Ebook reader for Android that reads aloud
Lectern is a private, offline reader for Android that opens EPUB, PDF, comics and more, and reads the text ones aloud with on-device voices. No account, no ads, and no one keeping tabs on what you read.
One-time €2.49. No subscription, no ads. Price and VAT vary by country.
One reader for your whole shelf
Lectern is a private ebook reader for Android that reads aloud. It opens EPUB, PDF, MOBI, FB2 and comic files, reads the text ones to you with on-device text-to-speech, works with no connection, and keeps your reading position in sync across devices through a cloud folder you own. There are no ads, no account and no tracking.
It's a paid app made by Hofstack, built for readers who want one calm app for their whole library (books, PDFs, comics, and recordings linked to a book) that works offline and keeps what they read to themselves.
A look inside
Real screens from the app, not mock-ups.
Everyday library care
Lectern keeps the maintenance work close at hand, but out of the way until you need it.
What it does
Six things Lectern is built around. Most of the depth stays out of sight until you go looking for it.
Pick a theme, a font (nine built in, OpenDyslexic among them, or your own) and the size, spacing and margins you like, or tap a reading profile and start. Page or scroll, full-screen or not. It keeps drop caps, verse and scene breaks the way the author set them.
Have any text-based, DRM-free book read aloud with on-device voices: your system's right away, or higher-quality Piper, Supertonic and Kokoro voices you download once. It highlights the sentence as it goes and plays narrated EPUB3 books too.
More on listening →Keep your reading in step across phones and tablets through a folder you control in your own cloud app, such as Google Drive. Progress, bookmarks, highlights and ratings come along. No account, no server of ours.
How sync works →Open files you already have, or browse Project Gutenberg, DBNL and Ebooks libres et gratuits inside the app. Add your own OPDS catalog, send a book straight from another app, or send books from your computer over Wi-Fi. Find a missing cover with one tap.
Highlight in colour, add notes, and browse them per book or share one as a quote card. Long-press a word for its definition (built in for English, or import a dictionary for other languages), keep it in a vocabulary list with spaced repetition or export it as CSV, and search the whole book.
Group by author, series, genre or language, make your own collections, and filter or sort however you read. A stats screen follows your time, streaks and goals, with a heatmap and a year card to share. Three home-screen widgets keep it close.
Listening
Lectern reads text-based books to you with on-device voices, follows narrated EPUB3 books, and can play a recording linked to a book. Once a voice is installed, it works on a plane or in the woods.
Your own sync
There's no Lectern account and no server in the middle. Sync runs through a folder in your own cloud, so your reading travels between your phone and tablet. Lectern never sees it, but the file isn't encrypted, so your cloud provider's terms apply.
In step across devices
Reads the way it was written
Most apps mash a poem into one justified blob and turn a scene break into a thin grey line. Lectern keeps the verse, drop caps and scene breaks the author set, in whichever font you read.
Roses are red,violets are blue,sugar is sweet,and so are you.
…and the door fell shut behind her.
Morning found the camp already broken…
The long list
Dozens of touches across eight areas, none of them shouting for attention until you need them.
No account, no analytics, none of the usual tracking. Your books, highlights and progress sit on your phone, and sync only through a folder you own. Reading works completely offline. Lectern only goes online when you ask it to: downloading a voice, browsing a catalog, looking up book info or covers, or using your own speech server. What you read stays your business.
How it compares
An honest look at where Lectern differs from ReadEra, Moon+ Reader and Librera. They're all good apps. They just make different trade-offs.
| Feature | Lectern | ReadEra | Moon+ Reader | Librera |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Paid, no ads | Free, no ads | Free with ads · paid Pro | Free with ads · paid Pro |
| Ads & tracking | None at all | No ads | Ads in free tier | Ads in free tier |
| Neural on-device voices | Piper, Supertonic & Kokoro | System TTSdevice voices | System TTSTTS is Pro-only | System TTSdevice voices |
| Read-along highlighting | Sentence by sentence | Basic | YesPro | Yes |
| Link your own recordings | M4B / MP3 + Media Overlays | No | No | No |
| Account-less device sync | Your own cloud folder | Local only | Cloud syncvia app/service | Via your storage |
| Faithful typography | Verse, drop caps, ornaments | Standard | Standard | Standard |
| Office & DjVu files | No | DOC, DOCX, DjVu | No | DOC, DOCX, DjVu |
| Open source | No | No | No | Yes (F-Droid) |
Loved by readers
Perfect superb TTS (which is hard to find), attractive, thoughtful design and a bargain. Thanks Joshua for this!
