For students

Turn textbooks and course readings into audio

Drop the chapter PDF, the DOCX handout or the EPUB of the set text and listen at your own speed. Page numbers and running headers stay out of the narration.

Readings that fit into the day

A 40-page chapter is about 90 minutes of listening at a normal pace. That is a commute, a run and a walk to the library. Listening does not replace close reading with a pen, but it gets you through the first pass, and a second pass by ear before an exam is a strong way to check what you actually remember.

Built for the way course material arrives

PDF chapters: the outline (or heading sizes) becomes chapter markers; page numbers and running headers are removed; paragraphs split across pages are joined.
Scanned readings work when the scan has a text layer. Image-only scans are rejected with a clear message, so run OCR in your scanning app first.
DOCX and TXT notes narrate cleanly; “Chapter”, “Part” and numbered headings become sections.
Speed control from the player, a sleep timer for late-night review, and a listening position that follows you from laptop to phone.

Three steps

1.
Drop the file (or share it to the Book2Speech app on iPhone).
2.
Choose a narrator; a calm, clear voice suits dense material.
3.
Press play. Use read-along highlighting on the web to follow along with the text.

Limits to know about

Files up to 5 MB: split a whole textbook into chapters first.
Equations, code and dense tables are read as text and are better checked on screen.
Use material you have the right to use: your own notes, purchased or open-licensed texts.

Questions people ask

Does it read the footnotes?

Footnote text that appears on the page is read where it occurs in the extracted text; it is not hidden or skipped.

Can I speed it up?

Yes. Playback speed is adjustable in the player on web and iOS.

Is there a student discount?

The Free plan includes 5 minutes to try it. The Listener plan covers 3 hours of new narration a month; see the Plans page for current prices.
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