Play apps.
Balabolka
Balabolka is another popular text-to-speech program that is widely used for some of the reasons below:
- Advanced features for visually impaired users: Balabolka includes advanced features for visually impaired users, such as the ability to display the text on the screen while it is being read, and the ability to adjust the font size and color to make it easier to see.
- Offers multiple languages: Balabolka supports multiple languages, making it a good choice for users who need to have text read in a language other than English.
- Wide range of supported file formats: Balabolka can be used to convert text from a wide range of file formats, including PDFs, Microsoft Word documents, HTML pages, and more.
- Easy to use: Balabolka has a simple, user-friendly interface that makes it easy to convert text to speech quickly and easily.
Balabolka is a highly useful text-to-speech application that can be used with your Chrome browser because of its features for visually impaired people, voice options, and wide range of supported audio file formats. Please take into account that Balabolka is not a Chrome extension, but rather a standalone program that can be installed on a Windows computer.
Choose the right PDF Audio Reader Extension
You can access the extensions and apps mentioned above whether you are using different devices like Android, Mac or PC devices. When deciding on which PDF reader is good for you, it’s important to take into account that choosing a versatile app like Speechify provides you the tts coverage you need for listening to any document online. No matter what the document is, with Speechify, you will be able to listen to audio in a way that is natural to you! Give Speechify a try by letting us read your pdf here!
