Alinea Suite PDF reading application

The word Lexima in a thick black font. The initial capital L is rounded and on a slight anglem End of description.
alinea Suite PDF reading application for Windows  This is a photograph taken in a school library. In the foreground to the right is a teenager sitting at a very small desk with a tablet device in one hand and a set of blue headphones around his neck. He has dark hair and is smiling directly at the camera. Moving backwards, the photograph loses focus but shows a blonde haired girl roughly of ten years old. She has white headphones around her neck and along with a long haired lady sat next to her. Behind them is an increasingly less focused set of two bookcases. End of description.alinea Suite’s Windows PDF reading and annotation application

For Windows 11 users, alinea for Windows is a unique reading environment that offers access to any PDF document via text-to-speech (TTS). Listening to text can often improve our understanding of what is being read.

Being a Windows application, alinea PDF can use SAPI 5 text-to-speech voices that have been installed in Windows. We have experienced an issue with some CereProc voices which causes the end of some sentences to be skipped. However, all of the Ivona and Nuance English language voices (listed at the beginning of our Text-to-Speech Central store) have been tested with alinea PDF, all with no problems.
Why use additional voices? Three text-to-speech voices are included with alinea PDF are: Daniel, Emily and Serena
Just like a font, many people prefer a specific voice when reading. For example, here at Lime Assistive Technology Ltd (in England), we prefer Tessa the South African Nuance voice, and  

For students learning / speaking other European languages, we recommend voices from the European section of our Text-to-Speech Central store for use with PDFs written in the chosen language. Use of non English voices with an English language PDF will not translate text. For the translation of PDFs, we suggest trying the PDF upload facility at DeepL or Google Translate. 

Other great features include a dictionary that gives definitions by right-clicking on a word. Just like anybody using pen and paper, you can highlight and underline words, and even add notes or little doodles to the margins, then hear their text read aloud.

The below images of alinea PDF’s toolbars give a great overview of it’s capabilities!

The “File” toolbar 
The “Read” toolbar
The “Write” toolbar
The “Study” toolbar
The “Prepare for Reading” toolbar
The “Image” toolbar
 
Now that we have seen alinea PDF toolbars, lets watch / listen to reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin (the basis of Bridget Jones’ Diary) using the Tessa Nuance adult female South African voice!  
https://youtu.be/9oPdJf0IODc?si=26VndV-la7L4evN8

The alinea Suite PDF application has it’s own text-to-speech voices, but also detects SAPI 5 voices that have been installed in Windows. For individual private use, UK Access to Work, Ireland Fund for Disabled Students, and Ireland Workplace Equipment Adaptation Grant users, we offer licences alinea Suite, we offer 1, 3, 4, and 5 year licenses, with an Ivona or Nuance English language text-to-speech voice for just an additional GBP 5.00!

Please go to our English language speaking country pages at Text-to-Speech Central to buy alinea Suite! You can try alinea Suite by requesting your free trial license.

If you have any questions, please use our contact form. Many thanks! 

 

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Page created: 03 February 2023
Last updated: 13 April 2024