PDFs on Android, read or heard
A PDF reader for Android that reads out loud
Lectern reflows a PDF into flowing text you can size to your screen, then reads it aloud with on-device voices and highlights the sentence as it goes. It searches inside the document, has night and sepia modes, and works with no connection.
Lectern is a PDF reader for Android with built-in text-to-speech. It turns a text-based PDF into flowing, resizable text, reads it aloud with on-device voices, and lets you search inside it — all offline, with no ads and no account.
Reflow: PDFs that fit your screen
A PDF is built for paper, not for a phone. Lectern can reflow a text-based PDF into flowing text that wraps to your screen, so you set the font size, spacing and margins instead of pinching and panning a fixed page. Prefer the original layout? Read it as fixed pages with fit-to-width, zoom and pan. Night and sepia modes keep it easy on the eyes.
- Reflow text-based PDFs to flowing, resizable text
- Or keep the fixed page with fit-to-width, zoom and pan
- Full-text search inside the document
- Night and sepia reading modes
Listen to a PDF
Once a PDF is reflowed, Lectern can read it aloud like any book. It uses on-device text-to-speech — your system's voices, or higher-quality Piper and Kokoro packs — and highlights each sentence as it's spoken. Set the speed, pitch and pauses, add a sleep timer, and it keeps the screen on while it reads so you can follow along. Because the voices are on the device, none of it needs a connection.
Listen to a PDF
- Input
- Text-based PDF
- Feature
- Reflow + on-device text-to-speech
- Output
- Spoken audio with sentence highlighting
- Needs
- No internet
Read on a phone
- Input
- PDF made for A4 / Letter paper
- Feature
- Reflow to flowing text
- Output
- Resizable text that fits your screen
- Needs
- A text layer in the PDF
One app for PDFs and books
Lectern isn't only a PDF reader. The same app opens EPUB, EPUB3, MOBI, KF8, FB2 and comics, so your documents and your books live in one library with the same reading tools — highlights, notes, a built-in dictionary, bookmarks and reading stats. Your position and highlights sync across devices through a cloud folder you own, with no Lectern account.
Honest about scanned PDFs
Reflow and read-aloud rely on a text layer. A born-digital PDF (exported from a word processor or a publisher) has one; a scanned, image-only PDF does not, so it can be viewed but not reflowed or read aloud. Lectern doesn't run OCR, so if your PDF is a photo of a page, it stays a fixed image.
PDF reader FAQ
Can Lectern read a PDF aloud?
Yes. Lectern reflows text-based PDFs into flowing text, then reads them aloud with on-device voices — your system's, or higher-quality Piper and Kokoro packs — highlighting the sentence as it goes.
Does PDF text-to-speech work offline?
Yes. The voices run on the device, so reading a PDF aloud works with no connection.
Can it reflow PDFs on a phone screen?
Yes. Text-based PDFs can reflow to flowing, resizable text that fits a phone, instead of forcing you to pinch and pan a fixed page.
Are scanned PDFs supported?
Scanned, image-only PDFs have no text layer, so they can be viewed but not reflowed or read aloud. Text-based PDFs get the full treatment.
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