Preview is the default program for opening PDF documents on the Mac. Preview’s speech feature can read PDF documents using the system voices built into Mac OS X. To use Preview’s speech feature open a PDF document and choose Edit, Speech, Start Speaking. To stop the speech feature, choose Edit, Speech Stop Speaking. Adobe® Reader® XI is a free software with a Read Out Loud function that uses the text-to-speech voices on your computer to read PDF files out loud.
Here are the Best Text to speech software can convert your textual data into audio files. It works on the simple process of reading the textual words via Artificial Intelligence technology. These are the best text to speech software with natural voices.
Most of the best text to speech software are used to make eLearning courses, Digital books, Maps navigation, Voice assistant and much more. You can use text to speech software to convert your digital books into audio books and listen to them. Isn’t this a very interesting concept? Let us learn more about these softwares.
Contents
- 1 List of 7 Best Free Text To Speech Software
- 2 Additional Method with Text to Speech Voice Packs (VIDEO)
List of 7 Best Free Text To Speech Software
1. ESpeak – Best Text to Speech Software
It is a free open source text to speech software with a simple user interface. It is very easy to navigate and use. Its TTS engine is very clear and understandable. You can easily convert your textual documents into audio files and can even read them aloud in real time. It also allows custom text, you simply have to put some text and it will convert it into audio. Later on, you can export those audio files in Wav and Mp3 formats.
2. Natural Reader
As you can suggest from the name itself that its a Text to speech engine which gives you natural voice output. Natural Reader won’t look cracky and noisy as other TTS engines as it is a much refined version of them. It will read text aloud, read emails, PDF documents, web pages, word documents etc.
It uses Microsoft voice for delivering natural audio output. Furthermore, it is very easy to use. Simply select any text on your computer screen and press the hotkeys to read it aloud. Its very convenient and easy isn’t it?
3. Read4Me TTS Clipboard Reader
It is a great TTS tool which will read out the text which is staying in your clipboard. It uses SAPI5 text to speech voice engine to achieve that. If you already have installed SAPI5 then you can use this software to read up text inside your clipboard by hitting a hotkey.
Furthermore, you can customize the hotkey and key combinations which gives you speech output. You can also change speech style, the rate of speech, languages, pitch, and loudness of the speech output. Later on, you can also save those speeches in the audio file as an MP3 format for future use.
4. Ivona
Its much like a small extension rather than a heavy bulky TTS software. It is modern text to speech software based on modern multi language text to speech technology. Ivona has a dedicated development team who is improving the text to speech output with regular updates. text to speech software free. download full version
They provide top class voice quality and accuracy with high quality audio output. The best part is that you will get award winning easy technical support whenever you face any difficulty. If you are looking for a realistic text to speech engine then Ivona is a good product to try out.
5. Ultra Hal TTS Reader
Its another free text to speech software which gets the job done. They provide much high quality voice engine in their free version. You can easily change audio quality, speech, gender, pitch etc of a particular sound output.
The best part of this software is integrability. It can integrate with your system and can do various tas for you such as reading out aloud your messages, calls and important notifications. You can even use it read emails, windows prompt, clipboard data and web pages if you want to. Ultra Hal TTS reader also can convert your text in an MP3 audio file so you can listen to it later. microsoft text to speech voices
6. AudioBookMaker For Mac OS X
This is a top class freeware which is mostly used for converting large textual files into audio files. As you might have guessed by its name that it is an audio maker. However, you can also use it to convert emails, short textual data, movie dialogues etc. It will create you an audio file which resembles human voice with almost perfect pronunciations.
You can change many aspects of the output audio file including its speed, volume, gender, pitch, depth, loudness etc. The interface of AudioBookMaker is also very simple to use as compared to other text to speech software in this list. Furthermore, its a multi language TTS engine so you can use it for languages other than English.
7. Speakonia
Speakonia comes with prebuilt twenty computerized voices. Its a freeware text to speech software which you can to easily convert text into speech without getting your hands dirty with multiple settings.Its simple, just put in the text, adjust pitch and speed and you’re good to go. Also, you can save the output file as WAV files and could be played on desktop and smartphone. Its a free software but you have to register it online to use its free features.
