How to Get Mac to Read PDF Aloud? (Free and Paid)

MacBook is one of the most well-known and influential devices used to perform professional tasks effectively. In addition, they also contain a variety of features including reading PDFs aloud. If you are those who want to know how to get Mac to read PDF aloud, you can check this guide as it has detailed steps for how to get Mac to read PDF aloud and what alternatives can be used for this. For a more advanced and flexible experience, try UPDF—it delivers accurate text-to-speech, OCR support, and powerful PDF editing tools to make listening to PDFs on Mac easier and more efficient. Click the button below to download UPDF today!

Part 1. Can Mac Read PDF Aloud?

People may wonder if they can read PDFs aloud on the Mac. The simple answer to this question is yes; users can use the built-in Mac read-aloud feature to read their PDFs with automated voices innovatively.

This way, they can easily organize their documents and improve their productivity. Using this built-in feature of Mac is quite simple. But before using this feature, you must head towards the "System Settings" to activate the speech feature and read the text aloud.

Part 2. How to Get a PDF to Read Aloud on Mac With UPDF?

Mac can read PDF aloud with the help of its built-in features and other third-party applications. If you want to read PDF aloud with a third-party application, it is best to consider UPDF for Mac as one of the best read PDF aloud tool for Mac. Users can use its read-aloud feature to listen to the text within PDFs and documents without any mistakes.

Besides this, UPDF's OCR feature can help you convert scanned documents into searchable and selectable text. UPDF OCR supports recognition of over 38 languages in scanned documents, covering most of your document needs. However, to activate this feature, you will need to upgrade to UPDF‘s Pro plan. You can consider purchasing UPDF’s exclusive plan and get an official 10% discount with the coupon code “ENARTICLE” upon purchasing.

Moreover, in UPDF, you can set up multiple tabs to view their PDF pages in one instant. This can easily boost the speed of reading multiple tasks simultaneously. You can bookmark the part they have read or highlight the difficult parts during listening. And you can also make notes about what they hear to improve productivity. When you encounter difficult parts during listening, you can select the corresponding text and the UPDF AI floating toolbar will appear. UPDF AI can explain or translate those sections while you continue listening, and you can add them to your document as notes with just one click.

Part 3. How to Get Mac to Read PDF Aloud With Shortcut?

Another method you should try is reading aloud a PDF on Mac using its shortcut keys. For this, you will be required to activate the speak selection on Mac. Along with this, users can use many other features as well.

These include highlighting the spoken text, background color, and much more. Thus, to understand how it works, let's take a look at the following detailed steps:

Step 1. Head towards the top-left corner of your Mac, click the "Apple" icon, and choose "System Settings." In the left side panel, choose the "Accessibility" option and look out for the "Spoken Content" feature on the right side under the "Vision" section.

Step 2. After this, toggle the "Speak Selection" option and hit the "i" icon. Now, in this window, customize the settings as per your requirements. Here, you can easily adjust the "Highlight Content," "Word Colour," "Sentence Colour," and other options.

You can also change the "Keyboard Shortcut" key combination on the top of the popup as per your preferences. Click "OK" once you are done setting up the speaker feature settings.

Step 3. Now, access your PDF and click to open it; use the customized shortcut key such as "Option+Esc" to enable the speaking feature and control it accordingly.

Part 4. Which Method is Better to Read PDF Aloud?

As we have now gotten familiar with both the Mac read aloud PDF shortcut and the most productive tool, UPDF, choosing between both them shouldn't be a worry as UPDF clearly offers more advanced features. However, to make you more familiar with these tools, let's head to the table below:

As we can see, UPDF, a dedicated PDF editor tool, offers many advanced and innovative features, such as built-in AI tools and read-aloud PDF features. It even offers to perform OCR on scanned PDFs and make them editable readily. With that, let's immediately download this tool on your system by tapping the "Free Download" button below and purchasing a premium plan to use all its features.

Wrapping Up

In final words, after analyzing the Mac read PDF aloud built-in feature and the third-party application UPDF to read aloud PDF, the latter is the best option. It provides a lot of features in addition to reading PDFs aloud. That is why many individuals and businesses use this tool globally to fulfill their needs.

So, without waiting any more time, head to UPDF's official site or click the "Free Download" button below to get this tool and start reading your PDFs while managing other tasks.