Member Avatar for JasonPS

Hi all, I'd like your thoughts and recommendation.

I'm currently thinking of switching from Windows 7 to Ubuntu, I'm new to UB/linux and have a series of package that I use all the time. I know that I can get libreoffice to replace MSOffice and some like for likes; where I'm stuck though is the following:

  • I use texthelp - Read Write Gold 11 for reading my documents back to me (I'm dyslexic and so need something to read what I've written)

any advice for a good, natural text reader that reads OO text back would be appreciated.

Thank you all for any contributions
:)

  • 4 Contributors
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  • Latest Post Latest Post by mike_2000_17
Member Avatar for Hiroshe

Using google. Good place to start.

Member Avatar for rubberman

Linux GUI's have a number of tools for assisting disabled persons (visually impaired, etc). There are definitely which will read back text as audio that you can use. I don't know offhand what they are, but as Hiroshe said, Google is your friend! :-)

Member Avatar for JasonPS

Thanks both, I did find something called festival but don't know anything about this and is it free?

Member Avatar for Hiroshe

Thanks both, I did find something called festival but don't know anything about this and is it free?

Look it up! The first link on google gave me this. It tells you how to install it right there, so why not just give it a try and find out?

You'll quickly learn how to tell free software apart from non-free.

Member Avatar for mike_2000_17

The standard utility in Ubuntu for text-to-speech is called "espeak", which comes pre-installed with it (but I think you have to install the GUI front-end if you want to use it directly, but espeak is integrated already into other applications like text editors or pdf viewers).

I have used Festival before and it works very well, except that it was a bit hard to get it properly setup, at least, as I remember it.

Under KDE (e.g., Kubuntu), the system-wide text-to-speech utility is called Jovie, which I have also tested and works quite well, and it's pre-installed, you just have to flip a few configuration switches to add the toolbar / pop-up menu buttons for it in most KDE applications. I would imagine that espeak is as easy if not easier than Jovie to use, install and/or enable.

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