Tag Archives: ClaroPDF

ClaroPDF iOS 2.3 Released

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We’ve released an update for our ClaroPDF iOS app that introduces some great new features and improvements.

One of the major changes is the revamped document list, which has been tweaked to be easier to view and read.

  • The document thumbnails are larger and easier to identify.
  • The document titles are a different colour.
  • Larger spacing between documents, which helps to aid readability.

You can see the difference between the old list and the new 2.3 list here:

Old list

Old list

New 2.3 list

New 2.3 list

As a further enhancement to the the My Documents list – you can now toggle between list mode, as seen above and grid mode, as shown below:

Grid view

Grid view

Grid view mode shows large document previews, so you can easily navigate and visually identify your documents.

Another great new addition to 2.3 is the direct integration with the popular file sharing platform Microsoft OneDrive.  Because ClaroPDF is now integrated directly with OneDrive, you no longer need to have the OneDrive app installed or configured on your device to access your OneDrive files.

A new menu item will appear under Open from…which now lists OneDrive:

One Drive menu

One Drive menu

Tapping this will prompt you to log in and then you’ll have access to all of your OneDrive files in ClaroPDF, similar to how the app is also integrated with Google Drive and Dropbox.

One Drive list

One Drive list

Likewise, you can also save files back to your OneDrive account using the Save > Save to OneDrive option in ClaroPDF.

For a full list of changes, please see the ClaroPDF release notes.

ClaroPDF Android Released

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We are happy to announce the first release of ClaroPDF Android, an easy-to-use speaking PDF reading app for Android phones and tablets. It’s a simpler version of our hugely-successful ClaroPDF for iPhone and iPad and tries to provide the same convenience and usability for anyone who needs to be able to read back accessible PDF files, for study or reference.

  • Tap to open PDF files using the Android file picker, which gives you access to PDF files saved on your phone and also integrates smoothly with Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and other cloud file stores.
  • Then just tap in the PDF to show where to start and the PDF will be read back from the point of your finger. You can stop and make it repeat itself as many times as you want, read whole documents at your leisure, and relax while ebooks and references are read aloud to you with high-quality speech.
  • Choose from dozens of voices from Google and other vendors covering many accents and languages, and set the voice speed for faster reading (so you get through things faster) or slower (to give you time to digest and understand).

Want to read PDF files on your iPhone or iPad? ClaroPDF for iOS contains all the reading functionality of ClaroPDF for Android and more, and on iPhone and iPad you can also get ClaroPDF Pro, which lets you convert images and inaccessible PDFs into readable PDFs. On a Windows or Mac? Try our reading toolbar, ClaroRead.

Get ClaroPDF Android on Google Play now! Or, for more details, check out the release notes.

ClaroPDF V2 Released

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October 2017 saw the release of V2 of our ClaroPDF for iOS app, with some major changes. The most significant feature is the new tabbed structure when viewing multiple PDF documents.

Multiple Documents

In V1 of ClaroPDF, you were limited to viewing 1 document at a time.  In V2, ClaroPDF now allows you to open multiple PDF documents at the same time.  The documents are arranged in a tabbed view, across the top:

Tabbed document view in ClaroPDF V2,

Tabbed document view

This lets you switch quickly to other documents for reading and/or annotating without having to replace the current document you were viewing.  You can tap the X button on any document tab to close it.

Photo to PDF

The Photo to PDF feature has been significantly upgraded in V2.  You were previously limited to adding 1 photo at a time.  Now you can select multiple images when choosing to create a PDF.  Not only that, but you can now also choose to append your chosen photos to your current PDF; they’ll be inserted at the page after the one you are currently viewing.

Delete Pages

Deleting PDF pages is a brand new feature in V2.  From the thumbnail view mode, tapping Edit, you are able to select PDF pages you wish to delete from your current PDF:

Deleting PDF pages in V2

Delete PDF pages

This gives you even greater control over your PDF creations.

Acapela Children’s Voices

There are a new range of high-quality children voices, available as in-app purchases for 8 different language accents, including boy and girl.

