Dyslexia and text in images: tools that help on Mac

Many people with dyslexia read more comfortably when they can shape the text: a plainer font, more space between lines, a softer background, or the words read aloud while they follow along. A Mac can do all of that, but only with real text. A worksheet scanned as a PDF, an infographic, a photo of a notice or a slide in a video call is a picture, and none of those controls reach it. This guide shows how to get the words out of the picture and into a form that works for you.

Why images of text get in the way

Text in an image is fixed exactly as it was made. You can’t:

• change the font, size or spacing;
• switch to a calmer colour scheme;
• have the Mac read it aloud with Speak selection;
• check a word in the dictionary, or search for it.

Images of text also tend to break the advice that design guides give for dyslexic readers. The UK Home Office’s accessibility posters, for example, suggest left-aligned text, the option to change the contrast between text and background, and no large blocks of heavy text, underlining, italics or capitals. A designed poster or a scan often has all of those, and in a picture you can’t undo them.

Turn it into real text

If the picture is a file (a photo, a screenshot, an image in Safari), Live Text is built in:

1. Open the image in Preview, or find it in Safari or Photos.
2. Move the pointer over the words until it becomes a text cursor, then drag across them.
3. Press ⌘C to copy.
4. Paste into Notes, TextEdit or Pages.

For a scanned PDF with many pages, Preview can add a text layer to the whole file: choose File → Export, select Embed Text, and save a copy. You can then select text on any page.

For text that isn’t a file, like a slide in a video call or a caption inside an app, press ⌃⇧⌘4 and drag over it to copy a screenshot. Open Preview, choose File → New from Clipboard, and select the words there.

In Unpixel

That last route has a lot of steps. Unpixel does it in one: press ⇧⌘2, drag a box around the words wherever they are on screen, and let go. The text is on your clipboard, ready to paste. It doesn’t read text out loud by itself, but once you paste it, your Mac can.

One setting is worth changing. In Settings → Recognition, turn off Keep line breaks. The lines of each paragraph are then joined into normal sentences, so the text rewraps to your font and size instead of keeping the picture’s short lines. If English isn’t your first language, holding ⌥ as you let go copies a translation into your language instead.

Restyle it: fonts, spacing and colours

Accessibility Reader, new in macOS Tahoe, is the quickest way to restyle text. It’s a systemwide reading mode: it shows the text of the app you’re in with your own font, colours and spacing, and can read it aloud.

1. Choose Apple menu → System Settings → Accessibility → Read & Speak and turn on Accessibility Reader.
2. Paste your text into a document, or open any page with real text.
3. Press ⌘Esc.
4. Click More Customization to change the settings below.

If you prefer to work in a document, TextEdit lets you change the font and size with Format → Font → Show Fonts, and line spacing with Format → Text → Spacing. Use Format → Text → Align Left rather than justified text, which keeps the spaces between words even.

Listen instead of reading

Hearing the words while you follow them on screen can take the strain off a long text.

1. In Accessibility → Read & Speak, turn on Speak selection.
2. Click the Info button next to it and set Highlight content to words, sentences or both, so you can follow along as it’s read.
3. Select text and press ⌥Esc, the default shortcut (you can change it with the same Info button). Press it again to stop.

Accessibility Reader has a Play button too, with a speed control and highlighting. Choosing a voice you like makes a real difference; text to speech on Mac explains voices and speeds.

A simple daily setup

You don’t need to think about any of this once it’s set up:

1. Turn on Accessibility Reader and Speak selection once, and set your favourite font, spacing and colours.
2. Keep a “Reading” note in Notes, or a TextEdit document, as a place to paste into.
3. When text arrives as a picture, copy it out, paste it, and press ⌘Esc to read or ⌥Esc to listen.
4. For web articles, Safari’s Reader removes clutter before you restyle or listen. See Safari Reader on Mac.
5. When someone regularly sends you images of text, ask for the text itself: an email body, a document or a link. That’s often the simplest fix of all.

Recognition makes mistakes on blurry, decorative or handwritten text. If a word looks wrong in your copy, check it against the original before relying on it.