Click the Settings button on the Readable Web toolbar to open the settings panel. Always use Close & Save when finished — closing the panel any other way does not save your changes.

Readable Web settings panel showing voice, pitch, rate, volume, and highlighting options

Settings explained

Voice
Click the voice name to display a list of all available text-to-speech voices. Selecting a voice plays a short test phrase so you can hear it before committing. Some voices are always available; others require an internet connection (cloud voices) and may have a short pause before starting. Choose a voice that is clear and comfortable for extended reading.
Pitch
Adjusts the tone of the selected voice — drag the slider up for a higher pitch or down for a lower pitch.
Rate
Controls how fast the voice speaks. Drag the slider left to slow down or right to speed up. Find the pace that suits your reading style.
Volume
Adjusts the volume of the Readable Web voice, independently of your device's system volume.
Silent Mode
When ticked, all speech and highlighting is disabled. Readable Web stays active but does not speak. This is useful when you want to select and copy text from a page without triggering the extension.
Use Highlight
When ticked, the text being spoken is given a background colour highlight — similar to how selected text appears. This makes it easy to follow what is being read.
Underline (colour)
Hover over the colour swatch to open a colour picker. Choose the colour used for the underline highlight that appears under words as they are spoken.
Use Underline
When ticked, words or blocks of text are underlined as they are spoken — providing a moving underline highlight that tracks speech in real time. Underline highlighting requires a compatible voice; it is not available on all websites in Safari.
Ctrl+Move to Speak
Unticked (default): simply hover over text to have it spoken automatically.
Ticked: hover over the text you want to read, then press and release the Ctrl key to start reading. This gives you more control and prevents accidental speech when moving the mouse across the page.
Important: Always close the settings panel using the Close & Save button to save your changes. Clicking outside the panel or closing it another way will discard any unsaved settings.