Ebook with TTS

[Quoth]

I just tried on Android.
An earlier Android was like a bad version of Voiceview and very hard to use, also took over entire UI and hard to disable.
Android (10) on the Lenovo Yoga 10" Tablet (about €220 or less) was simple in Settings, Accessibility:
Download desired Google speech pack
Switch off reporting to Google.
Select voice, speed and pitch in settings (except preview of pitch doesn't work).
Enable an Accessibility option, a stick figure joins the <| O [-] symbols
Open An ereader App (I tried lithium) and a Media controller pops up when stick figure tapped. Not tried in Kindle App.

The older Android was unusable and navigation entire system was locked to voice prompts and it only seemed to read part of page tapped on. Useless to listen to a book via TTS. Worse than my testing of Voice View on Kindle PW3, which is also rubbish for simple TTS compared to Kindle DXG or KK3.

If no-one tries, I may try Bolinda Borrow box (our local libraries instead of hoopla or libby), Google Play books and Kindle App. I've nothing in the Kobo app.

I have an eink Mars (Android) but I don't remember TTS on it, but a phone (earphone) or tablet (speakers) maybe better. I have some other versions of Android I can try.

Edit See below

[tomsem]

+1 for PocketBook reader. Also connects with DropBox, Google Drive, Google Books, and OPDS catalogues.

[Quoth]

Oldest phone: Android 4. Only Talkback installed. Tried install Google TTS from Playstore. Insufficient Storage! Tried a different TTS, but was just a shell for Google TTS! A second one installed the Pico TTS, but only offers playing typed in text and didn't work. "SayIt Read with Ears" is supposed to work with Kindle App. Insufficient Storage. Gave up.
Only has these apps: Musicolet, Jota and Aldiko (Basic). Maybe its memory has gone faulty as Google Gmail & Maps update fails. Used to have Kindle, Barcode Scanner, Viber and others. Only 46M free of 380M. It has a 32 G SD card.

Newest phone: Android 5. Can only turn on speech for entire UI, not usable TTS. Hard to disable Talkback/Speech. Had to disable service!

Not too old phone: Android 7. Had Pico TTS services already installed. No obvious method to enable it separate to entire UI via power button. Possible to preview it in settings. Didn't turn on Accessibility Shortcut as it had no "off" on 5.

I realised I gave away the Android 6 phone and confused it with the old Android 4. Both Sony.

Boyue Likebook Mars T80 (no doubt Meebook P78 is similar): Eink Android 8 Tablet. I enabled Playstore/Google Framework and was able to download and preview Google TTS in Settings. No setting anywhere to enable Accessibility features or TTS. It has KOReader, but couldn't see a setting for TTS. Perhaps one of the Playstore TTS apps would work?

Tablet Android 10: Ability to download speech pack and add a short cut on the three button <| O [-] UI at screen bottom.
Works with Lithium

[Quoth]

Update:
More research.
Android 10 has the floating controller option to play text as speech.
It's part of Android Accessibility Suite on Playstore for at least Android 7 (Android 7 phone works with Pico or Google engine) and up.
You Also may need to update Speech Services by Google. It adds the "Select to Speak" option in Settings Accessibility. I'll check Mars (8) and a v5 phone later. A v8 tablet working now.

Turn off reporting to Google in Text to Speech and set to download speech packs by WiFi.

[Quoth]

It's a bit useless on the Mars (boyue likebook T80 with Android 8) as it tends to just read the footer or other text outside window.
Nothing at all in KOReader.

[Quoth]

Now tested a decent spec phone but with only Android 5. Only works with the two playstore downloads:
Android Accessibility Suite on Playstore
Speech Services by Google.
You need to separately download speech packs and do setting in both Apps via Settings, Accessibility. Enable the Read Text switch which puts up a floating bubble controller (Earlier Androids). Later Androids add the stick figure to control bar that replaces touch or physical buttons outside screen on earlier Android.

The Huawei Y6 with Android 5 also has "level of expression" setting in the Google Text to Speech.
Works fine in Lithium. Probably works in everything.
You have not just tap pause, but tap stop/disable to access the main GUI.

On some versions of Android it boxes the word being spoken and on older versions it boxes paragraph.

Maybe someone with a signed in Kindle App on Android can test?

[Quoth]

I've tested more on Android 5 and Android 10.
It's not much use to have book read out, because no matter what App it is the reading stops at the bottom of the screen. It's an Accessibility feature, not like Text to Speech on the Kindle DXG, Kindle keyboard 3 or similar where the page turns.

