ClarkReader by Aaron Clark

Requires the free local server from https://github.com/CryptoJones/ClarkReader. Install that first; the extension opens the setup guide after installing.

Select text on any page and press Alt+R to hear it read in Emma, a natural English voice synthesized on your own computer by Kokoro. As she speaks, the player flashes each word at a fixed point with one letter marked in red, the way speed-reading apps do, but paced by the voice instead of a dial. Select nothing and the whole article is read.

• Read a selection or the entire page. Right-click for both.
• Word window synced to the audio, with a maximized full-tab view (Alt+M).
• Stop partway through a long document and resume later from the same sentence.
• Skip back and forward by sentence, pause and resume, change voice and speed.
• Read EPUBs: a small script in the repository turns one into pages the browser can open.

Privacy: the text you ask to read goes to the server address you configure, which by default is your own machine (127.0.0.1), and audio comes back. The extension stores only your settings and where you stopped in documents. No analytics, no accounts, no other network connections. Once the model is cached the server itself makes no network connections at all.

The server needs Python 3.10 or newer and about 2 GB of disk for the model. It has been tested on Linux; macOS and Windows use the same Python and torch stack but have not been tried yet. It can run on another machine on your network; grant the extension access to that address from the toolbar popup.