Easy Reader

How to use Easy Reader

1. Paste your text, or drop in a .txt or .docx file. Everything is read inside your browser.
2. Press "Open reading view" to see the text in a large, calm reading page.
3. Adjust the font, text size, letter, word and line spacing, line width and background tint until the page feels comfortable.
4. Switch on fixation bolding, one sentence per block or the reading ruler if they help you keep your place.
5. Press "Read aloud" to hear the text with the current word highlighted, or print an accessible handout.

Why use ZillaKit's Easy Reader?

Most text on screen and on paper is set for whoever designed it, not for the person reading it. Lines are long, letters are tight, paragraphs are dense, and the contrast is often harsh white. For a dyslexic reader, a reader with ADHD, a person with low vision, or anyone at the end of a long day, those small choices add up until the words start sliding around. Easy Reader is a dyslexia friendly text converter that hands the typography back to you. Paste anything and you can change the typeface, the text size from 16 to 40 pixels, the space between letters, words and lines, and the width of the line itself, which is one of the biggest factors in reading comfort. Shorter lines mean fewer chances to lose your place on the return sweep.

The reading page also carries the aids that reading specialists tend to reach for. A colour tint overlay in cream, soft blue, soft green, soft pink or grey imitates a physical overlay sheet and takes the glare off the page, and you can flip the whole pane to a light on dark scheme without changing the rest of the site. Fixation bolding, sometimes described as a fixation bolding generator effect, emboldens roughly the first 40 to 50 percent of each word so your eye lands on a strong anchor and fills in the rest, which many readers find keeps them moving forward instead of re-reading. The reading ruler dims everything except a single adjustable band that follows your pointer, or moves when you tap on a touch screen. Chunk mode breaks the passage into one sentence per block with generous space between, which is a simple and powerful way to make text easier to read for anyone who loses the thread in a wall of prose.

Read aloud turns the page into a free text reader with highlighting. Your browser's built in speech voices read the passage while the current word lights up in place, so eyes and ears track together, which is exactly the kind of multi sensory support recommended for building reading fluency. You can pick any installed voice, slow the pace down, pause, resume and stop at any time. Listening is never limited and never gated.

Teachers and parents can use the same page as an accessible worksheet formatter. Set the passage the way a particular student needs it, then print. The printed version keeps the font, size, spacing and chunking you chose, on clean white paper, so a single reading can be handed out in different formats to different students in the same lesson. Everything runs locally in your browser with no signup, no upload and no copy of your text kept anywhere.

Reading aids explained

Fixation bolding

Each word is split so that its opening letters are bold and the rest stay light. The number of bolded letters is worked out from the length of the word, so short words get one bold letter and longer words get more. It is a reversible display effect only, and the words themselves are never changed.

Colour tints

Coloured overlays are a long standing classroom aid for visual stress. Rather than laying a plastic sheet over a page, Easy Reader tints the reading page itself, and each tint has a matching dark version if bright pages tire your eyes.

Line width

Line width is measured in characters, not pixels, so it scales with whatever text size you pick. Somewhere between 45 and 70 characters suits most readers, and narrower lines often help beginners and anyone who skips lines.

FAQ

What does fixation bolding actually do?

It makes the first part of every word bold, roughly the first 40 to 50 percent of its letters depending on word length. The idea is that a strong visual anchor at the start of a word lets your eye recognise it faster and move on. Some readers love it and some find it noisy, so it is a toggle you can turn on and off at any time.

Which fonts are included and do they help with dyslexia?

You can choose OpenDyslexic, which weights the bottom of each letter to reduce flipping and rotation, Atkinson Hyperlegible, which was designed for low vision readers with very distinct letter shapes, or a standard sans serif. Research on specialist fonts is mixed, and many readers get more benefit from larger text and wider spacing, so all of those controls sit side by side for you to test.

Does the read aloud feature highlight each word?

Yes. Easy Reader uses the speech engine already built into your browser and highlights the spoken word as it goes. On some mobile browsers the engine does not report individual words, so the tool falls back to highlighting a sentence at a time instead, which still keeps eyes and ears in step.

Can I print these pages for my classroom?

Yes. Printing an accessible version is free for personal, family and classroom use. Free prints include one small line reading "Created free at ZillaKit.com" at the bottom of the page. Premium removes that line and adds a commercial licence for client work, published material and anything you sell.

Is my text uploaded anywhere?

No. Your text, your .txt files and your .docx files are all processed inside your browser using JavaScript. Nothing is sent to a server, nothing is stored, and only your display settings are remembered on your own device.

Does it work on a phone or tablet?

Yes. The settings panel collapses behind a button on small screens, and the reading ruler switches to a tap to move mode so you can place the band with your finger.