any Calibre tool that reads text aloud?

mlevin77 · 05-04-2013, 07:24 PM

Is there any tool that can take a full-text book (e.g., EPUB or TXT) in my Calibre library and read it aloud with reasonable quality?

toomuchreading · 09-22-2013, 02:17 PM

I was just browsing around and saw this.
I haven't tried it with Calibre but on Windows computers (if you are using one for your library) there is a text to speech function built in. If you do a search on your computer for 'text to speech', you can choose your voices, etc. in the text to speech properties dialog box. You will have to experiment, and you will probably need a microphone, because the text to speech function works with the voice recognition software. It's been years since I've played with this, but if I remember correctly, not all programs will work with the text to speech function. Another $ option is Dragon Naturally Speaking, which has a text to speech function as well.

Sabardeyn · 09-23-2013, 02:30 AM

I haven't tried TTS for a couple of years on Windows, but the last time I did, the quality of the voice output was not very good. Slightly better than Stephen Hawking's infamous voice output, but not substantially so. Additional voices were becoming available, and were far less "choppy", but only as paid enhancements. Perhaps things have changed since then for Windows.

If you're using some other reading device or operating system, there might be other options.

For instance I believe any Android 4.x (Jelly Bean) device would allow you to use Moon+ Reader which offers TTS. I've got the Pro (USD $5) version, not sure if it is available in the free version. This program is only available for Android, no other OSes are supported.

I would imagine that Apple offers some kind of TTS functionality also, but I'm not aware of anything specifically (free or paid).

mlevin77 · 09-23-2013, 08:01 AM

thanks for the ideas. I'm on an Apple machine, and trying IVONA Reader now.

05-04-2013, 07:24 PM	#1
mlevin77 Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: iPad	any Calibre tool that reads text aloud? Is there any tool that can take a full-text book (e.g., EPUB or TXT) in my Calibre library and read it aloud with reasonable quality?

09-23-2013, 02:30 AM	#3
Sabardeyn Guru Posts: 644 Karma: 1242364 Join Date: May 2009 Location: The Right Coast Device: PC (Calibre), Nexus 7 2013 (Moon+ Pro), HTC HD2/Leo (Freda)	I haven't tried TTS for a couple of years on Windows, but the last time I did, the quality of the voice output was not very good. Slightly better than Stephen Hawking's infamous voice output, but not substantially so. Additional voices were becoming available, and were far less "choppy", but only as paid enhancements. Perhaps things have changed since then for Windows. If you're using some other reading device or operating system, there might be other options. For instance I believe any Android 4.x (Jelly Bean) device would allow you to use Moon+ Reader which offers TTS. I've got the Pro (USD $5) version, not sure if it is available in the free version. This program is only available for Android, no other OSes are supported. I would imagine that Apple offers some kind of TTS functionality also, but I'm not aware of anything specifically (free or paid). Last edited by Sabardeyn; 09-23-2013 at 02:32 AM.

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09-22-2013, 02:17 PM	#2
toomuchreading Groupie Posts: 180 Karma: 1720 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Canada Device: PRS-T1, Kobo Libre Color	I was just browsing around and saw this. I haven't tried it with Calibre but on Windows computers (if you are using one for your library) there is a text to speech function built in. If you do a search on your computer for 'text to speech', you can choose your voices, etc. in the text to speech properties dialog box. You will have to experiment, and you will probably need a microphone, because the text to speech function works with the voice recognition software. It's been years since I've played with this, but if I remember correctly, not all programs will work with the text to speech function. Another $ option is Dragon Naturally Speaking, which has a text to speech function as well.

09-23-2013, 08:01 AM	#4
mlevin77 Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: iPad	thanks for the ideas. I'm on an Apple machine, and trying IVONA Reader now.

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