Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Is there a text reader (text to voice) in Puppylinux?

If that tool exist, can it read Spanish?

It we don't have that, is there a free tool online to do that text to speech reading?

----

I'm using Fossapus.9.5 in a frugal install.

Greetings from Veneuela!

I think u can use ORCA

It's a screen reader that is pre-installed in many Linux distributions. It can read out text as well as provide audio feedback for various system events.

To use these TTS options in Puppy Linux, you may need to install them through the package manager or command line.

Once installed, you can typically access it through the accessibility settings.

I think u can use others but Orca usually is enough.

Cheers.

Which Puppy? Always tell us Which Puppy --there are thousands, with about two dozen actively supported-- and what applications are available --and how you get them-- will vary from one Puppy to another.

Also, what type of 'text' files do you want to listen to. Some applications work with 'txt' files; others with epub readers, etc. mouldy started a thread on the 'old' forum, https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 6#p1029536 which mentions several.

The exceptions to the Rule about the availability of app depending on your Puppy Version are programs which run under Wine. On the above referenced Thread, Mike Walsh mentions running Balabolka under an old version of Wine. Balaboika can be used with AZW, AZW3, CHM, DjVu, DOC, DOCX, EML, EPUB, FB2, FB3, HTML, LIT, MD, MOBI, ODP, ODS, ODT, PDB, PRC, PDF, PPT, PPTX, RTF, TCR, WPD, XLS, XLSX. files, http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm. Once you've setup Wine, you could use the portable version MikeWalsh mentioned from here, https://portableapps.com/search/node/Balabolka, or perhaps, the newer version made available by its publisher, http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm.

WineHq reports test results of programs noting which versions of Wine were used, problems encountered and sometimes what you need to do, For balaboika see https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager. ... &iId=17859. At the bottom of the page, Left-Click the 'Versions' or 'colored-ratings' tab. Newer versions of programs/wine often work better, but not always. WineHQ does not report tests of Portable Windows Programs. These don't install to the Registry --Wine's is not identical with Windows-- and often work better.

I'm guessing from this page, https://enabled.in/wp/balabolka-text-sp ... -software/ that Spanish won't be a problem. If it is, googling suggests that adding other voices to Wine may be.

If you go the Wine route, I suggest NOT trying to install it but rather employing MikeWalsh's Wine-portable from here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 191#p68191: 5.11 if your Puppy is 64bit, 4.0.4 if a 32-bit. That page gives instructions. But don't hesitate to ask if you need more.

Note, mouldy has posted that to run Kindle under Wine you need at least Wine version 6. Ask "how to" if you need that capability.

Link for my nicOS-AudioBook-Creator package here: viewtopic.php?p=15274#p15274 and download a Spanish voice from here: http://www.zero2000.com/files/lhttsspe.exe. You need WINE to use it.

@Amaponian :-

A wee bit of searching on-line found the following website;-

https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/

Very natural-sounding voices - frankly, far better than any desktop app you could get under Linux. (I don't know about "pro" apps like Dragon Naturally-speaking; this is a Windoze-only effort, though I've heard good things about it. Mikeslr tried getting it functional under WINE, but I don't think he could get it to behave itself.) I suspect the on-line option mentioned above involves a certain amount of AI stuff going on in the background. It's available in multiple different languages, too.

As for Balabolka Portable, umm.....certainly it functions under WINE, though I can't remember now if comes with any voices pre-installed. You may need to source 'voices' yourself; I found a free source for the AT&T 'Natural' voices, but these are heavy items.....anywhere from 600MB-800MB per voice. To go with these there's a specific M$ app needs to be installed along with them. I also found a free download source for the other industry-standard text reader, TextAloud!; the AT&Ts work well with this, but you need a fair bit of storage space available. The version I'm using is an older one that didn't need purchasing.

For your use-case, I'd recommend the on-line option above. It sounds really good! Works well with any Chromium-based browser; I haven't tried it with any of the 'zilla-based browsers, so couldn't attest as to its functionality with these.

Mike.

Online cloud-based text to speech. Haven't times changed... used to be robot sounding voices like via espeak or flite. However, don't you feel uneasy that all this power relies on being 'connected' all the time in this fibre fast internet world? Voice recognition, facial recognition, chatGPT, and so on. Constant surveillance... was this bigger than Big Brother world ever really worth it? I think I may stick to espeak and similar and keep offline as much as possible.

wiak wrote: ↑Thu Mar 30, 2023 12:09 pm

Online cloud-based text to speech. Haven't times changed... used to be robot sounding voices like via espeak or flite. However, don't you feel uneasy that all this power relies on being 'connected' all the time in this fibre fast internet world? Voice recognition, facial recognition, chatGPT, and so on. Constant surveillance... was this bigger than Big Brother world ever really worth it? I think I may stick to espeak and similar and keep offline as much as possible.

