Read Stickies Aloud — Right on the Sticky
Select text in any Mac Stickies window, press ▶, and CastReader reads it in a natural voice while a word-level highlight glides across the real sticky — no copy-paste, no extra window.
macOS native · Free · No login · 40+ languages
Buy groceries — onions, eggs, coffee. Call dentist Thursday 3 pm. Finish Q2 planning deck.
Highlight glides across the real sticky note.
One App Covers Every Native Mac Editor
Same gesture, same word-level highlight — across every Mac text editor that exposes its text natively.
TextEdit
Plain / RTF documents
Stickies
Yellow sticky notes
Notes
Apple Notes
Script Editor
AppleScript IDE
BBEdit
Pro text & code editor
CotEditor
Open-source editor
TextMate
GPL code editor
Terminal
zsh / bash shell
Three Steps — No Setup
CastReader runs as a menu-bar app. Stickies stays exactly as it is.
Install
Download CastReader for Mac (.dmg). Grant Accessibility permission once — that is how it reads selected text from the Stickies window.
Select
Open any sticky note. Drag to select a phrase, a bullet, or the whole note.
Click ▶
A small play button appears next to your selection. One click — audio starts with a highlight that tracks each word inside the sticky.
Why Sticky Notes Benefit from Read-Aloud
Stickies is for fast capture. CastReader turns your sticky board into a hands-free review tool.
Hear your to-do list back
Tick items off without looking. Great for morning run-throughs of the day's tasks.
Proofread quick drafts
Stickies is where rough thoughts land. Hearing a draft back catches awkward phrasing before you copy it into the real doc.
Practice foreign-language snippets
Paste foreign words into a sticky, select a line, hear native pronunciation. Auto-detected across 40+ languages.
Accessibility for small text
Stickies default font is tiny. Listening beats squinting — especially for readers with dyslexia or low vision.
Why CastReader Beats macOS Built-in Speech
macOS Edit → Start Speaking works for Stickies, but no highlight, no speed control, no voice choice. CastReader fills every gap.
Word-level highlight on the real sticky
A transparent overlay tracks each spoken word directly inside the Stickies window. Eyes follow the voice without leaving the note.
40+ natural AI voices
Auto-detects the language of the selection. Kokoro-quality voices for English, Mandarin, Japanese, French, German, Spanish and more.
Speed control & jump-back
Adjust rate on the fly 0.5×–2×. Click any paragraph to jump playback — neither possible with macOS Speech.
Zero cost, zero signup
No account, no credit card, no daily limits. CastReader is completely free — unlike Speechify or NaturalReader.
Common Questions
How do I read a Sticky note aloud on Mac?▾
macOS has Edit → Speech → Start Speaking, but it plays the whole sticky with an old system voice and no highlight. For natural voice and word-level highlight overlaid on the sticky, install CastReader for Mac — select text, click the floating ▶, and the sticky starts reading.
Does CastReader modify my sticky notes?▾
No. CastReader reads your selection through macOS Accessibility APIs and overlays a transparent highlight on top of the real sticky window. Your sticky's content and appearance are never modified.
Why does CastReader need Accessibility permission?▾
The Accessibility (AX) API is the only way a Mac app can read the currently selected text from another app's window. CastReader uses it to read Stickies selections and compute pixel-level bounds for the highlight.
Does it work with the tiny default Stickies font?▾
Yes. CastReader doesn't care about font size — it reads the characters directly from the AX API. The highlight overlay scales to whatever pixel size the sticky renders at.
Can I read Chinese, Japanese, or Korean stickies?▾
Yes. CastReader auto-detects CJK text and uses native Mandarin / Japanese / Korean voices. Mixed-language stickies switch voice at sentence boundaries.
What's different from Speechify?▾
Speechify is a paid subscription that requires pasting text into its own reader window. CastReader is free, runs inside the real Stickies window you're already using, and overlays the highlight directly on the note.
Is there a keyboard shortcut?▾
Yes. Open CastReader's menu-bar icon → Preferences to bind a global hotkey to 'Read Selection'. The floating ▶ button is optional if you prefer pure keyboard operation.
Is it really free?▾
Yes. 100% free. No account, no credit card, no premium voice gate, no daily word limit. Download the .dmg and use it forever.
Ready to Hear Your Sticky Notes?
Install once. Select any text in Stickies. Click ▶. Listen.