Read text in a screenshot or image aloud on Mac

Short answerWith Live Text you can open the image in Preview or Photos, select the text, then press Option-Esc. Faster: Aloud ($19 once) lets you press Control-Option-O, drag a box around any text on screen, and reads it with on-device text recognition.

Start with what your Mac already has

1. Open the image in Preview or Photos. Live Text lets you select text in most images.
2. Select the text. Drag across it like normal text.
3. Press Option-Esc. With Speak Selection turned on in System Settings → Accessibility → Read & Speak (called Spoken Content on macOS 14 and 15).

Related: reading text you cannot select.

Make it easier with Aloud

Aloud (ours, $19 once per Mac, macOS 14 or later) is built for listening every day:

• Text in images: press Control-Option-O and drag a box around any text on screen; on-device text recognition reads it.
• Select text in any app and press Control-Option-S (or right-click → Services → Read with Aloud).
• A reading window with a word highlight and click-to-seek, so you can jump to any sentence.
• Speed from 0.75x to 2x, changed mid-sentence, and resume from the last sentence.
• Natural voices: your Mac's Enhanced and Premium voices, the on-device Kokoro neural voice (Apple silicon, macOS 15+), or ElevenLabs/Cartesia with your own API key.
• Private by default: with Apple or Kokoro voices nothing leaves your Mac; no account, no analytics in the app.

Buy Aloud, $19 once   No subscription, no account.