Anything Aloud

Mac selected-text speech

Read selected text aloud on a Mac

Start with the free option already on your Mac. macOS can speak selected text, highlight it and show a small controller. Try that before deciding whether you need another app.

Set up Apple's free Speak selection feature

Open the speech settings

Choose Apple menu, System Settings, Accessibility, then Read & Speak. On earlier supported macOS versions, the panel may be called Spoken Content.

Turn on Speak selection

Use its information button to choose the voice, word or sentence highlighting, onscreen controller and keyboard shortcut.

Select text and use the shortcut

The default is Option-Escape. Press it again to stop. You can change that shortcut in the same settings.

Apple keeps the current instructions in Have your Mac speak text that's on the screen.

Text to try with Speak selection

Select this sentence, press Option-Escape, and listen while macOS follows the text.

This is ordinary selectable page text, so it works as a simple test of the feature already built into your Mac.

What Anything Aloud does differently

Anything Aloud uses Apple's local speech on macOS too. Its differences are the reading workflow and controls, not a claim that the free Apple feature is inadequate.

Apple Speak selection may be all you need

  • It is included with macOS.
  • It can highlight words or sentences.
  • Its controller can pause, change rate and move by sentence.

Anything Aloud adds one shared reader

  • Option-A reads a live selection first, then falls back to copied text or a copied screenshot.
  • Its floating reader shows the passage, source and current word, with click-to-seek and a progress control.
  • Its speed control runs from 0.5x to 4x and can be changed during a read.

Permission is specific. Anything Aloud needs macOS Accessibility permission to retrieve highlighted text from another app. Copied text and copied screenshots still work if you do not grant it.

Anything Aloud requires macOS 13 or later and an Apple Enhanced or Premium voice. Its first-run setup checks for a suitable voice and opens the relevant Apple settings when one needs to be downloaded.