[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Best free software to read text aloud
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       Ask HN: Best free software to read text aloud
        
       What is the best software to read arbitrary text aloud in a
       decently human sounding voice? I'd be happy with a CLI tool or a
       website I can just paste text into.  There are many articles I'd
       rather hear than read so I can rest my eyes. I've tried the builtin
       macOS say cmd, naturalreaders (dot) com and they both suck.
        
       Author : n8ta
       Score  : 16 points
       Date   : 2022-08-07 21:22 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
       | hahnchen wrote:
       | Ibm cloud has a text to speech I thought it was pretty good
        
       | martin-adams wrote:
       | I use the build-in macOS right-click > Speech option. I often use
       | it to proofread things I'm writing and of course to read
       | articles. I've made sure I have the enhanced quality voices in
       | the Accessibility settings.
        
       | the_wolo wrote:
       | mimic3 [1] might be worth a try
       | 
       | [1]: https://github.com/MycroftAI/mimic3
        
       | freediver wrote:
       | Try "Listen" feature at TinyGem [1] to see if you like that kind
       | of voice (powered by Microsoft AI). It accepts URLs to articles
       | and does extraction for you. (disclaimer: my hobby project)
       | 
       | [1] https://tinygem.org/listen/
        
         | n8ta wrote:
         | This voice is better than any I've tried. Thanks!
        
       | gnicholas wrote:
       | Apparently you can make an iOS shortcut and have Alexa read any
       | copied text aloud:
       | https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/pdvkpk/let_alexa...
        
       | simion314 wrote:
       | I was looking for same thing years ago but after a while the
       | voice will no longer feel robotic (edit: it still feels robotic
       | just you no longer notice it unless you focus on teh voice
       | instead of the content), and you can try increase the speed
       | slowly until you will be able to have text read to you at super
       | speeds.
       | 
       | This days I use my custom scripts that use eSpeak under the hood.
        
       | gnicholas wrote:
       | The Pocket app has TTS that is pretty good. I believe they use
       | Amazon Polly under the hood.
        
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       (page generated 2022-08-07 23:01 UTC)