Follows every word
The word being spoken is highlighted as you hear it. In the Windows app the timing comes from the voice itself, so it never drifts out of step.
Read any book aloud.
Open a Word document, an EPUB, a PDF — or photograph the pages of a paper book — and Lamplight reads it to you, highlighting every word as it goes.
21 MB · nothing to install · $10 a month, $3.50 for students · other computers below
This Mac looks like an Intel Mac. The Mac app needs Apple Silicon — an M1 or later — so it will not open here.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
Press play, then try a voice
59,000+Free books included
21,800Audiobooks read by people
12Languages
100+Natural-sounding voices
It is a reader, not a converter. Nothing is uploaded, there is nothing to export, and there is no queue to wait in. You open a book and it starts talking.
A reader that keeps up with you.
Six things it does that a text-to-speech box does not.
Reads paper books
Photograph the pages and it transcribes them on your own machine. It crops to the page you meant, strips running headers, and rejoins hyphenated lines.
Reads at your pace
Half speed to triple speed, with a sleep timer, automatic page turns, and a button that steps back one sentence when your attention drifts.
15 h 23 mAssumes about 155 words a minute at 1×, a typical audiobook pace. Word counts are from the Project Gutenberg editions.
Takes your own files
Word, EPUB, PDF, plain text, or anything you have copied. Scanned PDFs with no text in them are transcribed page by page instead of refused.
Keeps your place
Every book you open goes on a shelf with the exact spot you stopped at. Close it, come back next week, press play.
Your files stay yours
Books, photographs and transcriptions are stored only on your computer, and photographs are transcribed there too — your files are never uploaded. To speak in a natural voice, the passage being read is sent a few sentences at a time to Microsoft's speech service.
Hear it in the app's own voices.
Pick a passage and a voice, press play, and change the speed while it reads. Click any word to jump there, just as you can in the app — or paste your own words.
Thousands of books you did not know were free.
Search by title or author and it looks through several free collections at once, showing only books it can actually open. Everything here is out of copyright — free to read, free to keep.
Wikisource
Books transcribed and corrected by hand, in 12 languages.
Best — no scanning errorsProject Gutenberg
59,000 classics, from the oldest free-book library there is.
ExcellentInternet Archive
Millions of scanned books, including obscure and out-of-print ones.
Good — occasional scanning errorsLibriVox
21,800 audiobooks read aloud by volunteers, chapter by chapter.
A real human voiceBibles
King James (1611), American Standard (1901) and the World English Bible — complete, straight from the sidebar.
Best — hand-proofreadIs your book free?
Type a title and it checks the catalogue. Books first published more than 95 years ago are out of copyright — the rule the free libraries follow.
Searches Open Library, run by the Internet Archive. Lamplight's own search has the final word.
Read by a machine
Any book from the text collections, spoken by a neural voice with every word highlighted. You control the speed and can jump anywhere.
Read by a person
Switch the search to “Human narration” for LibriVox recordings. Same speed control and sleep timer. No word highlighting, because there is no transcript to follow.
Books still in copyright are not here. Almost anything published in the last 95 years cannot legally be given away, and no free library has it. Open your own copy instead — Lamplight reads a file you already own just as happily.
If it has words in it, it opens.
Anything with text in it opens instantly, whatever its size. Only pictures of text need real work, because every page has to be transcribed.
Opens instantly
Word is the one to use — small files, and chapters come through. A 17,000-page file, about forty novels, opens in a third of a second.
.docx.epub.txt.html.mdpasted text
0.3 s
Pictures of text
Scanned PDFs and photographs of paper pages are transcribed automatically — 2 to 5 seconds a page, up to 200 pages.
scanned .pdf.jpg.png.heic
PDFs with text
Most PDFs made on a computer open in a few seconds.
.pdf
Will not open
.doc.mobi.azw.rtf.odt.pages
- Old Word: open it and save as .docx
- Kindle: encrypted by Amazon
- Others: export as .docx or .txt
About two minutes, start to finish.
Most of which is waiting for the download.
1
Download and open it
Double-click the file. There is no installer and nothing is added to your system.
2
Create an account
Choose “Create an account” and pick a password you do not use elsewhere.
3
Message an admin
Use the form at the bottom of this page. They will tell you how to pay and let you in — $10 a month, or $3.50 with a TMU account.
4
Open a book
Search the free library, or open your own file. Press play, or click any word to start there.
They work on this page too. Press K to play the sample at the top, J and L to skip, F for focus.
SpaceKPlay or pause
JLBack or forward a sentence
←→Previous or next page
FFocus mode — dim all but this sentence
−+Text size
RRead the highlighted passage
?Show every shortcut in the app
ClickStart reading from that word
AltClickTeach the voice how to say it
One price. Less for students.
The books are free and always will be — everything in the library is public domain. The subscription pays for the reader.
Everyone
$10a month
Every voice, the whole library, your own files, and the shelf that keeps your place. Create an account, then message an admin to pay and be let in.
Download and sign up
With a TMU email address
$3.50a month, for as long as you are studying
The same reader, for less. Message an admin from your TMU address using the form below so they can see it, and they will set you up.
Claim the student price
Bought Lamplight for a single payment before this changed? You keep exactly what you paid for.
Three builds of the same reader.
One for each kind of computer. The same voices, the same books, the same place kept in them.
