Participant

Question

How to make inline anchored formulas accessible for Acrobat "Read Out Loud"?

Forum|Forum|8 days ago
April 8, 2026
2 replies
54 views

Hi everyone,

I’m working on macOS using InDesign 2023 (and I’ve confirmed the same behavior in InDesign 2026).

My document contains several mathematical formulas created with MathMagic, imported as EPS or PDF files and anchored inline within the text flow. I have also tried converting them to outlines, but Acrobat's "Read Out Loud" feature doesn't recognize them.

I want the screen reader to ignore the graphic/paths and strictly read the custom description I’ve entered in the Alt Text field (Object Export Options).

Could you please advise on the best workflow to ensure that:

These MathMagic objects are correctly tagged (e.g., as Figure or Formula) so they aren't skipped.
Acrobat prioritizes the Alternative Text instead of trying to interpret the vector data.
The reading order stays consistent with the surrounding text.

I need to make sure the specific description I wrote is what the user hears. Any advice on the proper export settings or tagging would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

how-to

Frans v.d. Geest

Community Expert

No one in Accessibility ever uses Read out aloud, it is renowned for how bad it is, it does not follow tag order, does not see Contents items on links, nor Actual text etc. The only valid test is to use NVDA or Jaws on PC or VoiceOver on Mac. Please, please forget Acrobats Read out aloud, you are waisting your time…

L

lucignolo25859033u0raAuthor

Participant

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm actually looking for an alternative specifically because Acrobat's 'Read Out Loud' feels outdated and doesn't provide the experience I'm looking for.

I have a PDF book that contains mathematical formulas, and I want to recommend a tool to my readers that works seamlessly across Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. My goal is to make the book easily 'listenable' for everyone, with high-quality natural voices that can handle technical content and symbols better than a standard PDF reader.

What cross-platform solution would you suggest that is user-friendly enough for the general public but powerful enough for a book with math?"

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @lucignolo25859033u0ra,

Thanks again for sharing this. I was able to test this on my end and could reproduce the same behavior with inline formulas and Alt Text not being read correctly in Acrobat.

I'm currently checking this further with the InDesign product team to understand whether this is expected behavior or something that needs fixing. I'll keep you posted as soon as I have an update.

Appreciate your patience on this.

Abhishek

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @lucignolo25859033u0ra,

Thanks again for your patience on this. I wanted to let you know that I’ve logged a bug with the InDesign product team, and they are currently investigating it.

I’ll keep you posted here as soon as I have any updates or findings to share.

Appreciate you bringing this up.

Abhishek

L

lucignolo25859033u0raAuthor

Participant

Thanks Abhishek Rao,

I’ve noticed another specific issue: even when the formula is tagged as a figure, the individual digits within the vector data are still being picked up. This causes a lot of confusion—for example, a fraction like "1/4" is read aloud as "one four" because the screen reader is parsing the vector paths individually instead of suppressing them in favor of the Alt Text.

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