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5

Read Out Loud from the digital edition

New Here ,
May 26, 2008 May 26, 2008
I am trying to figure out how to get the digital edition to read outloud to me...I have an e-book and I want it to READ it to me. Please help!
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Guest
Feb 19, 2009 Feb 19, 2009
Text To Speech is not currently supported by Digital Editions.

--
Jim Lester
Adobe Systems
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New Here ,
Apr 29, 2009 Apr 29, 2009

Will it ever be supported?  Are you working towards that goal or should we find another way and shut up about it...

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Guest
May 10, 2009 May 10, 2009

You can do so, if you have a Mac.

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New Here ,
Jun 04, 2010 Jun 04, 2010

Hi

I have a Mac and due to digital edition my e-books will not open in anything else, however if you go to Mac system preference (Apple Menu), then to 'Speech' then press 'text to speech' button tick the following box ' Speak selected text when key is pressed' then choose your activation key(s) example cmd (apple command)+A

once you open Adobe digital editions just highlight what you want read aloud, then press your activation key(s), and then the Mac will read it to you!

Hope this helps.

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New Here ,
Feb 19, 2022 Feb 19, 2022

Do you know how to do this on Windows 11? I have Kurtzweil that typically works, but my book is a rental from my school library and will only open with digital editions and I still don't see a read out loud option

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New Here ,
Nov 19, 2022 Nov 19, 2022

Please escalate the multiple requests to support accessibility with read-aloud.

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Community Beginner ,
Feb 03, 2023 Feb 03, 2023

Good afternoon,

 

I have bought ebooks recently and got the unpleasant surprise to receive them in your acsm format when they were actually advertised as epub format.

I have contacted my reseller support and they weren't any helpful, instead, they even tried to trick me in buying a format for their own exclusive reader.

Now, I managed to install your software on both my pc and android phone and revrieve the book's content.

 

Since text to speech is not a feature included in the package, would you mind helping me to find a way around that would finally get this book spoken ?

I have tried other readers, the files security prevents me from accessing the content or opening.

I have tried the application Talkback and other similar TTS apps but only the application UI elements are read. The book's content is considered as one unreadable element.

 

Are there any ideas you could give me that would be a work around the invonvenience ?

 

Thanks for your time,

Lætitia

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New Here ,
Feb 03, 2023 Feb 03, 2023

Hi Lætitia

I posted on this thread YEARS ago. Adobe aren’t reading this thread. They
don’t care. You won’t get an answer here. Good luck on your quest.

Best wishes
Reaghan
--
Best wishes
Reaghan Reilly
[PII removed]

 

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 25, 2023 Nov 25, 2023

Remove acsm protection before it expires

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 26, 2024 Sep 26, 2024

Is it now? Are you working on it? Are you caring about accessability at all? -- Maybe you should do some corporate training on empathy. Best regards, Linnea

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New Here ,
Jun 04, 2010 Jun 04, 2010

please see my new post re this

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New Here ,
Feb 18, 2020 Feb 18, 2020

your idea is great but seems to only work for documents which could also be played / read through another software such as Adobe Reader.  This does not work on the books i have purchased.

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Guest
Jun 15, 2012 Jun 15, 2012

Here is a 'backdoor' technique to have Digital Edition 'Read Out Loud'

-Take a screen capture (or screen shot) of the page in Digital Edition.

-Open the screen capture in a program that does OCR (I use Acrobat Pro)

-OCR finds the outline of text and allows you to highlight that text.

-Play highlighted text through a 'text to speech' program.

-Repeat, per page

It may sound like a pain, but I do this technique on my Mac, in a matter of seconds.

Sadly, you can't just do the 'play selected text' option on the Mac.

This is because the Mac processes the "speech" command as "copying/pasting," which is disabled on many ebooks.

I have an annoying case of dyslexia so this 'backdoor' approach is kind of my only option.

I guess you're not having Digital Edition do anything but present the text so you can take a screen capture of it... but whatever.

Hope this helps.

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 28, 2014 Apr 28, 2014

I have read most of the replies to this request for help with using the Adobe Digital Editions 2.0 or 3.0 software to read documents aloud.  I use a PC and have a few text to speech programs installed on my computer as well as Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.  However, despite being pretty accomplished using these programs, I haven't figured a way to read Adobe Digital Editions books aloud, or how to copy the text and create my own PDF documents of the books I've bought.  This is exceedingly frustrating!

Though I can see pretty well, in my work, I interact with blind people frequently and this drawback is tremendously inhibiting the effectiveness and sales of documents that could be read using the Adobe Digital Editions software.  I know that because of these drawbacks in the Adobe Digital Editions software, I will not ever use this software or by a ebook that does.  Personally, I have had experience investigating and prosecuting violations of the ADA and I believe that it wouldn't take a genius to somehow find grounds to file suit for violations of the ADA committed by the programmers of Adobe's Digital Editions software!  Even if being negligent of the consumers call for a text aloud option is not prosecutable as a violation of the ADA, such inaction looks very, very bad by consumers of Adobe products and shareholders as well!

