ClaroRead Mac supports reading and writing. Designed to be simple, easy-to-use and flexible, ClaroRead aids concentration and increases confidence. You can read any on-screen text out loud and improve your writing in Microsoft Word. ClaroRead Plus Mac also lets you scan and convert paper books and documents so you can read them aloud too.
“I take forever to read, so when ClaroRead became available, it was so much better. I can scan in the books that I need to read, and the computer reads them back to me. You can also use ClaroRead to browse the web, as it reads the Internet to you.”
Yarilee Villareal, Student, Brownsville Texas University
See our blog post for what’s new in our latest release, ClaroRead Mac 8.
Feature List

Do you have 20 minutes to learn all about ClaroRead Mac? We have four short ClaroRead Mac Tutorial videos here which cover all you need to know! If you’ve not got the time, check out the overview video at the top of this page for a brief overview of the main features.
Reading
- Reads Microsoft Word and Pages with speech and highlighting so you can follow the text as it is read out by high-quality human-sounding speech.
- Reads PDF files with speech and highlighting with the included ClaroSpeak Mac App.
- Reads text in email, web pages, and any other program you want by selecting with the mouse, pointing with the mouse, or capturing from the screen.
- Read paper documents with scanning (OCR) in ClaroRead Plus.
- Read English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish and twenty-four other languages with 80 different voices and accents so you can listen to a voice you like.
- Choose highlighting by word, by sentence, any colour, and lots of combinations so you can get just the right one for you.
Word prediction
- ClaroRead Plus only
- Suggest words as you type to help with spelling and writing.
- Prediction all speaks so you can choose the word you want by hearing it.
- Pictures in prediction help you choose the right word.
- Learns new predictions as you type or train it in a particular subject.
Writing
- Listen back to your text after you have written – hear mistakes you can’t spot when you read.
- Listen to each word or sentence as you type so you can hear mistakes immediately.
- Improve spelling by listening the sound of each letter rather than its name.
Spellcheck
- ClaroRead Plus only
- Speaking spellcheck lets you select the word you want by hearing the alternatives.
- Support for homophones and easily-confused words like “there” and “their” and “they’re” including images to help you select the correct word.
- Advanced phonetic, dyslexic and problem spelling corrections like “neel” (kneel) and “necessary”.
- Check anywhere, in Mail or Safari or Chrome, not just Microsoft Word.
- Add your own confusing and problem words to help you proofread.
Visual
- ClaroRead Plus only
- Change the font to something you find easier to read in Microsoft Word documents with a single click.
- Increase line spacing to stop you getting lost between lines.
- Increase space between paragraphs to help separate and understand them.
- Increase character spacing to reduce “rivers of white” and help with reading.
- Make text bigger to make it easier to read and make each line shorter.
- Select colours for text and background that are best for you.
Listening later
- Read text into an audio file to listen to later (on your phone, on the move, for study).
Scanning (OCR)
- ClaroRead Plus only
- Convert paper documents, documents like PDFs or images, into text, accessible PDF or Word for reading and annotation later.
- Turn paper and PDFs into plain text for study or annotation.
Dictation
- ClaroRead Plus only
- Write down the text you speak using the macOS dictation feature.
- Automatically listen to your dictated text after each sentence from Microsoft Word, Pages or TextEdit.
Extras
- ClaroRead Plus only
- Access a wide range of included extra applications from the Extras button. See the What’s Included tab detailing these extras.
- Edit the Extras list to include apps you use often and websites you visit regularly.
Claro iOS Apps
Included with ClaroRead Plus only
See this support article for information about how to unlock the apps.
Portable USB stick
- Create a portable USB pen drive version of any ClaroRead to let you use it on any computer.
Windows vs Mac
Familiar with ClaroRead Windows? Check out our Windows vs Mac comparison article here.
What's included?
ClaroRead Plus (but not ClaroRead SE) includes all of the following:
- ScreenRuler
- Reading ruler and screen colour tinter. Helps anyone who has problems keeping focus while reading.
- ClaroCapture
- Study tool. Capture images and text from web pages and documents to help write essays and organise references.
- ClaroView
- Screen colour overlay tool. Helps dyslexic students focus on the screen and read.
- ClaroSpeak Mac
- Read back PDF and Word DOCX files with highlighting.
- Auto Converter Mac
- Auto Converter takes any document you drop into a special folder and OCRs or scans it automatically to create accessible versions without you needing to do anything else.
- ClaroPDF Mac
- Read back PDF files with highlighting.
- ClaroIdeas
- Illustrate your ideas, projects, plans and everything else you can imagine using this intuitive app. Draw and connect ideas, add titles, hyperlinks, images and notes and personalise your ideas.
- iPhone / iPad Apps
- ClaroRead Plus includes the ability to unlock the pro features in our iOS apps (ClaroSpeak,ClaroPDF and Claro ScanPen).
- ClaroRead Word
- ClaroRead for Word uses the latest Office 365 technologies to bring our world-class text-to-speech, spellchecking, prediction and usability tools.
Try & Buy
Try it
Buy it
Comparison Chart
SE | Plus | |
---|---|---|
Reading | ||
Read Microsoft Word or Pages documents with highlighting | ||
Read PDFs with highlighting in included ClaroSpeak Mac app | ||
Read web pages by hovering the mouse pointer over the text | ||
Read anything else on the Mac by selecting with the mouse | ||
Save text as speech to an audio file | ||
Scanning / OCR | ||
Capture and read text straight off the screen | ||
Convert paper documents to PDF and Word documents | ||
Make inaccessible PDF files into accessible PDF files | ||
Writing | ||
Dictate button to allow you input text without typing | ||
Word prediction (including phonetic prediction) | ||
Proofing | ||
Spell check (including phonetic misspellings) | ||
Homophone check | ||
Extras | ||
Auto Converter for automatically batch converting inaccessible files | ||
ScreenRuler screen tinting | ||
ClaroCapture and ClaroIdeas study skills | ||
Installation and USB | ||
Available for installation on one machine or a whole network | ||
Available to install on a USB stick | ||
Apps | ||
Includes iPad, iPhone and Android Apps (ClaroPDF, ScanPen, ClaroSpeak) | ||
Try now | Try now |
Click to view a printable ClaroRead Mac Comparison Chart PDF file
Help and Documentation
- Help files
- Complete user manual.
Release Notes
- What’s new in the latest ClaroRead Mac.
- Support articles
- Technical Support website articles.
- Help Videos
- Demonstration and training videos.
- ClaroRead Cloud for ClaroRead Users
- How to download ClaroRead from ClaroRead Cloud.
System Requirements
- Apple macOS 10.14 or above
- 4GB RAM
- 1.55GB (Plus) or 530MB (SE) hard disk space
- 200MB-650MB hard disk space for each additional voice
Third party software requirements:
- Microsoft Word v16 (2019) or later
- Pages v10 or later
People
Product Manager & Developer | ![]() |