Bringing a PDF in
| Where the PDF is | How to open it in PageEcho |
|---|---|
| Files app, iCloud Drive | Long-press the PDF, Share → PageEcho |
| Mail or Messages attachment | Open the attachment, Share → PageEcho |
| arXiv papers | Search the store inside PageEcho |
The PDF keeps its own page layout, and play reads it aloud. You can also pick the file from the add menu in the PageEcho library.
Scanned PDFs
When a PDF has no text layer, as with scanned pages, PageEcho runs text recognition (OCR) on the iPhone to read the text, then reads it aloud. A recognized page is stored so it is never recognized twice. Results depend on the quality of the scan.
While you listen
- Reading continues with the app closed or the screen off, with controls on the lock screen.
- Speed goes from 0.5× to 2×, and there is a sleep timer.
- Search inside the PDF, translate on the device, and summarize or ask questions with Apple Intelligence or a downloaded Gemma model.
What is free
Apple and Kitten voices are free with no limit. Supertonic, Kokoro, Kokoro Deutsch, Qwen3 and MOSS are free for 10 chapters per engine each month; in a PDF each page counts as one, so 10 pages per engine each month. PageEcho Premium removes the limit. The engines are compared in On-device text-to-speech voices on iPhone, compared.
Questions
Is reading PDFs aloud free?
Yes. PageEcho is free to download, and Apple and Kitten voices read PDFs with no limit.
Can it read scanned PDFs?
Yes. Scanned PDFs without a text layer go through text recognition (OCR) on the iPhone first. Results depend on the quality of the scan.
Can I listen to a PDF offline?
Yes. Voices are generated on the iPhone, so after a voice model is downloaded once, listening works without internet.
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. The PDF and its text are processed on the device only. PageEcho has no servers of its own.