Windows
- Microsoft's natural neural voices — over a hundred of them
- Word highlighting timed by the voice itself, to the millisecond
- Its own window and its own icon on the taskbar
- Needs an internet connection to speak
Mac
This Mac looks like an Intel Mac — this build will not open on it.
- The same neural voices as the Windows app
- A real Mac window, with its own icon in the Dock
- Drag it into Applications and it is installed
- Apple Silicon only — it will not run on an Intel Mac
Linux
- The same neural voices as the Windows app
- A real window, no browser involved
- Runs from wherever you save it
- Needs WebKitGTK — most desktops already have it
The first launch, on
- Windows shows a blue “Windows protected your PC” box, because the app is not signed with a paid certificate.
- Click More info, then Run anyway.
Your browser may also say the file is not commonly downloaded. Both mean the same thing: hardly anyone has this program yet. Neither is a virus warning.
- Unzip it, drag Lamplight into Applications and open it. macOS says it cannot verify Lamplight is free of malware.
- Click Done — not Move to Trash, which deletes it.
- Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to Security, and click Open Anyway beside the line about Lamplight. Confirm, and it opens normally from then on.
The Open Anyway button only appears after an attempt has been blocked. Or in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Lamplight.app. None of this is a virus warning — the app is not signed with a paid Apple certificate, nothing more.
- Make it executable and run it:
chmod +x Lamplight-linux && ./Lamplight-linux - If it will not start, install WebKitGTK:
sudo apt install gir1.2-webkit2-4.1
Built on Ubuntu 24.04, so it wants a reasonably current distribution.
Would rather not do it alone? We will set it up with you.
Message an admin
Tell us which computer you have and what the screen says, and you will get the exact steps for your system. Help is free, and no question is too basic.
The ones people actually ask.
Not here? Message an admin or text techhelp to (661) 513-8221.
What does it cost?
$10 a month. With a TMU email address it is $3.50 a month, for as long as you are studying.
Create your account first, then message an admin using the form at the bottom of this page. They will tell you how to pay and let you in once you have. If you are claiming the student price, message from your TMU address so they can see it.
Anyone who bought Lamplight for a single payment before this changed keeps exactly what they paid for.
Why do I need an account?
So that whoever runs this can control who uses it. You sign in once and it remembers you — you will not be asked again unless you sign out or your access is withdrawn.
Approval is manual: after you create an account, an admin has to let you in.
Does it work without internet?
Mostly. Opening your own files, reading, the shelf and all your settings work with no connection at all.
Three things need internet: the online library, the natural voices, and the first transcription of a photograph (the transcriber downloads itself once, then works offline).
If the connection drops entirely, the app keeps working for 14 days on its last sign-in check.
Which version should I get?
The one for your computer. Windows, Mac and Linux each get the same reader with the same neural voices.
The Mac app needs an Apple Silicon machine — an M1 or later — and the Linux app needs a reasonably current distribution, for WebKitGTK.
Windows says the app might be dangerous. Is it?
No. That warning appears for any program not signed with a paid certificate, regardless of what it does. Click More info and then Run anyway.
Do my books get uploaded anywhere?
No. Your files, photographs and the text pulled out of them are stored on your computer, and transcription runs there too, not on a server.
One thing to know: the natural voices are made by Microsoft's online speech service, so the passage being read aloud is sent there a few sentences at a time to be spoken. That is why the voices need internet.
Two other things leave: your email and password when you sign in, and a count of how many books you have opened. Never titles.
Can it read a paper book?
Yes — photograph the pages and add them. It crops to the page you meant, removes the running header, rejoins words split across lines, and skips stray marks.
If a word still comes out wrong, click Fix a word and correct it, and the voice will use your correction.
Can I get a specific modern book?
Not from the built-in library — books still in copyright cannot legally be given away. If you own the book as a file, open it directly. If you own it on paper, photograph the pages.
The voice mispronounces a name. Can I fix it?
Yes. Hold Alt and click the word, then type how it should sound. It is remembered for every book from then on.
How fast can it read?
From half speed to three times speed, adjustable while it is reading. Most people settle around 1.5x to 2x. The app shows how long the book has left at whatever speed you have chosen.
Does it remember where I stopped?
Yes, to the sentence. Every book you open goes on a shelf with its position, so you can keep several on the go.
Is there a limit on book size?
Not in practice. A 30 MB text file — around 17,000 pages — opens in a third of a second. Transcription is limited to 200 pages for a scanned PDF.
Can I read the Bible in it?
Yes. Bibles in the sidebar opens the King James (1611), the American Standard (1901) or the World English Bible, each complete, with the books of the Bible as its chapters.
Modern translations — the NIV, ESV, NASB and others — are still in copyright and cannot be included.
Can I use it on my phone?
No. Lamplight is a desktop program — Windows, Mac or Linux.
How do I get updates?
The app updates its reading page itself when it starts. For a new app build, download it again from this page — your shelf, your place in every book and your settings survive.
I forgot my password.
There is no self-service reset yet — ask the admin who approved you. They can remove the account so you can create it again.
Nothing matches that. Ask an admin — they answer everything.
Talk to a person.
Asking for access, arranging payment, a problem, or a book that will not open — this goes straight to the admin panel inside the app.
Quicker: text us
Stuck part-way through installing and only need one question answered? Text techhelp and someone will get back to you.
Text techhelp(661) 513-8221
Pull up a chair.
Pick a book, press play, and it reads to you — every word lit as it goes.