ClaroRead for Mac V6.1 Released

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ClaroRead for Mac has been updated to V6.1. Download ClaroUp to update your version 6.0. Read on for more details.

New: Mac USB Creator

You can now use your ClaroRead Windows or Mac key to download and make your own version of ClaroRead for Mac on a USB drive. This is a great way to transport ClaroRead around to use on shared computers which might not have it installed. See the ClaroRead USB page for more information.

Improved: Scan from Paper

Rather than launching Image Capture, Scan from Paper now launches a scanner window for you to complete your scan and converts the scanned image immediately into the format and location of your choice.
Select “Scan from Paper” on the toolbar:

Select your scanner and click the Scan button:

When the scan is complete, choose the name, location and file type of the result. ClaroRead will remember these for future use:

View the Scanning tutorial video to find out more:

More information

There are many more improvements and fixes. More information can be found in the ClaroRead for Mac V6.1 Release Notes.

Useful links

ClaroSpeak V2.6 Released

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The start of May 2017 brought a big update to our ClaroSpeak app.  Read below for more details.

iCloud and Locations integration

You can now open and save files directly from your iCloud Drive and other locations on your device.

This new feature gives you the ability to import or export your files from any app on your device, without ever having to leave the ClaroSpeak app.

Four free voices

The existing voices that came shipped with ClaroSpeak have been removed and you can now download 4 free voices in the language of your choice. This means you can get the exact voices in the languages that you need, to match your requirements.

App containers

ClaroSpeak can now share its documents with different versions, so Free, Standard and Plus versions of the app can all access the same documents.  This is useful if you’ve just upgraded: you no longer have to manually transfer over documents.  It can also act as a backup incase you need to remove a version of ClaroSpeak: if you have another version of the app installed, your files will be remembered.

Settings cleanup

The settings menu has been streamlined and reorganised to make it easier to navigate. There is also a new speech rate slider that is more accurate and lets you select more precise values.

Integrated with the Audio controls on the iOS control centre

ClaroSpeak audio can now be controlled using the iOS controls on the control centre, allowing you quickly stop. play and skip through, without having to enter the app.

Support for Google SignIn

Full support for the new Google Authentication, so you can access Google Drive in the app.

ClaroRead Chrome V11 Released

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We have updated ClaroRead Chrome, our Chrome extension for Chromebook and the Google Chrome browser.

ClaroRead Chrome now supports reading with highlighting in Google Slides (the Google version of PowerPoint). Many people like to use presentations and slides in web documents, so we hope this will be helpful when you run across them:

ClaroRead Chrome reading Google Slides with highlighting

We’ve also broadened out word prediction, with new prediction languages (French, German, Spanish, Polish and Arabic) and support for phonetic prediction in Swedish. Word prediction is a good aid for getting the word you want (and making sure it is spelled correctly) so we’re pleased to have it in more of the many languages supported by ClaroRead Chrome.

Finally, we should note that Google has updated Chrome and as a result ClaroRead Chrome on Windows now allows access to more installed voices (SAPI5 voices, for the technical). You could always access the default system voice, but now you can choose from all the voices available. With many free voices this means you can read web pages, PDF files and Google documents with ClaroRead Chrome in more languages and voices than ever before.

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ClaroCom V1.4 Released

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In April 2017, we updated our ClaroCom app with a couple of great new features:

Link & chat to iOS device (Pro only)

This adds the ability to connect your device to any other device that is also using ClaroCom. You can then chat between the devices using the text that you type or words or phrases that you select. You can also use your word and phrase prediction to help you compose messages.

This feature is disabled by default, but you can switch it on in the ClaroCom Settings menu:

Then new button will appear on the top toolbar:

Tap this button to open the chat connection window.  ClaroCom will then automatically search for any other devices in range that are also using ClaroCom.  When you find a device you want to connect to, tap it to ask them to chat:

When you are connected, you can close the chat connection window are start chatting:

When you are finished, you can open the chat connection window and tap Disconnect to close the chat and return ClaroCom back to its normal use.