Actually on Lithium you can only get the paragraph that spans a page to be read if you select Auto, not Paged or Scroll for Flow. Paged stops at last complete paragraph and starts at next complete paragraph when you page. Scroll flow reads a bit more than a page and stops sort of randomly.

The DXG & KK3 work fine. The PW3 & PW4 only have "Voice View" (in the West) and it's ghastly to use.

[Quoth]

I looked at Pocketbook. You need to first either install or update Speech Services by Google via the playstore (or install some other solution). It's actually using more or less the same OS API as Talkback (which is like Kindle Voiceview) or the Accessibility Text to Speech (a universal screen reader, i.e only reads what is more or less visible).

Make sure desired speech pack and settings are done in the Settings > Accessibility > Text to Speech (Speech Engine). Uncheck reporting to Google.

Pocketbook seems to work OK with direct directories/folders and SD card, so books can be managed by Calibre. Setup it to only scan where you have books.

You don't need to tap and enable the second checkbox at install.

Like almost everything except for a Kindle, Sony, Kobo, the concept of real library management is missing. You can browse organised real directories/folders. So with 1000s of ebooks and on 10" eink 1000s of PDF tech stuff, only the KOBO eink is a good solution.

Pocket book TTS, because the interface is in the ereader App, does read past page turns. The actual voice, pitch, speed, language is identical to the Accessibility Suite screen reading. Oddly the Android 10 has "pitch" option but Android 5 I have has no "pitch" but has "flat, a bit expressive, expressive". The Expressive setting isn't as good as a real narrator but better than Android 10 (same speed & voice selected). Both have the same selection of male and female voices all of which with UK English are a bit transatlantic. The Australian English is like a parody!
Both Android 5 & Android 10 had updates last night:
Android Accessibility Suite
Speech Services by Google
Pocketbook


So for Kindle you either read one page at a time, or use a plug-in on Calibre to remove DRM and then convert to epub2 for Pocketbook. An eink Kindle as "target" for Amazon's "Download to PC* and transfer via USB" is best as DRM removal on K4PC, Fire or App is either fraught or impossible. Trivial with eink.

Or get a Kindle Keyboard 3. It works with KF8 / azw3.

The Kindle App does install on older Androids, Kobo app doesn't. Google Playbooks seems to work on all Androids that can use Playstore. Some Google epubs don't have DRM. Maybe they use Adobe? I've no idea where it puts the ebooks.

(* By PC Amazon really means any browser on any OS that works with their website. Windows, Linux, Mac and even Android can "work")

[Spinningwoman]

Originally Posted by Tarana

If you have an Echo or Dot, you can now have Alexa read your book for you provided you bought it from Amazon. It started off kindof clunky in 2020, but the commands are responding much better now. Voice is great. .

This is great! I didn’t know I could do that. I use the ‘speak screen’ accessibility option on my iPhone a lot with the kindle app, but using the Echo is very nice!

[Spinningwoman]

Using the iPhone screen reader with Voice Control turned on gets rid of all the clumsiness of special gestures that don’t work etc. it works really well with Kindle and Apple Books apps and less well but OK with Kobo. Libby has a weird ‘read aloud’ mode especially for screen readers that is very unpredicable and sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. So once a day I say ‘Siri, turn on Voice control’ and it does. Then I say ‘command mode’ to voice control to stop it thinking I’m dictating stuff. Then I just have to say, eg, Speak Screen when I’m on a Kindle app page for it to read to me. I can also use it to switch apps, like if I am in the bath and don’t want to touch my phone I can say Open Kindle, Speak Screen. Swipe left, swipe right for turn pages if it isn’t in the right place. It’s a game changer.

[Michal Jancik]

Agreement. PB APP for ISO is really good


But for me, the best application for IOS is still "VoiceDream", which allows you to download one very high-quality voice for free (acapella), has a trigger function (speed and pitch of the voice, speed, accent, pause after reading, how to play numbers, etc.), of course, there is also a "sleep" function

VoiceDream Official Page WEB https://www.voicedream.com/
APP for IOS : https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/voice-...er/id496177674

Reminder: "Voice Dream" also exists for Android devices, but for IOS, the Android app is truncated and does not provide as many options and settings as the IOS version.

