Read4Me

Have your Mac read to you. Open a document, press Read, and follow along as every word lights up.

Mac App Store Support

Version 2.0 · Requires macOS 15 or later · Apple silicon and Intel

What it does

Reads aloud, word by word

Place the cursor and choose Read, or select a passage to hear only that. The spoken word is highlighted and kept in view, and Read picks up where you stopped. Adjust the speed from 60 to 600 words per minute.

Every voice on your Mac

Works with the system voices, including Enhanced and Premium voices and your own Personal Voice. Download more voices for any language in System Settings; the Voices panel takes you straight there.

Dialog mode

Give each character a voice. A line such as [[SAMANTHA]] switches the reader until the next tag, so plays, interviews and language exercises come alive.

Voice Coach

A palette of tags for pauses, volume, pitch, rate, spelling out words or digits, and silent comments. Select text, click a tag, and hear the difference.

Audio files and audiobooks

Export any document as an AIFF file or as an M4B audiobook that Books and Music recognise, using the same voices and Coach tags you hear in the app.

Opens what you already have

Plain text, RTF, HTML, Word (.doc and .docx), OpenDocument text and unencrypted EPUB books. Plays audio and video files too, with an Audio descriptions checkbox for media that has a described-video track.

Apple Intelligence

On macOS 26, ask the on-device model about a selection or the whole document and insert the reply. Your text never leaves the Mac.

Auto-Cast

Turn a story into a multi-voice reading. Apple Intelligence works out who speaks each line, you pick a voice per character in a sheet, and Apply adds the dialog tags in one undoable edit. The story itself is never rewritten.

Captions for audio

Open an audio file such as an exported AIFF and generate captions on your Mac with the on-device speech model (macOS 26). Nothing leaves the Mac.

Built for accessibility

VoiceOver announces reading, pausing, finishing, speed changes and export progress. Zoom the document with View > Zoom In or a pinch, and control every toolbar item with Voice Control. Turn on Reduce Motion in System Settings and the spoken-word highlight and automatic scrolling switch off.

Translate and read

Translate a selection or the whole document on your Mac and hear it in the new language with a matching voice. In dialog mode each section is translated into the language of its voice, and your tags stay in place.

Everywhere on your Mac

Select text in any app and choose Services > Read for me. In Shortcuts, the "Read Text with Read4Me" action speaks whatever you pass it. Open documents are also available to Shortcuts, Spotlight and Siri, with actions to read the document or the clipboard and to export an audiobook. Dictate into a document with the toolbar's microphone button.

Speaks your language

The app is available in English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.

Accessibility

VoiceOver: every control is labelled, and reading, pausing, resuming, finishing, speed and zoom changes, failures and export completion are announced.
Voice Control and keyboard: every toolbar item has a name you can speak ("Click Read"), and every task works from the keyboard. Read with ⌘R, pause with ⇧⌘R.
Zoom and text size: View > Zoom In, Zoom Out and Actual Size, or pinch; Font > Bigger and Smaller.
Not colour alone: the spoken word is highlighted and underlined.
Reduce Motion: with the system setting on, the highlight and the automatic scrolling are turned off.
Audio descriptions: media with a described-video track gets an Audio descriptions checkbox that follows the system setting.
Captions: audio files can be captioned on your Mac (macOS 26), with the current caption underlined as it plays.
Dark Mode and system colours throughout.

Requirements

macOS: 15 Sequoia or later. Apple Intelligence features (including Auto-Cast and captions) need macOS 26 and a Mac that supports Apple Intelligence.
Voices: Any voice installed in System Settings > Accessibility > Read & Speak (Spoken Content before macOS 26). Personal Voice can be read aloud but not exported to a file.
Privacy: Sandboxed, no network access, no accounts, no analytics. See the privacy policy.

What's new in 2.0

Read4Me 2.0 is a complete rewrite in Swift for current macOS. Every voice now highlights the spoken word; Enhanced, Premium and Personal Voice are supported; audio export runs inside the app, so it is native on Apple silicon; EPUB import reports protected books instead of failing silently; and the app gained Shortcuts, Spotlight and Siri support, dictation, Apple Intelligence, Auto-Cast, translation, captions for audio, video playback with audio descriptions, improved accessibility and an in-app help window. Your voice, speed and dialog settings carry over from Read4Me 1.6.

Read4Me has been reading documents aloud on the Mac since 2006.