Download SmartRead Free for Windows

Not so much smart as competent, SmartRead reads back text using standard Microsoft speech engines. It supports English and Chinese and lets you save text in audio files to play back when driving or jogging. Unfortunately, it only supports WAV files, so you may need a third-party conversion utility to save clips in compressed formats. The unattractive and inconvenient interface requires you to copy and paste text into the program window to have it read. Given its interface issues and modest functionality, we don’t see SmartRead trumping its freeware competition.