A few hesitations in the flow, but the result is beyond what I expected. I can finally listen to any EPUB. The highlighting of the part being read is very practical, so you can switch from a regular EPUB reader to read-aloud in an instant. I really don't regret my purchase.
A real revelation for anyone who loves listening to books and documents in total comfort. EPUB and PDF handling is flawless, but the real strength is the Italian Kokoro AI voice: remarkably natural, fluent and pleasant to listen to even over long sessions, never artificial.
Recommended! It works very well, all in one, with the needed options. Dutch voices are still less perfect than English, but that isn't this app itself: no app does that better yet, and it's very usable even in Dutch.
Amazing. I have been using Speech Central for ages. I have only just started using the app and it's awesome. I can see myself using this every day with all the extra features like daily tracking. Even something as simple as just reading the book is good, and being able to switch it to audio instantly is amazing.
Overall, this is a great app for reading while focusing and hearing at the same time, with awesome local voices!
Good to know
No. Lectern is a one-time purchase of €2.49 (price varies by country), with no ads and no in-app purchases. You buy it once and it's yours.
Yes. Reading, installed voices, highlights, the dictionary and your library all work with no connection. Lectern only goes online when you ask it to: downloading a voice, browsing a catalog, looking up book info or covers, or using your own speech server.
Yes, using on-device voices: your system's, plus higher-quality Piper, Supertonic and Kokoro neural voices you download once. It highlights the sentence it's reading, plays narrated EPUB3 books, and can run ambient sound and a sleep timer.
Yes. Lectern can reflow text-based PDFs into flowing text and read them aloud, or read over the original pages with the spoken sentence marked. Scanned, image-only PDFs have no text layer, so they can be viewed but not read aloud.
Partly. You can link one M4B or MP3 file to a book in your library and play it there, with chapters for M4B. Lectern also follows EPUB3 Media Overlays for professionally narrated titles. Audio files on their own don't appear in the library.
EPUB, EPUB3 and KEPUB, PDF, MOBI, AZW3 (KF8), AZW and PRC, FB2 and FBZ, plain text, and CBZ, CBR, CB7 and CBT comics. Image-based fixed-layout EPUBs open page by page; text-based ones are reflowed.
Yes, through a folder in your own cloud. Google Drive is tested, and you can use any cloud app that shows a folder in Android's file picker, such as Dropbox, OneDrive or Nextcloud. Your reading position, bookmarks, highlights and ratings stay in step across devices, with no Lectern account or server in between. Book files don't sync, so each device needs its own copy.
No. There are no ads, no analytics and no tracking of any kind. Your books, highlights and reading statistics stay on your device.
Android 8.0 or newer, on phones and tablets. On e-ink devices a dedicated e-ink mode, detected automatically on many devices, keeps things calm.
Yes. OpenDyslexic is built in, there's a one-tap Dyslexia preset, and a dedicated e-ink mode keeps things calm on e-ink screens.
Yes. Lectern can import your Kindle highlights from a “My Clippings” file, and can export your highlights to Markdown or JSON.
No. Lectern is a paid, closed-source app made by Hofstack. It uses some open components (such as Piper / sherpa-onnx voices) but the app itself isn't open source.
Lectern focuses on high-quality on-device read-aloud (neural Piper, Supertonic and Kokoro voices), reading and listening in one app, faithful typography and account-less sync, with no ads at any tier. See the full comparison.
The app is translated into English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Indonesian.
On the privacy page. In short: no servers of ours, no accounts, no ads, no tracking. Your data stays on your device unless you send it somewhere yourself.
Say hello
Found a bug, want a feature, or just want to talk about books? Write to us. We read everything that comes in.
info@lecternreader.app