LuceVoce

Help

How to do things in LuceVoce, with the steps for Windows, Mac, iPad and iPhone.

Getting started

  • Install LuceVoce and set it upWhat LuceVoce needs on Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad, how to install it or use the portable copy, and what the welcome guide asks the first time.
  • Add your first bookHow to add books, documents and audiobooks to your LuceVoce library with the Add button, drag and drop, or by opening a file from another app.
  • Differences between Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPadLuceVoce is the same app on every device. This page lists the few things that work differently on Windows, the Mac, the iPhone and the iPad.
  • Keyboard shortcuts and touch gesturesEvery keyboard shortcut in LuceVoce on Windows, Mac and iPad with a keyboard, plus the touch gestures for iPhone, iPad and touch screens.

Listening

  • Play, pause and move around a bookHow to start and stop reading aloud in LuceVoce, go back or forward a sentence, skip a few seconds, jump between chapters and read from any word.
  • Control reading with your voiceHow to turn on voice commands in LuceVoce on Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad, give a command, what you can say, and what happens to your words.
  • Change the reading speedHow to make LuceVoce read faster or slower, from half speed to three times, without changing the pitch of the voice, and how the speed is kept.
  • Set a sleep timerHow to make LuceVoce stop reading after a number of minutes or at the end of the chapter, see the time left, and turn the sleep timer off.
  • Line up books to read nextHow to use Play next and Add to queue so LuceVoce starts the next book by itself when one ends, and how to reorder or clear the Queue view.
  • Listen with the window closed or the screen offHow LuceVoce keeps reading in the background, and how to control it from the tray, the menu bar, the lock screen, media keys or headphone buttons.
  • Read text from any appHow to have LuceVoce read aloud the text you selected in another app, or the text on the clipboard, with a hotkey, the tray, the menu bar or the Share sheet.
  • Listen to audiobooksHow to add MP3 and M4B audiobooks to LuceVoce, move between chapters, change the speed and volume, and pick up where you stopped.

Voices

  • Get the natural voices (Kokoro)Why the natural Kokoro voices are worth the one-time download, how big it is on each device, which languages they read and where to start it.
  • Choose a voiceHow to pick the voice for a book, listen before you choose, set a voice for each language, and have passages in another language read by their own voice.
  • Piper voices and voices you addHow to download the Piper voices LuceVoce offers for French, Italian and Spanish, and add a Piper voice of your own from a file, with its licence shown.
  • Fix how a word is pronouncedHow to teach LuceVoce to say a word, a name or an abbreviation your way, try a rule at once, and what it already does to make text easier to listen to.

Reading view

  • Find your way around the reading viewHow the reading view shows a book and follows the spoken word, how to read from any word, use the chapter bar, and change the font and text size.
  • Switch between dark and lightHow LuceVoce follows your system's dark or light appearance and accent colour, and how to keep it always dark or always light instead.
  • Show the text in a different wayThe four reading modes in LuceVoce, Normal, Bold word starts, One word at a time and Reveal as it is read, and where to switch between them.
  • Search a book and go to a pageHow to find words in the book you are reading and jump to a page number, a Roman numeral page or a chapter.paragraph reference.
  • Bookmark a place in a bookHow to add a bookmark at the sentence being read or at any word, write a note on it, and jump back to it later from the Bookmarks panel.
  • Tables and footnotesHow LuceVoce shows tables as grids and reads them row by row, how to keep tables silent, and how footnote numbers are shown but not read aloud.
  • Read with touch gesturesThe touch layout and gestures in LuceVoce on touch screens, iPhone and iPad: the Play button, swiping between chapters, pinching the text, holding a word.

Library

  • Browse and organise your libraryHow the LuceVoce library shows your books in a grid, a list or by series, how to sort and file them in folders, and how to reopen recent books.
  • Search your library and save smart shelvesHow to search every book's title and text from the library, narrow results with author:, tag: and other filters, and save a search as a smart shelf.
  • Edit book details and coversHow to change a book's title, authors, series, tags, language and other details, look them up online if you wish, edit several books, and change a cover.
  • Get free books and audiobooksHow to find and download free books and audiobooks from Project Gutenberg, LibriVox, Wikisource and more inside LuceVoce, and browse Gutenberg's catalogue.
  • Save web articles and use the Reading ListHow to save an article from a web address or add copied text to LuceVoce, and use the Reading List and Mark as read to keep track of what to read next.
  • Scan a folder for books and watch itHow to add every book in a folder or drive in one go, choose whether to copy them or read them where they are, and watch folders for new books.
  • Fix a book whose file is missingWhat it means when a book in your library shows File missing, and how to use Find file to show LuceVoce where the book's file is now.

Formats

  • File formats LuceVoce can readEvery book, document and audiobook format LuceVoce opens, from EPUB, PDF and Kindle to Word, comics and MP3, and what it does with each one.
  • Read PDFsHow LuceVoce tidies a PDF into readable text, and how to switch to the real PDF pages with the spoken word lit on them and zoom in.
  • Listen to scanned PDFsHow LuceVoce reads PDF pages that are only pictures with text recognition (OCR), what you need on Windows, and how to turn it off.
  • Books protected by DRMWhy LuceVoce refuses books and documents protected by DRM or a password, how to recognise them, and what you can do to listen to the book instead.

Study

  • Highlight text and add notesHow to highlight a passage in a named colour, write a note on it or on any word, and find your notes again in the margin and the notes panel.
  • Record a voice noteHow to speak a note with the microphone in the bottom bar or on a word or passage, and how LuceVoce writes down your words on your device.
  • See all your notes in one placeHow to search, filter and edit the highlights and notes from every book in your library, and jump straight to the place where you made one.
  • Export your notes and cite your sourcesHow to export highlights and notes to Markdown, Obsidian, Word, PDF, Anki, CSV, JSON or BibTeX, and copy quotes with APA, MLA or Chicago citations.
  • Import your Kindle and calibre notesHow to bring highlights and notes from a Kindle's My Clippings.txt file or from calibre into the matching books of your LuceVoce library.
  • Look up a wordHow to see a word's definition, pronunciation, examples and synonyms while you read, save it to your notes, and add dictionaries for other languages.
  • Translate a word or a passageHow to translate a word in its sentence or a whole passage on your device in LuceVoce, which languages it covers and how big each language download is.
  • Search the web and find more booksHow to search the web for a word or passage from your book, choose the search engine, and use More books to find more by the same author or series.

Sync

  • Continue reading on another deviceHow to pause a book on one device and pick it up at the same sentence on another, through a folder in your own iCloud Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox.
  • Sync your notes and bookmarksHow highlights, notes, bookmarks, tags, ratings and reading status reach your other devices once sync is on, and what happens when two devices change them.
  • Share your books between devicesHow to have the books from one device appear in the library of your other devices through your sync folder, choose which books go, and save mobile data.

Privacy and troubleshooting

  • What stays on your deviceLuceVoce has no account, no server of its own and no tracking. This page lists exactly when it goes online, what it sends, and what your sync folder holds.
  • Fix common problemsWhat to do when the voice sounds robotic, a language has no voice, a book won't open, a scanned PDF is silent or your place doesn't reach another device.

Prefer to read it all in one go? Download the manual (PDF, 13 chapters)