This feature requires bluetooth or Wi-Fi.  The devices must both be using ClaroCom and be on the same Wi-Fi network or within bluetooth range.

Added support for split screen on iPads

You can now use ClaroCom in multi-tasking mode, allowing you to run it split-screen with other apps:

Updated Icon

We’ve also updated the app icons to a more modern style as well as updating the Speak button to match this.

ClaroRead Cloud OCR March 2017 Update

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In March 2017 we released an updated version of the ClaroRead Cloud OCR service. In this latest version:

    • Administrators can decide which input and outputs (of local, photo, OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox) are available to end users. For example, if you have chosen Google Drive as your preferred cloud storage solution, you can turn off OneDrive and Dropbox so your users are not confused into using the wrong one.
    • You can now save to a particular Google Drive folder instead of simply into the Google Drive root.
    • You now get a nice suggestion for the output filename based on the input document.

ClaroRead Chrome V10 Released

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We have updated ClaroRead Chrome, our Chrome extension for Chromebook and the Google Chrome browser. The free version is unchanged but the Premium version now supports reading with highlighting in Microsoft Office 365’s online version of Word. Premium Swedish users will also find some more voices, and there a couple of minor bug fixes.

Screenshot of Chrome with Office 365 reading.

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ClaroPDF V1.9 Released

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ClaroPDF V1.9 update is now available on the iOS App Store.

What’s new in V1.9?

  • Four free voices – you can now download up to 4 of our high-quality voices for free, inside the Store in ClaroPDF. ClaroPDF no longer comes pre-installed with any installed high-quality voices, so the initial app install time should be significantly reduced. Then you can choose to download your preferred voices in a wide range of languages.
  • Improvements to the “Convert as Text PDF” feature.
  • Export annotations as text.
  • New Animated Speech Highlighting on sentence mode.
  • New background colour chooser.
  • New speech rate slider.
  • Bug fixes.

See the ClaroPDF V1.9 Release Notes page for more detailed information.

ClaroRead Anywhere V11 Released

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ClaroRead Anywhere is our cross-platform Web App for any desktop, laptop, tablet or phone, and we’ve just released our first update of 2017 to it!

We know that readability and appearance of text is important, so we’ve worked on the display of Word and other documents you open. We still simplify the text layout to make it easier to read and work with, but the page width is now changed to optimise the number of words per line. This can really help with readability – newspapers have known this for years, which is why they use columns. Here’s what it looks like:

ClaroRead Anywhere showing page width adjusting to font size in V11

Of course, you can still set the font (typeface) and font size that suits your reading best, and the page will re-format to suit!

Other changes:

  • It’s great to be able to work with different popular programs and formats, so we’ve added support for LibreOffice (OpenOffice) ODT and ODF documents – you can still open Word DOCX and Adobe PDF files, of course. We’ve also added support for opening ebooks in the ePub format.
  • Opening image files now automatically sends them to scanning/OCR to be converted into text or readable PDF, no matter how you choose to open it. Previously you had to use the OCR/Scanning button, not the Open button, so this is simpler – if it’s a TIF file, you want to OCR it, no matter where it is from. (Of course, you have to have scanning/OCR credits available.)
  • Finally, Danish and Norwegian users will find that ClaroRead Anywhere is in their language.

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ClaroRead Plus versus ClaroRead Pro Video

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One of the most common queries we get for ClaroRead for PC is “What’s the difference between ClaroRead Plus and ClaroRead Pro?” And indeed they have similar features – reading, proofing, and scanning/OCR. ClaroRead Pro also has “Advanced Scanning” – but what does that mean?

Of course, there is a comparison chart to help, but we thought it might be helpful to create a short video to explain the key differences – the proofing dialog and the advanced save options. View it here or watch it on YouTube: