Case study · Product build
LatteReader: a PDF reader that reads aloud.
We designed and built LatteReader as a Mac app and a web app. Open a PDF, press play and listen to a natural voice while each sentence lights up on the page. In the browser, the voice runs entirely on your device.
N 01The idea
Listen to the PDF. Keep your place.
Reports, papers and long documents still arrive as PDFs, and most of them are read at a desk, one screen at a time. LatteReader lets you listen instead, and follow along when you want to.
Two rules shaped the build. Your documents stay private, so nothing you open is uploaded. And the reading has to keep going, even when a PDF's text is messy.
- Product
- LatteReader
- Platforms
- Mac app and web app
- Built by
- IRIRI Labs
- Live at
- lattereader.iririlabs.com
N 02What we built
Built for listening.
A natural voice, on your device
In the browser, a natural voice runs fully on your device. There is no server, and no text leaves it.
Follow every sentence
The sentence being read is highlighted, and the page scrolls with the voice, so you never lose your place.
Skip with ease
Skip back or forward a sentence at a time, so you can replay a point or move on.
Made for mobile
The web app is optimised for phones, with the reader and playback controls within reach.
N 03Under the hood
Private by design. Steady by default.
- 01
Speech that stays on the device
The browser voice runs on ONNX Runtime Web with the Kitten TTS voice model, and Misaki turns written words into accurate pronunciation. All of it runs locally, in the browser, so a document can be read aloud without being sent anywhere.
- 02
Clean text from real PDFs
Many PDFs store letter pairs such as "fi" and "fl" as single ligature glyphs, and curly apostrophes in ways that break words. We fixed how LatteReader recovers that text, so words are read as they are written, not broken or skipped.
- 03
Narration that keeps going
Unusual characters and symbols used to be able to stop a reading. Now LatteReader handles that text, keeps your place and keeps reading, and tells you in plain words if it had to pass over something.
N 04How we work
We don't just advise. We build.
LatteReader is the kind of work our Concept to prototype service does: take an idea, make careful choices about data and privacy, then build, test and ship something people can use.
It is the same path we help your teams run themselves, from experience to prototype, and the same approach runs through our AI automation work with clients.
N 05Contact
Build with IRIRI Labs.
Register your interest and Adanna, our AI assistant, will call you. We work with leaders and organisations across Africa, in person and virtually.