# OneStep Reader — Instant access to print

> Text recognition app with text-to-speech and text-to-Braille for accessible reading. (iPhone/iPad app by Sensotec nv.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/onestep-reader/id849732663 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Sensotec nv](https://appshunter.io/developer/723566489)
- Category: Productivity, Utilities
- Price: $99.99
- Rating: 3.60/5 from 216 App Store ratings · 112 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 13.0 · 177 MB
- Languages: American English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French (France), German (Germany), Italian, Japanese, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish and 5 more
- Released: 2014-09-18
- Data updated: 2026-09-01
- Monetization: paid
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/onestep-reader/id849732663/reviews.md

## What is OneStep Reader?

OneStep Reader gives you instant access to print anytime and anywhere. 
OneStep Reader 3.0 is a rapid and efficient text recognition app. Its text-to-speech, text-to-Braille, and text highlighting tools make it valuable for blind, low-vision, dyslexic, and others with reading differences. 
Use it to import or take a photo of anything containing text. Take a photo and the app reads text out loud or displays it on a connected refreshable Braille display. Read with more ease thanks to the simultaneous highlighting of the sentence and word that is being read on the picture or in the plain text document. The app helps you get a good photo with special alignment tools, including spoken and vibration guidance. Snap multiple pages, such as a book, for later reading. 
Winner of the 2014, 2015, and 2016 AppleVis Golden Apple Award for Best Assistive 

Technology App. 
•	Reads image-based PDF and JPEG files, and now tagged PDF and ePub files too!
•	Exports OneStep reader files as HTML or TXT files.
•	Navigates by line, sentence, word, or character.
•	Crop, rotate and edit the pictures you take before performing text recognition. 
•	View documents in PDF presentation mode with double highlighting while reading. 
•	View reading order and language-tagged PDF documents. 
•	Add and remove bookmarks in PDF documents. 
•	Switch between PDF view and reflowable text view. 
•	Read documents in the increasingly popular ePub format.

The app also has synchronized text highlighting to help you read along with the spoken text, a benefit for people with dyslexia and other reading difficulties.

Need nutritional information from your breakfast cereal? OneStep reader can read labels. Out shopping and need a price? OneStep Reader can read price tags. Want to know what came in the mail? OneStep Reader captures it all.

OneStep Reader captures print from your computer or tablet screen. Photograph the screen and know exactly what that error message says.
Little details abound. We got rid of the fifty-page limit for batch recognition. Everything gets turned on its side with landscape support. Add subfolders to the local folder structure. Use Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive to store and retrieve your documents. You can now make calls, send emails, and open hyperlinks directly from documents; call or email your new contact directly from the text of her business card!

Fully localized versions (user interface, recognition and speech) are available in: English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Norwegian (Bokmål), Swedish, Portuguese, Dutch, Turkish, Danish, Polish, Russian, Japanese, and Czech. 

Other languages available for speech and recognition only: Afrikaans, Albanian, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Romanian, Serbian (Cyrillic), Serbian (Latin), Slovak, Ukrainian.

Supported devices: iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPadPro, iPad Pro 12.9-inch, iPad Pro 9.7-inch, iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPod touch 6th Generation, iPod 5th Generation. 

Visit our website at: www.OneStepreader.com

## Key features

- Text-to-speech conversion
- Text-to-Braille output
- Synchronized text highlighting
- Photo import and capture
- Support for PDF, JPEG, and ePub
- Batch page processing
- Cloud storage integration

## What do users think of OneStep Reader?

Overall sentiment: mixed

**Pros**

- 📖 Accurate OCR for reading printed text and PDFs
- 🎯 Effective for reading mail and documents independently
- 📱 Convenient mobile accessibility to printed materials
- 🔊 Helpful for visually impaired and blind users
- ⚡ Fast processing of scanned images
- 🎨 Cloud storage integration (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive)
- 👍 Batch processing capabilities
- 🧠 Braille display support
- 📧 Useful for checking mail and envelopes

