Better reading for all.
We’re working with educators, nonprofits, and technologists to help people of all ages and abilities read better by personalizing the reading experience on digital devices.
Fast Company World Changing Ideas Awards 2021: Finalist
54% of U.S. adults ages 16 to 74 years old (130 million people) lack proficiency in literacy, reading below a sixth-grade level.
Source: U.S. Department of Education
Improving readability through personalization.
Reading is foundational to acquiring knowledge and sharing ideas, but most children and adults worldwide don’t read at their optimum capacity. Technology can change this. New digital innovations (such as Liquid Mode in Adobe Acrobat Reader mobile) enable us to personalize reading to each reader and improve literacy for people of all skill levels.
Partnering with experts on research.
Adobe has invested years of research in using technology to improve the experience of reading digital documents. We’re partnering with higher education, reading experts, nonprofits, educators, and technologists to conduct research, run pilot programs, and share our learnings.
Democratizing digital literacy: Learn more about Adobe’s readability research partnerships
Product innovations for digital reading.
Adobe is using learnings from the Readability Initiative to reinvent how people read and extract information from digital documents. We took our first step with Liquid Mode, a tool in the free Adobe Acrobat Reader app that lets you effortlessly read documents on mobile devices. Liquid Mode uses Adobe Sensei AI and machine learning technology to understand the structure of PDFs, enhance readability, and unleash on-the-go productivity.
Read the latest research
Review the newest findings from Adobe and our partner researchers studying the effects of reading formats and technology on reading outcomes for all learners.
Find your best reading style
Take our quiz in the Virtual Readability Lab to discover your fastest font, best spacing, and favorite font for reading, and participate in more reading studies.
Pilot in classrooms
We’re looking for K-12 and higher education institutions, curriculum developers, and education companies to pilot readability tools in real-world situations and share their findings.
Join us in making reading better for everyone.
Watch recent talks on Readability.
“Creating Value with Personalized Readability Formats” session at the Adobe MAX 2021
“One Font Doesn’t Fit All: Type Design and Comprehension” session at the Adobe MAX 2021
“Personalizing Reading: One Size Doesn’t Fit All” session at the 2021 SXSW EDU
"This Changes Everything: New Approaches to Reading” session at Adobe MAX 2020
Our partners
The Virtual Readability Lab at University of Central Florida
Dr. Ben Sawyer is a leading researcher in computer-machine interaction who’s established a lab at UCF for state-of-the-art research in digital/electronic reading. Adobe is sponsoring the Virtual Readability Lab and collaborating with Dr. Sawyer and his team on multiple digital reading research studies.
By engaging an ecosystem of partners like Adobe, Readability Matters aims to make individual reading formats ubiquitous across devices and platforms.
Dedicated to improving the lives of the poor through education and social and economic development programs, World Education plans to pilot Adobe tools in adult education settings and share their findings.