How to Turn Any Article, Newsletter, or PDF Into Audio (Step by Step)
6 min read
You have more to read than time to read it. The fix is simple: turn it into audio and listen while you walk, drive, cook, or commute. This guide shows exactly how to convert any article, newsletter, or PDF into natural sounding audio, on both desktop and phone, in just a few seconds.
The basic idea
Every method follows the same three steps:
- Get the text you want to hear.
- Send it to a text-to-speech tool that turns it into audio.
- Press play.
The only thing that separates a great setup from a frustrating one is friction. If step 2 takes more than a couple of seconds, you will stop doing it. So the goal is to make sending text to audio as close to one click as possible.
How to turn an article into audio (the fastest way)
The lowest friction method is a browser extension. Using Liso:
- Add the Liso Chrome extension.
- Open any article and highlight the text you want, or select the whole thing.
- Right click and choose Listen with Liso, or click the extension button.
- It lands in your library as audio. Press play.
No copy and paste, no uploads. That is why this method sticks: it takes seconds.
If you would rather not install anything:
- Copy the article text.
- Paste it into the Liso web app or another text-to-speech tool.
- Generate the audio and press play.
How to turn newsletters into audio
Newsletters live in your inbox, which is the worst place to read them. Move them to your ears instead:
- Open the web version of the newsletter. Most emails have a View in browser link.
- Highlight the content and send it to Liso.
- Stack a few and play them back to back like a podcast.
Do this with two or three newsletters and you suddenly have a show curated entirely by you, with no ads and no algorithm.
How to turn a PDF into audio
PDFs need a tool that accepts uploads or lets you paste text:
- Open the PDF and select the text you want, or copy a section.
- Paste it into your listening app and generate the audio.
- If the PDF is scanned and has no selectable text, use a reader with OCR (NaturalReader is a good option), then paste the text once you have it.
Tip: break very long PDFs into sections so you can jump around and find your place.
Get the most out of listening
- Adjust the speed. Once you are used to it, 1.25x or 1.5x feels natural and saves real time.
- Pick a voice you like. A pleasant voice makes long pieces effortless.
- Build a queue. Batch a few pieces so you always have something ready.
- Download for offline. Save listens for flights, subways, and dead zones.
- Resume anywhere. Good apps remember your spot across devices.
Doing it on your phone
You can listen on mobile too. Open the article in your phone browser and use the share or select option to send the text to your listening app, or paste it into the app. With Liso, listens you create on your laptop are already waiting on your phone, so you can start reading at your desk and finish on a walk.
The simplest setup
If you want the least friction, use a one click tool that lives in your browser. Liso turns anything you highlight into natural audio in one step, keeps it organized in a library, and syncs across your devices. Add it once and your reading list becomes a listening queue you actually finish. Start free.