I tried TTS via "AMAZON ALEXA" with a French voice and it's terrible (horible and unpleasant), I don't know how other languages ​​are, but the ones I tried were not good.


TiP ~ https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ts&hl=en&gl=US

For Android users who are looking for a correct voice for TTS with high-quality intonation and pronunciation, the application "TTS Vocaliser". It contains many languages ​​from Czech, German, French and Asian languages. Every voice, even in PREMIUM form, can be used for free for 7 days.
(Because Google TTS are so basic and monotonous, I would even say robotic, which spoils the entire listening experience.)

Alternative : CereProc : https://www.cereproc.com

• I was very surprised by the quality of the voice (neural) that you can use in the EDGE web browser from Microsoft.

• It's a pity that EDGE can no longer clean .EPUB files, but maybe with a minor change in the registers, this function could be enabled.

I really recommend trying it :
* IMHO one of the best TTS (neural) ever. As for books, TTS EDGE can be used via the EPUB plug-in

[EPUBReader for EDGE]
https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/...doicebkgpienmf

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The DXG & KK3 work fine. The PW3 & PW4 only have "Voice View" (in the West) and it's ghastly to use.

Kindle Touch (first Kindle with touch screen) has this as well, I've still got one.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Spinningwoman

Using the iPhone screen reader with Voice Control turned on gets rid of all the clumsiness of special gestures that don’t work etc. it works really well with Kindle and Apple Books apps and less well but OK with Kobo. Libby has a weird ‘read aloud’ mode especially for screen readers that is very unpredicable and sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. So once a day I say ‘Siri, turn on Voice control’ and it does. Then I say ‘command mode’ to voice control to stop it thinking I’m dictating stuff. Then I just have to say, eg, Speak Screen when I’m on a Kindle app page for it to read to me. I can also use it to switch apps, like if I am in the bath and don’t want to touch my phone I can say Open Kindle, Speak Screen. Swipe left, swipe right for turn pages if it isn’t in the right place. It’s a game changer.

You don't need Voice Control, just enable Speak Screen in Accessibility settings, Spoken Content. The only 'special gesture' is 2-finger swipe from top (admittedly, it is tricky on iPhone). Or you can enable Speech Controller there so it remains on screen, ready to use whenever you want to use it.

(But yes, Voice Control is awesome in its own right)

The main issue with Speak Screen is that few reading apps support it. Only Apple Books does it perfectly. Kindle is okay, but does not do the word highlighting at all, and doesn't support it in Scrolling mode. They want you to buy audiobooks and use immersion reading, which does these things (arguably it is a much better experience than TTS, but it shows what Amazon's priorities are).

Kobo 'tries' to support it but it can't turn pages without going off track (I just tried it. In one case the page turned and SS just went away. In another, it turned page, started reading the middle of the next page, in a completely different voice.) So it is not stable enough to be useful. They have enabled speakable content, but that alone isn't enough. And this has been true for years. Their priority is selling dedicated reading devices; accessibility features don't make them any money and they aren't big enough in the market to attract a lawsuit to force them to do it (as in Amazon's case).

Google Play Books reads one page and stops. Its VoiceOver support seems pretty good, 'continuous reading' seems broken currently.

Another issue: Pause/resume function on headset controls don't work correctly with Speak Screen (Apple issue). It will pause, but not resume. Or if media player has something queued up, pausing Speak Screen will start playing that, and then pausing media will resume Speak Screen (therein lies a workaround?). And I think taking calls probably doesn't pause/resume correctly as it would for media (at least it didn't last time I checked).

[Quoth]

Certainly on Android I found that TTS via OS is one screen at a time. I'd expect that on iOS, mac, Windows, Linux etc too (I tested also on Linux) because OS level TTS is an accessibility feature. You need an application with native TTS support that can call the OS API for it. Which is what pocketbook on Android does, so works well.


Voice control is a completely separate thing but can be part of an accessibility suite. It used to be standalone but now is often very invasive sending much to a server somewhere and not working without internet. Usually there is some sort of download option offering offline use, but not with Echo and some other systems.

[Quoth]

Edge is now based on Chrome. It's unlikely epub in it can work and frankly epub, ordinary MS Office and PDFs in a browser is crazy anyway. Download and use a proper application. The idea that everything should be either via the Browser or in a Web page is madness. That's what a graphics terminal was. Chrome book was like that at the start and it's gradually more like Linux on a Netbook now, because the idea is inherently broken.