Quick-look Settings

In V2, the document settings have been moved from the standard Settings menu and placed down on the main bottom toolbar, accessible by tapping the new document settings button:

Document settings menu in V2

Document settings

This change takes some of the most commonly changed settings and makes them quicker to access, as well as being able to see the changes made to your document as you go. Changing the page background colour, for example: now you can get exactly the right shade you require as the document changes colour in real-time.

New Document Setting: Scroll mode

There is also a new setting on the document settings menu called Scroll mode.  This setting controls how the document is to be scrolled.  There are 2 options to choose from:

  1. Per page – this is the traditional page scrolling, where each page has a defined page break.  Swiping left or right in this mode will scroll to the next page.
  2. Continuous – page scrolling is continuous and there are no page breaks.  Scrolling is like scrolling through one big page; there are no defined page breaks.

Other improvements and bug fixes

Check out the ClaroPDF V2 release notes for full details on other improvements and changes in V2:

http://www.clarosoftware.com/help/claropdf-v2-release-notes/

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.

ClaroPDF V1.8 Released

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The latest version of ClaroPDF is now available in the App Store!

What’s New in V1.8?

  • iCloud Integration: ClaroPDF is now fully integrated with iCloud Drive so you can save to, and open from your iCloud Drive across all of your iOS devices. You can also quickly save and open documents from other compatible apps using the iCloud Drive feature
  • New My Documents list: There is a brand new My Documents list in V1.8. This new documents list is smoother, faster and organises your documents alphabetically into sections. D
  • Search – there is now a search bar so you can search for documents.
  • Improved rename, move and delete features – these features have an improved UI and it is now possible to move/delete multiple documents simultaneously.
  • Improved the launch of ClaroPDF so it launches faster and cleaner.
  • Many other bug fixes and performance improvements.

Follow @ClaroPDF on Twitter for the latest news and hints & tips.

Check out The Codpasts recent review of our ClaroSpeak Plus App!

ClaroPDF V1.4.2 Released

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The latest version of ClaroPDF is now available in the App Store!

What’s New in V1.4?

  • Photo to PDF: You can now convert photos and other images to fully accessible Text PDF files that can be spoken, searched, copied and highlighted*. Using this new feature, you can now turn paper into speakable PDF files that you can annotate.

Find out more about this new feature in our Exploring Photo to PDF article.

  • Convert to Text PDF: As well as converting photos, you can also convert any PDF file in ClaroPDF into a fully accessible Text PDF file. Along with making these PDF files speakable, it will also compress them, reducing file size.
  • *50 pages can be converted using the 50 included credits. Further credit can be purchased in app.
  • Sync with iCloud: You can now sync ClaroPDF with your iCloud account. This lets you store and synchronise your PDF files and annotations across multiple devices. Sync with iCloud can also act as a document backup so you can keep your documents safe.
  • Save as PDF app extension: Save as PDF lets you convert text, images and webpages to PDF files from Safari and almost any other app that handles text, images or webpages. When converted, these new PDF files will appear in your documents list inside ClaroPDF.
  • New voice ranges: The Acapela and CereProc voice ranges are now available to download for ClaroPDF, allowing even more accents and dialogues. These new voices are available as in app purchases.  This new version of ClaroPDF also comes with a free download of the Scottish Heather CereProc voice, which you can download from inside ClaroPDF.
  • Improved annotations import/export: The import/export annotations feature in ClaroPDF now has the standard .xfdf file format to allow greater compatibility with other applications.
  • Improved switch mechanism: The switch control in ClaroPDF has been updated to allow greater compatibility with more bluetooth switch devices.
  • Organised Settings menu: The Settings menu in ClaroPDF has now been condensed into separate section windows, with the main settings remaining on the main Settings page. This makes the Settings menu easier to read and quicker to navigate.

Follow @ClaroPDF on Twitter for the latest news and hints & tips.

Check out The Codpasts recent review of our ClaroSpeak Plus App!

Exploring Photo to PDF

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Exploring Photo to PDF in ClaroPDF
We are excited to announce the new Photo to PDF feature in ClaroPDF V1.4.  This powerful new feature allows you to turn photos of papers, worksheets, books, etc into PDF files that can be spoken, searched and fully annotated.

