I read 200+ articles a week for work, so I built a native RSVP speed reader for Mac (with a notch widget)
Problem: Most macOS speed-reading apps are browser extensions. They only work on web pages, can't handle PDFs or local documents, and don't work with non-selectable text. I wanted one native app that could read articles, PDFs, EPUBs, DOCX files, and even OCR text from anywhere on my screen. Comparison: Compared with Spreed and Reedy, Speed Reader works across your entire Mac—not just browser pages. It supports PDFs, EPUB, DOCX, FB2, URL article extraction, and OCR for non-selectable text. It also uses ORP (Optimal Recognition Point), aligning a consistent letter instead of centering each word, which significantly reduces eye movement at higher RSVP speeds. That's what made speed reading actually usable for me. There's also a notch widget that keeps the reader accessible without taking over your workspace. Pricing: $8.99 one-time, 3-day free trial, no card required. https://speed-reader.pro Honest caveat: RSVP isn't great for dense technical material where you need to re-read. I use it for about 60% of my reading — news, blogs, newsletters, fiction — not everything. Happy to answer questions — the OCR and notch implementation were surprisingly painful to get right across MacBook models. Developer: I'm the solo developer behind Speed Reader. More about me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khlebobul or https://khlebobul.github.io Privacy Policy: https://speed-reader.pro/legal/privacy.html Terms of Service: https://speed-reader.pro/legal/terms.html
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I have been an early adopter and love the app and the dev responsiveness. Recommend buying it!
Thank you!
This feels like a very Mac-native problem to solve. I also like that you’re not pretending RSVP works for every kind of reading. That honesty usually makes me trust a utility app more. Is the OCR fully local, or does any text leave the device?
Is this configurable such that one could use a font better suited for ADHD? I think it’s called Cyborg, but could be mistaken.
The application has font settings, but I'll read more about the one you specified
Thats really neat, thanks for sharing!
Hope you will like it
insane productivity boost
Thanks
Great work on this...Thanks
Oh, I'm definitely going to try this!
Awesome!
Always wondered if these things actually help you read faster... I might just give it a try. thanks and good luck!
This is handy. Also appreciate apps that get you to start doing things you otherwise wouldn’t. Kudos
Thanks
This is awesome! I've been looking for an app to do this for ages. In the past, I used one of those websites that had a sub-par experience. I'm looking forward to trying this out. !remindme 20 days
You know AI exists right? Prompt: Give me the key takeaways from these 200 articles.
Haha, yes, AI exists. I use it too. This app is for moments when I actually want the original text, not a compressed second-hand version of it. I personally like reading, and I care about tools that make reading the real thing easier rather than replacing it with a summary. There’s also an accessibility angle: RSVP-style readers show words in one fixed place, so you don’t have to scan lines with repeated saccadic eye movements. That can matter for people who find normal line-by-line reading tiring or uncomfortable: low vision / central-field loss, convergence issues, eye strain, some vestibular or post-concussion cases, etc. It’s not a medical treatment, but reducing eye movement and visual clutter can make long text more approachable for some people. So yes, AI summaries are useful. This is for when the goal is still to read.
How is the retention? Reading lines instead of words helps retention since we are connecting words. Often, you go back and read the sentence. Can you go have the app go back a few sentences etc?
Good question. I don’t think RSVP is a universal replacement for normal reading, especially for dense material where you want to skim back and forth. Retention depends a lot on speed and content. I use it most for staying focused and moving through text without visual clutter, not for pretending 1000 WPM gives the same comprehension as careful reading. The app does support context around the current word, and adding “jump back a few sentences” is exactly the kind of control I want in it. Right now you can pause/adjust speed; richer rewind by sentence/paragraph would make sense for retention-heavy reading.
u/Stunning-Macaron1591 I attempted to install this via the DMG and Brew and getting an error. Speed Reader quit unexpectedly. Click Reopen to open the application again. Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple. Running on macOS 15.5
Hi. want to know the difference of this and webapps like spreeder? Thank you
To be honest, I haven't used this program. I'm not sure if there are different reading modes, downloading documents, reading links. It looks like there's a library of books that you can read.
Sounds like a good fit for newsletters, blogs, and long articles. How accurate has the OCR been for scanned PDFs in your experience?
The quality is quite good, but using mistral ocr or other solutions it turns out much better, especially on complex and large files