Additional Method with Text to Speech Voice Packs (VIDEO)
From Editor’s Desk
So, guys, these were the best text to speech software we could find in the market with the best functionality. Which one of these do you use for your everyday use? Tell us in the comment box below.
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Quite a hefty chunk of our daily “computer” time is spent reading some sort of digital textual content, whether it’s online (e.g. blogs, news articles), or offline (ebooks, general documents). However, proper reading (and hence, understanding) not just takes considerable time, but effort as well. This is where text to speech software (popularly known as TTS software) applications can help, as they make consuming even the most voluminous textual content super easy, by reading it aloud. Not only that, these programs can also be immensely useful in other diverse fields, such as (second) language acquisition, and assisting the differently abled in learning.
As you might’ve guessed by now, that’s what this article is focused on. So let’s jump in, and take a look at 9 of the best text to speech (TTS) software.
1. NaturalReader
NaturalReader supports a diverse array of (textual) file types from which it can read aloud textual content; and can also read the text on webpages. Just enter the source webpage URL, and NaturalReader will take it from there. However, even more impressive is its ability to read aloud text from images and scanned documents, thanks to built-in OCR functionality. NaturalReader includes multiple natural sounding voices, and you can purchase additional voices in different languages (e.g German, Italian, Japanese). With a number of other notable features like voice speed & pitch control, batch conversion of multiple documents to MP3 files NaturalReader, as a TTS software, ticks all the right boxes.
Platform Availability: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP; Mac OS X 10.9 and later
Price: Paid versions start from $69.50, Free version with limited feature set available
2. Balabolka
For those of you who do a lot of reading on the computer, and that too from a variety of files, Balabolka is a must have. What immediately sets it apart is its ability to read aloud from a huge number of file types, with DOCX, DJVU, PDF, EPUB, and RTF just being a few of them. Standard voice parameters like speech, pitch and volume can be adjusted in real-time. Balabolka can directly read aloud the text copied to clipboard, and more importantly, it comes with numerous tools, and these can be used to batch convert files, extract text from audio files, and do a lot more. Apart from English, some of the many languages it supports include Finnish, Greek, Romanian, and Spanish.
And did we mention it’s available as a portable application as well?
Platform Availability: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP
Price: Free
3. TextAloud
In more ways than one, TextAloud stands out from the rest of the TTS software applications on this list. Apart from text to speech (TTS) prowess, it also includes features that make it a sort of textual content aggregator.
TextAloud lets you either read a single textual piece, or collect a number of them together and build a reading playlist. It can automatically grab copied textual content from clipboard. Multiple format support is there, as is the ability to save text as audio. The application comes with an extensive collection of natural sounding voices, and more can be purchased online. Other than that, TextAloud includes a plethora of options such as custom audio tags, insertion and skipping prompts for sections, hotkeys, spell checking, and then some more. In summation, TextAloud scores big with its robust text management options, which make reading out text a breeze.
Platform Availability: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP
Price: Paid version costs $29.95, 20 days free trial available
4. Verbose
Text To Speech In Word For Mac
It may not be teeming with all sorts of fancy features, but Verbose is one of the better TTS software available out there.
Thanks to an extremely straightforward UI, getting started with Verbose is a cakewalk. It can read aloud text from a variety of file formats, like PDF, DOCX, RTF, TXT, and HTML. It can read aloud text from just about anywhere, including email programs (e.g. Outlook), and even websites. Voice pitch and speed control functionality, though present, is fairly limited.
However, with all said, Verbose is fairly limited when compared to applications like NaturalReader. Then there’s the jarring voice prompt that reminds you to purchase the software every few seconds, when it’s used in unregistered mode.
Platform Availability: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP
Price: Paid version costs $60.00, 14 days free trial available
5. SwiftTalker
Essentially, SwiftTalker is a basic text editor (pretty much like Notepad) that can be used to read out aloud either freshly created text documents, or already existing ones. The application can either read selected blocks of text, or the entire document, and comes with general options like play/pause etc. Along with basic tweaking, there are also some really cool and funky sound effects that can be applied to the voices. Other than that, the text can be saved as audio, and you can also customize output settings such as bit-rate. Language support includes US/UK English, French, German, and Italian.