**Cons**

- 💰 Expensive at $99 with no trial version
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and app freezes
- 📱 Incompatible with newer iPhone models
- 🔊 Robotic and limited voice options
- 🎯 Poor accuracy with complex documents and tables
- 📄 Struggles with multi-page document navigation
- 🔄 Unreliable automatic photo feature
- ⚙️ Complicated user interface and navigation
- 📊 Inconsistent OCR accuracy and garbled text output
- 🔌 Battery drain issues
- 🆘 Poor customer support and domain issues
- 📚 Inadequate documentation and tutorials
- 🔄 Frequent unnecessary updates causing issues
- 🎯 VoiceOver integration problems
- 💾 File saving and importing difficulties

**Commonly reported bugs**

- App crashes when opening or processing PDF files
- App fails to launch on newer iPhone models (iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone XR)
- App crashes when scanning multiple documents
- Crashes on iOS 12 and later versions
- Volume button photo capture fails intermittently
- Automatic photo feature does not work reliably
- Field of view report functionality unreliable
- Text recognition produces garbled output with random symbols and numbers
- App does not properly close or exit, continuing to vibrate phone
- Imported files not displaying in file list without app restart
- Speech rate settings reset to default after closing app
- Saved files become modified when opened, affecting search order
- PDF files converted to unreadable format after extended use
- App throws errors when attempting to take pictures
- Incompatibility with iOS updates
- Domain deactivation causing loss of support access
- File import process is broken and confusing

**Most requested features**

- Free trial version before purchase
- Video tutorial or podcast demonstrations
- Real-time document scanning without manual alignment
- Automatic photo capture like banking apps
- Multiple voice options and customization
- Better paragraph-level navigation for VoiceOver users
- Landscape mode support for iPad
- iCloud integration
- Direct PDF download without cloud service
- Improved field of view reports
- Better braille support and display
- Paragraph-level reading instead of word-by-word
- Smart invert compatibility
- Progress indicators during OCR processing
- Better handling of columns and complex layouts

## Recent user reviews (10 of 112)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/onestep-reader/id849732663/reviews.md

### 1/5 — Ancient garbage.

*2026-01-22, version 3.6*

DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY. Just bought this for my blind mother. Paid a lot of money, no trial. Bought it because it had a good reputation, years before as a product of Kurzweil and National Federation of the Blind. This now seems like ancient garbage. Too many skips and mistakes on a single image of a book page which was read perfectly by ChatGPT. The developers seem to be ossified.

### 2/5 — Not very useful

*2025-12-28, version 3.6*

First, there should be a trial version so one doesn’t have to drop $99 without trying it out.  The App is a disappointment.  It can’t seem to figure out how to read two pages of a book without jumping between the pages.  And the voice is robotic.  There are better free apps.

### 3/5 — Super Hilfsmittel. Doch verbesserungswüedig.

*2024-12-14*

Wenn es funktioniert ist es ein Top Hilfsmittel bei mir im Alltag. Doch leider hängt es sich bei mir ständig auf Oder bricht sich von alleine ab. Das Nervt Tierisch. Seit einiger Zeit liest es „enkuri“ vor total sinnlos in Sätzen obwohl es nicht angezeigt wird das ist etwas arg nervig. Kann man mir da helfen?

### 1/5 — I Can't Recommend This App

*2024-04-01, version 3.5*

The "braille" support is not the best. voiceover only reads one word at a time per element, forcing the user to strictly rely on speech alone. The field of view reports do not work all the time. As a result, it is difficult to take photos of printed materials. There are better alternatives that do not cost a penny. Do not buy this app if you do not need to.

### 5/5 — One step reader

*2024-04-01*

Well, it reads PDF files great, and taking pictures is currently difficult but once you get one that it can read, it does very well, I would like to see this app be supported by video and without having to specifically line up a picture be able to read rapidly what it sees in real time, also I’d like the PDF files to be able to be downloaded directly without going through a cloud service.

