Abstract: A device designed to help persons of impaired vision to read written or printed texts on a horizontal surface comprises an elongate lens mount with a base having a bottom slot which extends in reading direction to encompass one or more lines of text. The top of the lens mount holds a positively refracting, preferably bidimensionally (i.e. spherically) effective, eyepiece of elongate outline paralleling the bottom slot, its longitudinal plane of symmetry including an acute angle with the vertical. Another optical component disposed below the eyepiece in the lens mount, such as a prism or a cylindrical objective, refracts light rays from the slot toward the transversely offset eyepiece whose flat or slightly curved underside defines with that other component an air space narrowing in the direction of refraction. The base of the lens mount may be longitudinally slidable in a holder placed on the paper to be read.