The solution to this problem can't be techological:  it must be that Adobe doesn't concern itself with people who are visually impaird or blind.  I am very dissapointed by this conclusion!

If I am incorrect and there is a way to open the Adobe Digital Editions documents using Naturally Speaking or Adobe Acrobat Pro, please reply to this complaint. 

If I am correct and the Adobe programmers are working on a solution, please ask them to hurry up with their work!  It would seem that this would be a rather easy problem for the programmers at Adobe to overcome.  Your organization disappoints me greatly!

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New Here ,
Nov 26, 2015 Nov 26, 2015

Did you ever get a reply to this, Faith?

If not, Wow,  I'll delete adobe right now!!!  People I work with are not blind but there is a HUGE dyslexic population that also requires this software!!!!  What's Adobe doing going back wards like this!

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Community Beginner ,
Feb 03, 2023 Feb 03, 2023

I know many people with attention issues. Reading text book, no matter how interresting they are is a torture, they just won't stay focussed on these boring pages as the author slowly, very slowly goes through his/her linear thought process. Having a spoken lecture is a bliss for them, they can finally listen to the book while their hands are free to continue whatever activity they do.

We aren't talking about blind or visualy impaired people here, simply regular people who have better things to do than sitting down for hours staring at a paper book. Paying customers.

 

Now imagine you are buying a regular paper book. Make it an expenssive one.

Delivered to your home, the delivery guy with a shiny clean Adobe uniform refuses to handle the book and instead gets into your bedroom, insterts the book in your booksshelf, attaches a heavy dock to it and puts a seculity lock on it.

Hostile to all your objection, he just takes-off smiling and saying "sorry, just doing my job, maam!".

And there you are, your book was delivered... You can only open it after authenticating with your fingerprints and you can not take it off that shelf. Godbye reading your book comfortly installed in your bed or on your favorite sofa. Goodbye reading in the train, bus or doctor's waiting room. Goodbye the joy of reading a book on the beach while the salty waves massage your feet...

How would you feel ?

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 25, 2023 Nov 25, 2023

I have just received a COCHLEAR IMPLANT . Once this $14,000 device is activated, my audio therapy requires that I visually read a book, while listening to it being read at the same time. 2-3 HOURS PER DAY to train my brain to handle these new sounds. CALIBRE is ideal for this, It actually highlights each word as it is spoken. 

BUT EBOOKS must be in unprotected EPUB or PDF format for CALIBRE to open them.

I download ACSM protected E-books from my local public library,

then use

https://www.acsmconverter.com/

Then add to CALIBRE - then "return" the book to the library so someone else can borrow it. You now have your own copy.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 03, 2020 Jun 03, 2020

Solution: Use Microsoft Edge browser to go to the website you bought the book or the link you have to read it online. Then use the build in "read aloud" funciton of Microsoft Edge. If it doesnt work just highlight the text and let the reader read it for you. (click the 3 dots on the right and Read aloud)

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New Here ,
Mar 08, 2022 Mar 08, 2022

I have same problem 😞

It sucks so bad. I have a lot of reading from my school coursework. The books are .scam protected. The digital edition reader seems to be the only way to open the books and it doesn't have read aloud feature. Such a hindrance, annoying, and inefficient way. I'm a good listener so read aloud helps me a lot. It's unbelievable that in 21 century; when we want to go to Mars [cursing removed], we can get the little things like this sorted out, that would make actually life easier, simpler, more effective, and i guarantee you you would have less copyright problems. Having said that, I've been here before years ago, and still no progress in this matter from adobe. add the feature [cursing removed]. How hard can it be 😞 So frustrating!

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New Here ,
Jan 14, 2023 Jan 14, 2023

I have the same problem 

 

will never buy an ebook or Adobe products. 

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 25, 2023 Nov 25, 2023

https://www.acsmconverter.com/

Then add to CALIBRE

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 25, 2023 Nov 25, 2023

If you can open your book in CALIBRE, after opening, RIGHT CLICK and selecct <Read Aloud> It will highlight each word as it is spoken. You can adjust reading speed and font size.

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New Here ,
Nov 19, 2024 Nov 19, 2024

I'm having the same issue. Due to DRM I'm not able to utilize any other software to read the textbook and not having a screen reading option has made the book pretty worthless. I found the help section where they recommend compatible software for screen reading, but they cost money. The built in screen reading for windows does not seem to be compatible.

 

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New Here ,
Jun 17, 2025 Jun 17, 2025

I was sad about this as well and I hope what I figured out will help others. If your issue is that your library only gives you an ACSM file which can't be opened in other applications besides Adobe Digital Editions, you can use https://www.acsmconverter.com/ to convert to a Epub file and then open that in a different e-reader that is actually helpful and can read out loud such as Natural Reader. If you're on an iPhone you can use Settings-Accessibility-Speech Controller to read the screen in Adobe Digital Editions, but it won't turn the page for you, you have to ask it to speak each page, so you may want to do this even if you have an iPhone and open in Apple Books app instead. 

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 25, 2025 Jun 25, 2025
LATEST
Thank you

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