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Last updated 2026-10-27

Pronounced Pages reads any DRM-free EPUB in Spanish, Italian, French, German or Portuguese. The shelf in the app gets you started; this page is about reading the books you choose.

How to tell a DRM-free EPUB

An EPUB is a file ending in .epub. "DRM-free" means it is not locked to one shop's app or device: you can open it in any reader, copy it between devices and keep it. Signs that a file is DRM-free:

• The shop or site says so — look for "DRM-free", "no DRM" or "social DRM / watermark only" (a watermark is fine; it is not a lock).
• You downloaded a plain .epub file, not an .acsm file (an Adobe download ticket) and not a book that only appears inside one shop's app.
• It opens in a general-purpose reader such as Calibre, Thorium or Apple Books after you add the file yourself.

If you are not sure, just try it: the app checks the file before importing and tells you if it is locked. A DRM-protected file is refused and nothing is imported.

Where to find them

Free, public-domain books

• Project Gutenberg — tens of thousands of public-domain books as plain EPUBs. Its Spanish catalogue is the place to start, and it has Italian, French, German and Portuguese shelves too. The app strips Gutenberg's licence header and footer on import so you start at chapter one.
• Wikisource — transcribed public-domain texts in many languages (the Spanish edition is at es.wikisource.org); many pages offer an EPUB download in the sidebar.
• Standard Ebooks — carefully produced, DRM-free editions of public-domain books. The catalogue is in English, so these are for a learner whose target language is English rather than for reading aloud in the app today; it is listed here because the files are a model of what a clean EPUB looks like.

Books you buy

• Many publishers and shops sell DRM-free EPUBs directly — small and independent publishers especially, and some larger ones. Search the shop for "DRM-free" before you buy, or check the product page for the format and protection.
• Authors who sell direct (from their own site, or through a storefront that lets them switch DRM off) usually deliver a plain EPUB.

Books you already have

• A library or reader app that lets you export a book as an EPUB file gives you something you can import, as long as the export is not locked.
• Your own writing, course material or a text you have the right to use can be turned into an EPUB with a tool such as Calibre or Pandoc.

Whatever the source, you import a book only if you own a copy of it and are importing it for your own use; the app asks you to confirm this. See the terms.

What will not work, and why

• Kindle purchases. Amazon's books are locked to Kindle apps and devices, and there is no interface for another app to read them. Pronounced Pages does not open Kindle files and does not try to remove their protection.
• Apple Books purchases. Books bought in Apple Books carry Apple's DRM and open only in Apple Books. (A DRM-free EPUB you added to Apple Books yourself is a different thing: that file still works if you have the original.)
• Adobe DRM (Adobe Digital Editions, .acsm files, most library e-lending). These are encrypted for one authorised reader. The app refuses them.
• Other formats. PDF, MOBI, AZW, DOCX and plain text are not EPUBs. Convert them to EPUB first (Calibre does this) — if you have the right to.

Why so strict? Circumventing copy protection is illegal in most countries, and Pronounced Pages will not do it or help you do it. Reading what you have the right to read is the whole idea.

How to import

1. Open the app and press Import on the shelf.
2. Choose the .epub file. The app reads its metadata and detects the language; if the file does not say, or says something wrong, pick the language yourself.
3. Confirm that you own a copy of the book.
4. Wait a moment. The file is unpacked, cleaned and split into sentences entirely in your browser — the file never leaves your device — and then appears under Your books on the shelf, ready to read offline.

Imported books get a sentence-by-sentence machine translation as you read (on your device on desktop Chrome when its translator is available, otherwise through our service, which counts against your plan's allowance — see pricing). You can delete an imported book from its card on the shelf at any time.