PDF to audio, free and private
Open a PDF and listen. Bookvox pulls the text out in your browser, tidies away page numbers and running headers, and reads it to you, sentence by highlighted sentence.
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How Bookvox reads a PDF
A PDF stores text as positioned fragments, not paragraphs, so a good PDF reader has to rebuild the reading flow. Bookvox does this on your device:
- Lines become paragraphs. Text is grouped by line and joined into paragraphs using line spacing, so the voice doesn't stop at the end of every printed line.
- Broken words are rejoined. Words hyphenated across a line break (“exam-ple”) are read as one word.
- Clutter is skipped. Page numbers and headers or footers that repeat on many pages are left out.
- Bookmarks become chapters. If the PDF has an outline, each bookmark becomes a section in Contents. Otherwise the document is split into 10-page parts so you can jump around.
Before you listen, the Contents panel shows every section with its listening time. Untick anything you don't want read, such as references or an index.
Scanned PDFs
A scanned PDF is a stack of pictures of pages with no text inside, so there's nothing to read aloud. Bookvox tells you when that's the case. Run the file through an OCR tool to add a text layer, then open the new copy.
PDFs that read awkwardly
Most reports, articles and ebooks read cleanly. Complex layouts can be bumpy: two-column academic papers, tables, sidebars, footnotes and equations are stored in an order that doesn't always match how you'd read them. Click any sentence to jump past a rough patch.
Save it as MP3
Want it on your phone? Download MP3 in the player saves the current section or the whole PDF using a studio voice. See PDF to MP3 for details on time and file size.
Questions
Is there a page limit?
No fixed limit. Bookvox works through the PDF in your browser, so very large files (thousands of pages) depend on your device's memory, but books and long reports are fine.
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. The PDF is opened and read inside your browser and saved only in this browser so you can come back to it.
Can it read password-protected PDFs?
Not while the password is on. Open the PDF in your PDF app, save an unprotected copy, and open that.
Why is it reading a heading or caption in an odd place?
PDFs store text in the order it was placed on the page, which isn't always reading order. Click the sentence you want and playback continues from there.
Can I change the speed?
Yes, from 0.75× to 2× in the player. With studio voices the speed is built into the speech itself, so it stays natural instead of sounding chipmunked.