WebbIE

Accessible PDF Reader

This is legacy documentation retained for archival purposes. Go to the current version of PDF Reader.

PDF files are great for printing but they can be really difficult to use if you want them read out to you or you want to change the colours and fonts used. Many people, such as people with dyslexia, find it easier to work with text when it is spoken aloud or has different colours or contrast.

Accessible PDF Reader is a free program from that lets you read PDFs with the colours and fonts you want and makes it easy to read the text aloud with your screenreader. You can zoom in and out, use high- or low-contrast colours, and save your PDF as text or a web page for future use. You can even follow internal contents links to let you navigate the document.

Based on the PDFTOHTML program, which in turn uses the XPDF program from Foo labs and GPL Ghostscript, Accessible PDF Reader is free open-source software released under the GNU Public Licence version 3, so you can use it for free for business and personal use.

Here is Accessible PDF Reader having opened a PDF file. The colours have been adjusted to a low-contrast combination that can help some people with reading problems. The font selection shows how you can pick any size or font that suits you.

Some people, such as screenreader users, simply want the text content of the PDF file or want a simplified and much-magnified appearance. Here's Accessible PDF Reader showing the same PDF file with extra-large text, high contrast and also a caret, allowing you to browse around and read the PDF just like a Word document.