In essence, SwiftTalker is quite good, with the added advantage of being cross platform. However, it’s not without its limitations, such as a hefty install size, and limited input format support.
Platform Availability: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP; Mac OS X 10.6-10.8; Linux
Price: Paid voice packs start from $10.00, Free trial available
6. eSpeak
Capable software applications don’t really have to be colossal, and eSpeak is the perfect example of that. Measuring in at under 1 MB in size, it’s an insanely featherweight text to speech (TTS) utility that, while not exactly being the most feature loaded, works pretty well for what it is.
eSpeak has a fairly limited file format support from which it can read aloud text, being limited to just TXT and XML. It comes with a handful of selectable voice choices, and you can alter the pitch and volume. In addition to that, and includes all the basic voice control/reading options, such as pause, skip, and reset. Despite being lightweight, eSpeak surprisingly supports a wide array of languages, such as Cantonese, Estonian, Latvian, Norwegian, and Swedish; and can even work as a command line tool, for all you keyboard nerds out there.
Platform Availability: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP; Mac OS X
Price: Free
7. Zabaware TTS Reader
The core functionality of Zabaware TTS Reader involves reading out aloud textual content that’s copied and pasted into the application itself, and can accept textual files as input too. Zabaware TTS Reader comes with quite a collection of voices, and more can be purchased online. Other than that, it can monitor and read clipboard, as well as emails and webpages. Read text can be saved as WAV files. A unique feature of Zabaware TTS Reader is that it can automatically read standard window dialogs such as pop-up boxes, alerting you when they need attention. This makes Zabaware TTS Reader a sort of personal assistant, which is pretty neat if you ask me. That said, format support is fairly limited.
Platform Availability: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP
Price: Free
8. Adobe Acrobat Reader
You might be wondering why is Adobe Acrobat Reader being included in the listing of TTS software, as it’s a PDF reader, an entirely different type of software application. While that’s true, Adobe Acrobat Reader also has some basic text to speech (TTS) goodness built in.
If all you need is a text to speech solution that can handle reading out aloud of PDF files occasionally, Adobe Acrobat Reader fits the bill perfectly. Thanks to its “Read Out Loud” feature, PDF files can be read either on a per page basis, or in their entirety. All you have to is open up the PDF file you want to be read out, and select the View > Read Out Loud option. That’s all there’s to it!
Platform Availability: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP; Mac OS X 10.5 and later
Price: Free
9. Mac OS X’s Text To Speech Feature
If your OS of choice is Mac OS X, and all you need is basic but extremely solid text to speech (TTS) functionality, you don’t even have to bother with a third party software application, as the OS’ native Text to Speech feature has you covered.
Enabling Text to Speech in Mac OS X is simple, and takes no more than a few minutes. Here’s how to do it:
Pdf Text To Speech Free
- Go to System Preferences > Dictation & Speech, and select the Text to Speech tab.
- Enable the Speak selected text when the key is pressed option.
That’s just about it! Other (optional) settings are available as well, and these can be used to select (after downloading) additional voices, change the speed of speaking, and stuff like that. Once Text to Speech has been configured, you can select any chunk of text and use the configured key combination (Option+Escape) to have the text read out aloud. You can even use it to learn pronunciations of those difficult words. Cool, right?
Note: For those who use Windows, the built-in Microsoft Narrator utility can be used for achieving some similar functionality as well. However, it’s pretty clunky, and in our testing, failed to work most of the times.
Platform Availability: Mac OS X
Price: Free
SEE ALSO: 10 Best Audio Recording Software
Less reading, more listening!
Text to speech (TTS) software take almost all the hassle out of consuming digital textual, making the entire thing faster and more convenient. And as seen above, there are plenty of such solutions available. Looking for the absolute best in speech synthesis? Go for NaturalReader, Balabolka, or TextAloud. Don’t want all the bells and whistles and would prefer just basic text to speech features? Use eSpeak or Verbose. Try all for the above, and holler which one(s) work out the best for you in the comments below.