The new Photo to PDF feature is accessed from the Open button in ClaroPDF:

Photo_to_pdf

Pressing this will allow you to choose an existing photo from your library, or take a new one using your device’s camera.  Once you have selected a photo, give your PDF file a name:

Save as name

Press Save, and ClaroPDF will create an image PDF from the photo that you selected:

photo_pdf

With your new image PDF, you can perform simple annotation drawings on it:

basic annotations

As mentioned above, this new PDF is an image PDF, this means it doesn’t yet contain any text.  If you try to press play to speak the PDF or tap the search button to search the PDF, a message will pop up informing you that this PDF is an image PDF and needs to be converted:

this is an image pdf

If you want to convert this image PDF to a text PDF, you can press Yes in this message box, or you can choose Convert PDF from the ClaroPDF Save as menu:

convert PDF

When you select this option, a new message will pop up, informing you of the amount of credits it will cost to convert this PDF file.  The cost is one credit per page:

Convert to Text PDF prompt

When you select Yes to convert your PDF file, ClaroPDF will send your PDF off to our ClaroPDF Cloud OCR server to convert it.  An internet connection is required for the conversion process.  A progress bar will appear on the top toolbar to let you know the current progress:

converting

 

The conversion is done in the background so you are still free to use ClaroPDF whilst the conversion is underway.

When the conversion has finished, you will be prompted for a file name.  Enter a name and press Save:

Save as Converted

Once you press Save, ClaroPDF will open your new text PDF and you speak it, search it and fully annotated it:

speakhighlight_1 highlght_2

There are also some new settings for this new feature to help you maximise your conversions.  The Settings menu in ClaroPDF has now been reorganised and you can find the settings for the conversions under Text PDF Conversion:

text_pdf_conversion_Settings

The main setting in here is Convert to Text PDF in Cloud.  This is switched off by default.  If you switch this on, then ClaroPDF will automatically prepare to convert your photos to text PDFs when you select one using Photo to PDF.  With this setting switched on, you don’t have to manually Select Save as -> Convert PDF… to convert your PDF to a text PDF.

text_pdf_conversion_settings_main

In the Text PDF Conversion settings, you can also view your current credits and add more if you need some.  The first time each user runs ClaroPDF, they will be credited with 50 free credits so they sample the Text PDF Conversion feature.

In the advanced section of Settings, there is a new setting called PDF image detection.  This is switched off by default.  If you switch this on, then whenever you open an image PDF, ClaroPDF will tell you that it is an image PDF.  This is useful if you are getting PDF files from external sources and you don’t know if you can speak/annotate them or not:

 

pdf_image_detection

ClaroPDF V1.3.18 Released

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The latest version of ClaroPDF is now available in the App Store!

What’s New in V1.3.18?

  • Multimedia gallery – record audio and video and insert them directly into your PDF file. This “cpdf” file (a zip of the PDF and audio/video) can be exported and opened on other devices running ClaroPDF.
  • Open webpage – converts a webpage into a PDF file ready for annotating and/or having the text spoken back to you.
  • New app localisations – ClaroPDF has been localised into Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, French, German, Italian and Dutch.
  • Many bug fixes and performance improvements.

Follow @ClaroPDF on Twitter for the latest news and hints & tips.

ClaroPDF Updated to V1.3

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ClaroPDF from Claro Software

Claro Software has updated the ClaroPDF iOS App to v1.3 – available on the iOS App Store since the end of May. Below is the list of additions to ClaroPDF.

+ Google Drive integration. You can now store and open your files from your Google Drive account. You can also open compatible Google Docs in ClaroPDF.

+ Folder customisation. Organise your PDF files in the ClaroPDF Gallery, create new folders and move files around.

+ Fullscreen mode. Allows the full document to be seen, removing the controls.

+ Wide iOS voice range. Choose from a wide range of voices, to speak PDFs in many languages. No download required.

+ More switch accessibility. Responds to switch commands:
1 (~1) does play;
2 (~2) does stop;
3 (~3) does previous page;
4 (~4) does next page.

