ReadPlease 2003 will read your text out loud

Overview:

Reads any text you see on your screen – all purpose text-to-speech software.

Features:

* Microsoft voices: Mike, Mary, Sam
* Customize font and background colour
* Reads text via Windows clipboard from any program (copy/paste)
* Control reading from system tray
* Reads e-mail emoticons such as 🙂 or 😦
* Adjustable voice speed (rate)
* Low vision colour option
* ReadPlease Enable your website

Review:

If for some reason you would need to have text read out to you using voices then ReadPlease 2003 is a good option. ReadPlease 2003 will read out loud any text that you copy or load up into it using 4 distinct voices (tough more can be downloaded even ones with foreign languages like spanish) the voices that come with ReadPlease 2003 can be pretty robotic when talking but for the most part they are understandable, one thing that i found to be pretty cool is that ReadPlease 2003 knows several abreviations and symbols and reads them as you would do normally. For example “Ave” becomes “Avenue” and “#” becomes “Number” this greatly helps the listening of text. Also you can place links in text files that you open that will take you to other text files (only if they are in the same directory tough) you can make a table of contents this way if you’d like. ReadPlease 2003 has a”Plus” version that you can buy if need a lot more features.
In conclusion ReadPlease 2003 is a pretty solid way of doing text to speech. Available for all Windows versions.

Get it at http://readplease.com/english/readplease.php

6 Online Tools for Text to Speech you would not want to miss

Once in a while, all of us face a need to get some text synthesized into speech. Maybe we want to know how someone would pronounce a complicated word, or sometimes we just want an entire passage to be read out to us.

These online tools are a great help when you face such a requirement. Some of them will allow you only to synthesize a small passage; others would read out entire PDF or DOC files to you!

1. Vozme

vozMe an online text to speech tool with an ultra-simple interface; a baby could use it! You have a large text box where you type or copy-paste whatever you want to convert to speech, and click the ‘Create MP3’ button. That’s it. A new window would open, and in a few seconds, your MP3 file would start playing. Large chunks of text were translated – the text field seems to accept a pile of text easily.

Save as MP3 file. Integrate into websites or blogs (WP plugin available) Add as iGoogle gadget

2. Expressivo

This text to speech conversion tool from Expressivo has a maximum limit of 200 characters. So large chunks or text at one go are out. But it is easy enough to use. Type or copy-paste your text, choose one of the four voice options (You have female US-English, female Romanian, male Polish and female Polish accents as options), and hit Read Me.

Epressivo produces a short URL to the speech file you created which you can email, IM or blog Option of entering text directly into the address bar of the browser

3. Cepstral

At Cepstral, the text to speech conversion converts the text into a .WAV file. Type in the text, hit Say It, and you will be asked to download s small WAV file. The ability to save the file is a great convenience here.

4. Ivona Speech Synthesizer

The Ivona Speech Synthesizer text to speech conversion tool online has a charcter limit of 200, and the same voice options as Expressivo. Ivona, however, allows you to save the converted speech file as an MP3 for private, non-commercial use.

5. SpokenText

SpokenText is packed with features – but it wants you to register, a small hassle. The registration is a bit too comprehensive – but I think it’s worth filling it out. Once you click on the link in the activation email, your registration is ready to go.

Log in, and click on the button ‘Create a New recording’. Choose from one of the 5 voice options, choose a words-per-minute speed for spoken text and – there is no text box! You have to upload a PDF, .txt, .DOC or .PPT file.

Conversion from multiple file formats. Conversion status indicator Email notification on conversion Filter words Your own Spokentext web address to share your recordings

6. Talkr

Talkr is not so straightforward – but that’s only if you land up on the site looking for a text to speech synthesizer. Talkr is not for that exactly – have an RSS feed you want read out?

Yes, this one is for instant podcasts – it converts RSS feeds into MP3 files for podcast! Once you sign up, all you need to do is to point it towards a feed of your own or someone else’s and it converts it into an MP3 file.

• Player to embed the mp3 file into your blog
• MP3 voice mails
• Listen to text only blogs anytime!