### 2/5 — Crashes when opening PDF files

*2024-03-19, version 3.5*

Great for photos, but I have files I need to have read that are in PDF format. Every time I click to download, it starts and then crashes.

### 5/5 — Satisfied customer

*2024-02-14*

Thank you for One Step Reader. I use several readers to read print, that work reasonably well, but find One Step is the best for me. It is the only reader that I have found that can read PDF's better than others, and it is handy when I want to save long documents.

Thank you for assisting blind people with independence and accessibility.

### 4/5 — Couldn't be without it

*2024-02-02*

I am a 69-year-old male, into thousand and eight, had a medical procedure go wrong, was in a coma for three months time died eight times, and was reminded 26 times, I had turtle sceptres throughout my body, at one point the medical Doctors requested permission to turn 28 machines off and let me know, because of the amount of brain damage and organ failure, I had 28 machines connected to me trying to revive my organs, I suffered extensive brain damage, with the majority of my brain considered not to function again, fortunately, somebody said he's not DNR, and when I came out of the coma I was totally blind, and well handicapped, I have now had 25 major strokes, and have regained quite a lot of my vision, but my brain cannot lead down to 5 words, so yes one step is vital to me many thanks to all involved with one step from Jason Vickers

### 5/5 — Useful for my mail

*2023-11-23*

This is so helpful when I’m checking my mail. First I put the envelope in and it reads me the front of the envelope. and then I know whether I need to actually look at the inside. Then I open it up and scan each page. I don’t know how else I would check my mail without this program. It is really good

### 1/5 — Long time app, owner, use very little.

*2023-07-19*

I bought this app when it first came out years ago, and it was about the only one on the market. I have used it, tried to use it, got so frustrated I quit using it, and I found that there are other apps out there, much cheaper or free that do as good or better job than this app. I would love to get my money back, but haven’t owned it since the very beginning. I’m sure that’s not a possibility. I do not recommend this app for anyone, low vision, no vision voiceover, user, etc.
Usually you get what you pay for with an app however, in this case you don’t!

## Frequently asked questions about OneStep Reader

### What does OneStep Reader do?

OneStep Reader is a text recognition app that converts printed text from photos or imported documents into spoken words or displays it on a Braille display. It offers features like synchronized highlighting to aid comprehension for users with reading differences.

### What are the key features of OneStep Reader?

Key features include text-to-speech, text-to-Braille conversion, synchronized text highlighting, the ability to import or photograph documents (including PDFs and ePubs), batch page processing, and integration with cloud storage services like OneDrive and Dropbox.

### How much does OneStep Reader cost?

Based on the provided information, OneStep Reader is a paid application. It does not have in-app purchases or advertisements.

### What devices is OneStep Reader compatible with?

The app is designed for iOS devices, with specific mentions of compatibility with iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 7, and iPhone 7 Plus. It also supports landscape mode and has localized versions for multiple languages.

### Who would benefit from using OneStep Reader?

This app is particularly beneficial for individuals who are blind, have low vision, dyslexia, or other reading differences. It can also be useful for anyone who needs to quickly access and understand printed information from everyday items like labels, mail, or even computer screens.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 3.7.1 — 2026-02-18

Minor bug fixes

### 3.6 — 2025-04-09

Improved support for importing cloud files

### 3.5 — 2022-09-19

Improved support for iOS 16

### 3.4.2 — 2022-03-23

Various bugfixes

### 3.4 — 2022-02-07

What’s new?
The name for sure. But OneStep Reader, formerly known as KNFB Reader, continues to be your quick, accurate, and efficient access to any printed text through speech or Braille. So a new name, but with the same good functionalities! The transition of the KNFB Reader from the National Federation of the Blind (USA) to Sensotec and the accompanying name change to OneStep Reader (and OneStep Reader Multi) expresses the confidence of the NFB in Sensotec’s ability to provide continued support and upgrades that will benefit existing and future users.

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All apps by Sensotec nv: https://appshunter.io/developer/723566489

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-01.*