OpenDyslexic Converter (A Free Tool to Turn Any PDF or Word Doc into a Dyslexia Font)

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A free OpenDyslexic converter for teachers. Drop in a PDF or a Word doc and get the same document back in OpenDyslexic, the free font made for readers with dyslexia. You can bump up the text size and the line spacing at the same time, so one file covers most of what shows up in an IEP or 504 accommodation for print.

It runs in the browser from a single file. There is no account, nothing to install, and nothing gets uploaded. Your documents never leave your computer, which matters when the handout has student names on it.

How to use it

1. Drag a PDF or a .docx onto the box, or click it to choose files. You can drop a whole unit’s worth of handouts at once.
2. Pick your settings on the left: text size, line spacing, and whether PDFs come back as a PDF or as a Word file.
3. Check the preview. It shows the converted document in OpenDyslexic, plus notes about anything it had to change or couldn’t.
4. Hit Download on each file, or Download all to get them in one zip.

Change a setting after the files are in and they convert again on their own. No need to drop them a second time.

Word docs keep their layout

A Word file comes back as a Word file with everything where you left it: tables, pictures, headers, text boxes, columns. The tool goes through the document and swaps every font setting to OpenDyslexic, including the theme fonts and the defaults, so there are no stray paragraphs left in Calibri. Symbol fonts are left alone so your bullets and checkboxes still show up.

The font gets tucked inside the file, too. That means Microsoft Word shows it in OpenDyslexic even on a computer that doesn’t have the font installed, like a student laptop or the copy room computer.

PDFs get rebuilt

A PDF is closer to a picture of a page than a document, so there’s no way to just swap its font. Instead the tool pulls the text out and rebuilds it as a clean, single-column document in OpenDyslexic. Headings, paragraphs, bold, italics, bulleted and numbered lists, and pictures all come across. Page numbers and the header that repeats on every page get dropped, and words split with a hyphen at the end of a line get put back together.

You can have the result as a PDF, ready to print or post, or as a Word file if you want to edit it before it goes out.

The settings

• Text size: keep the original sizes, or set a minimum of 12, 14, or 16 point. Headings stay bigger than body text.
• Line spacing: Normal, Wider, or Widest. OpenDyslexic already sits taller on the line than most fonts, so start with Normal and go from there.
• Left-align justified text: on by default. Justified text leaves uneven gaps between words, which is harder to track for a lot of readers.
• Keep pictures: copies the images from a PDF into the new version.
• Cream page color: prints the new PDF on a soft off-white instead of bright white.
• Page size: Letter or A4.

It remembers your settings for next time.

Google Docs, Pages, and installing the font

Google Docs and Apple Pages ignore a font that’s packed inside a Word file. If that’s where the document is headed, either use the PDF output, or click Download the font in the tool and install it. On a Mac, double-click each file and choose Install Font. On Windows, right-click and choose Install.

What it can’t do

• Scanned PDFs: a scan is a photo of text, not text, so there’s nothing to change. The tool tells you which pages are scans and copies them in as they are.
• Tables and charts in PDFs: these come through as plain text. Busy two-column worksheets can come out a little jumbled, so check the preview. Word files don’t have this problem.
• Old .doc files: open them in Word and Save As .docx first. Same for Pages and Google Docs files: download them as .docx or PDF.

A note on OpenDyslexic

OpenDyslexic is a free, open-source font by Abbie Gonzalez. The letters have heavier bottoms so they’re harder to flip or rotate, and every letter has its own shape. Some students love it and some don’t notice a difference, and the research on dyslexia fonts is mixed. It’s worth offering, not forcing. Hand a student both versions of the same page and let them pick. Bigger text, wider spacing, and left-aligned lines tend to help either way.

More free classroom tools

• Class Digital Board: a timer, noise meter, and agenda screen for the projector
• Ball Drop: a marble-race name picker for deciding who goes first

See all the free edtech tools, or grab one of the classroom games.

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