Power Reader

The evolution of technology gave birth to quite an amazing variety of perks, such as the text to speech enhancement which has even spread to mobile phones. As for the desktop PC, Microsoft already bundled several speech tools in Windows. However, there are also capable alternatives like Power Reader which let you enjoy large texts without having to stay in front of the computer.

First of all, you need to make sure that Java Runtime Environment is installed on your PC for the application to work. On the other hand, the program itself doesn’t require installation, meaning you can carry it on a thumb drive wherever you go, without having to worry about the health status of the computer you use it on.

The application starts of with a sample files so you instantly get familiar with what’s going on, and how you can load your own file. Most of the space represents the text preview area, which can be customized with different colors for foreground, background, as well as highlighter for the reader to make it suit your style.

Unfortunately, you’re only able to work with TXT files, which need to be opened through the browse dialog. Text is immediately unveiled in the preview area. Related controls help you adjust the read speed, zoom level, image size if available, level of details, as well as level of focus, which means the length of the phrase being read in one shot.

You can include audible speech, which is enabled by default, whether or not to follow words, and to make them grow on highlight. Although import options are limited to TXT, there’s the possibility to change the font type used, as well as size. For slight visual tweaks, you can set character depth to make it look 3D.

All things considered, we can safely state that Power Reader is a lightweight application you can use on the go to have text files read to you in a comfortable fashion. Even though you can only load TXT files, related options provide enough control over the situation, letting you learn new stuff, or enjoy a lecture without having to read yourself.