+ Two new speech settings giving more flexibility for different situations. These are “Stop speaking on tap” and “Speak from: tapped sentence OR first sentence”. Allows for better speech control when ClaroPDF is being operated by external switches or for text to speech reading from the top of the page if required.

+ Auto detection of uppercase reading. Better handling of text to speech for PDF documents that are fully capitalised, such as comics.

+ Annotation toolbar now hovers over main toolbar. This saves room on iPhone.

ClaroPDF is an accessible, professional and user-friendly PDF Viewer, Reader and Annotator for iPad and iPhone. Annotate and mark up text or image PDF files. View text PDF files and listen to them with a human-quality voice and synchronised highlighting.

ClaroRead Pro and Plus for Windows can scan paper or convert images of documents into accessible ClaroPDF files, retaining the original page image. These PDF files can be opened and spoken in the ClaroPDF iOS app.

More Information

To find out more about our apps and view videos go to the Claro-Apps Web Page

For more information about the rest of Claro Software’s range of apps, go to www.claro-apps.com, email sales@clarosoftware.com.

Events and Exhibitions March 2014

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Exhibition_picture2

Claro Software will be attending the Barry Bennett Workshop event in Reading and the BDA International Conference in Guildford, at the end of March.

The annual Barry Bennett Workshop event at Wokefield Park in Reading is being held from the 27th to 28th of March. The workshops bring together key suppliers of assistive technology, hardware and software and those who support SEN students in secondary and higher education.

 

opendays

The BDA International Conference is taking place at the G-Live Conference Centre in Guildford on the 27th to 29th March. This years conference theme is – ‘Creating an Impact through Innovation’, in other words, that innovative research can make a real impact on educational practice. This really gets to the heart of what is special about this conference in particular…’ . Dr Julia Carroll: IC Conference Chair

fusion_swimmingly_logo

At both these events Claro will be showing all the latest text-to-speech software including PC, Mac and App versions of our assistive software range. Visit our stand for a live demonstration, or sign up for free copies of our text-to-speech Apps.

Get Claro On Multiple Devices

ClaroRead for PC and Mac are the ideal solution for students struggling with reading and writing. With Claro students can now get text-to-speech software on multiple devices including desktop computer, mobile or iPad. This is easily achieved with our assistive technology iPhone and iPad Apps.

Our Apps are fully integrated with our desktop software, using DropBox integration. Scan documents with ClaroRead Plus and listen to, proof or edit documents on the go with ClaroSpeak and ClaroPDF.

ClaroSpeak is a high-quality text-to-speech reader capable of speaking any accessible text with a range of human-sounding high-quality voices. ClaroSpeak offers the option of visual highlighting in-sync with the spoken words, a great range of colour and font settings to allow for optimum reading, word prediction and completion to help with writing. ClaroSpeak is a quality App for proofreading text through listening, helping with reading and literacy development and creating audio files from any text.

ClaroPDF is an accessible, professional and user-friendly PDF viewer, reader and annotator. View text PDF files and listen to them with a human-quality voice and synchronised highlighting. Create audio annotations and place them anywhere on a PDF. Annotate and mark up text or image PDF files with full compatibility with other popular PDF Apps and programs in Windows and Mac. ClaroPDF is designed as an accessible productivity, reading and study PDF tool for all.

Software Reviews And Quotes

ClaroRead “I think programs like ClaroRead are absolutely invaluable. For me, it is like putting on a pair of reading glasses. When I switch on my computer, I always use ClaroRead. It’s critical.” David Edwards, Birmingham, Dyslexic

ClaroPDF “It is one of the best apps we’ve purchased and we have over 500! It is on my “top ten” list and one that I always install on an iPad when we send them out for loan!“ Wendy Kay Alameda

ClaroSpeak “This app is absolutely brilliant! I’m currently doing a degree & have M.E, so at times I am unable to read when experiencing a relapse. I have the PC version of ClaroSpeak, I thought I’d try the app version, so glad I did. I am able to upload all module notes & open to Claro via Box & Dropbox. This app has really helped me with my studies. I have it on my iPad & iPhone, I just listen, make notes where necessary, even on the go.“ App Store review