LuceVoce

Find your way around the reading view

How 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.

Windows
Yes
Mac
Yes
iPad
Yes
iPhone
Yes
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The reading view shows your book as clean, comfortable text in the font and size you choose. While the voice reads, the current sentence is softly tinted, the spoken word is lit, and the page scrolls gently to keep up.

Know what is on the screen

  • The top bar: Library takes you back to your books. Next to it are Contents, the book's title and chapter, and on the right Search, Bookmarks, Notes, the reading mode button and Settings. A PDF also has PDF pages here.
  • The text: the sentence being read is tinted and the word being spoken is lit in your accent colour.
  • The chapter bar: a thin strip on the right edge, with a mark for each chapter.
  • The bottom bar: the voice, the speed, back 15 seconds, previous sentence, Play, next sentence, forward 15 seconds, the microphone for a voice note (on the Mac, iPhone and iPad; see Record a voice note), the sleep timer, and a bar showing where you are in the book.

After a couple of seconds of reading, everything except the text fades away. Move the mouse, touch the screen or press a key and it comes back.

If a book has something worth knowing, such as scanned pages, a short note appears once at the top of the text. Close it with its dismiss button.

Follow the spoken word

The view scrolls on its own to keep the spoken line in the upper third of the screen.

  1. Scroll by hand to look somewhere else. The view stops following the voice for a few seconds.
  2. To return, select Back to the current position.
  3. To start reading from the place you scrolled to, select Read from here.

Moving around the book (scrolling, the progress bar, Contents, the chapter bar) only changes what you see. The voice keeps its place until you ask it to read from somewhere else.

To change what is highlighted, open Settings > Reading and turn these on or off:

  • Highlight the sentence
  • Highlight the spoken word
  • Follow the voice: keeps the spoken word in the upper third; pauses for 5 seconds when you scroll.

Start reading from any word

Windows

  • Click a word and choose Read from here.
  • Or double-click a word to read from its sentence.

The same menu has Look up, Translate, Search the web, Add note, Highlight sentence and Bookmark here. None of them moves or interrupts the voice.

Mac

  • Click a word and choose Read from here.
  • Or double-click a word to read from its sentence.

The same menu has Look up, Translate, Search the web, Add note, Highlight sentence and Bookmark here. None of them moves or interrupts the voice.

iPhone and iPad

  1. Press and hold a word. Its definition opens.
  2. Tap More, then Read from here.

More also gives Translate, a note, a highlight and a bookmark. Only the Play button plays or pauses; a tap on the text does not.

Use the chapter bar

The chapter bar on the right edge shows the whole book, with a mark for each chapter and a dot where the voice is.

  • Point at it to see the chapter's name. Click or drag it to look around the book. The voice stays where it is.
  • Select the voice's dot, or Back to the current position, to return to the voice.
  • With the keyboard, the arrow keys and Page Up and Page Down move between chapters while the bar has the focus.

The bar is hidden in books with fewer than two chapters, in audiobooks, and on an iPhone held upright. To hide it always, turn off Chapter bar in Settings > Reading.

Open the contents

  1. Select Contents in the top bar, or press T when a keyboard is connected.
  2. Select a chapter. The view moves there and the voice keeps its place, so you can look ahead without losing it.
  3. Select Read from here to continue reading from the new place, or Back to the current position to return.

A book without chapters says "This document has no chapters."

Change the font, size and spacing

  1. Open Settings > Reading. A sample at the top shows your changes as you make them.
  2. Choose a Font.
  3. Drag Text size (12 to 40 px), Line spacing and Line length (characters per line, 40 to 120).

Two fonts come with LuceVoce for people who find reading harder: OpenDyslexic and Atkinson Hyperlegible. They are there on every device.

Windows

The fonts are Segoe UI Variable Text, Georgia, Sitka Text, Cascadia Mono, OpenDyslexic and Atkinson Hyperlegible. Sitka Text and Cascadia Mono show as "not installed" when the PC doesn't have them.

Mac

The fonts are SF Pro, New York, Georgia, Charter, Iowan Old Style, Palatino, SF Mono, OpenDyslexic and Atkinson Hyperlegible.

iPhone and iPad

The fonts are SF Pro, New York, Georgia, Charter, Iowan Old Style, Palatino, SF Mono, OpenDyslexic and Atkinson Hyperlegible.

Pinch the text to make it bigger or smaller. The menus and buttons follow the text size you set for your whole device (in your device's display or accessibility settings); the book keeps its own size.

Use full screen

Windows

Select Full in the bottom bar, or press F11. Press F11 or Esc to leave.

Mac

Select Full in the bottom bar to keep only the text and the bar. To make the window itself full screen, choose View > Enter Full Screen (⌃+⌘+F).

iPhone and iPad

Select Full in the bottom bar. On iPhone the button shows when you hold the phone sideways.

Good to know

  • To show the text in other ways, such as one word at a time, see Show the text in a different way.
  • Esc closes an open panel first, then takes you back to the library.
  • Long books open and scroll without delay, even at several hundred pages.
  • Settings open with Ctrl+, on Windows and ⌘+, on a Mac or an iPad with a keyboard.

Related

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Last updated 13 November 2026