I agree with you: an offline tool would be better.
But when I have internet I rather use
all the power I can get from the free online services.

Thanks for your recommendations

mikeslr wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 12:01 am

Which Puppy? Always tell us Which Puppy --there are thousands, with about two dozen actively supported-- and what applications are available --and how you get them-- will vary from one Puppy to another.

Also, what type of 'text' files do you want to listen to. Some applications work with 'txt' files; others with epub readers, etc. mouldy started a thread on the 'old' forum, https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 6#p1029536 which mentions several.

The exceptions to the Rule about the availability of app depending on your Puppy Version are programs which run under Wine. On the above referenced Thread, Mike Walsh mentions running Balabolka under an old version of Wine. Balaboika can be used with AZW, AZW3, CHM, DjVu, DOC, DOCX, EML, EPUB, FB2, FB3, HTML, LIT, MD, MOBI, ODP, ODS, ODT, PDB, PRC, PDF, PPT, PPTX, RTF, TCR, WPD, XLS, XLSX. files, http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm. Once you've setup Wine, you could use the portable version MikeWalsh mentioned from here, https://portableapps.com/search/node/Balabolka, or perhaps, the newer version made available by its publisher, http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm.

WineHq reports test results of programs noting which versions of Wine were used, problems encountered and sometimes what you need to do, For balaboika see https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager. ... &iId=17859. At the bottom of the page, Left-Click the 'Versions' or 'colored-ratings' tab. Newer versions of programs/wine often work better, but not always. WineHQ does not report tests of Portable Windows Programs. These don't install to the Registry --Wine's is not identical with Windows-- and often work better.

I'm guessing from this page, https://enabled.in/wp/balabolka-text-sp ... -software/ that Spanish won't be a problem. If it is, googling suggests that adding other voices to Wine may be.

If you go the Wine route, I suggest NOT trying to install it but rather employing MikeWalsh's Wine-portable from here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 191#p68191: 5.11 if your Puppy is 64bit, 4.0.4 if a 32-bit. That page gives instructions. But don't hesitate to ask if you need more.

Note, mouldy has posted that to run Kindle under Wine you need at least Wine version 6. Ask "how to" if you need that capability.

Reading and testing recommendations. Thank you.

mikewalsh wrote: ↑Thu Mar 30, 2023 11:25 am

@Amaponian :-

A wee bit of searching on-line found the following website;-

https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/

Very natural-sounding voices - frankly, far better than any desktop app you could get under Linux. (I don't know about "pro" apps like Dragon Naturally-speaking; this is a Windoze-only effort, though I've heard good things about it. Mikeslr tried getting it functional under WINE, but I don't think he could get it to behave itself.) I suspect the on-line option mentioned above involves a certain amount of AI stuff going on in the background. It's available in multiple different languages, too.

As for Balabolka Portable, umm.....certainly it functions under WINE, though I can't remember now if comes with any voices pre-installed. You may need to source 'voices' yourself; I found a free source for the AT&T 'Natural' voices, but these are heavy items.....anywhere from 600MB-800MB per voice. To go with these there's a specific M$ app needs to be installed along with them. I also found a free download source for the other industry-standard text reader, TextAloud!; the AT&Ts work well with this, but you need a fair bit of storage space available. The version I'm using is an older one that didn't need purchasing.

For your use-case, I'd recommend the on-line option above. It sounds really good! Works well with any Chromium-based browser; I haven't tried it with any of the 'zilla-based browsers, so couldn't attest as to its functionality with these.

Mike.

The expression "far better" sounds good.
Reading and testing recommendations. Thank you.

amethyst wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 2:25 am

Link for my nicOS-AudioBook-Creator package here: viewtopic.php?p=15274#p15274 and download a Spanish voice from here: http://www.zero2000.com/files/lhttsspe.exe. You need WINE to use it.

Reading and testing recommendations. Thank you.

@Amaponian :-

Actually, the on-line text-to-speech tool I linked you to turns out NOT to be 'free'. You get a small amount per month, then after that - if you want to keep using it - it's $20 a month!!! So I led you up the garden path with that one.

Sorry!!

A far better option, which I've used for a while myself, is this extension from the Chrome Web Store (which works very well, and sounds perfectly natural):-

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... olgimiaplp

Okay, you say; so.....if it only works in the browser, how can I use it to read "offline" text? Simple; because you can use Chrome to access your local file-system. You can thus bring up the document you want to read in the browser, and THEN the extension will read it. (You WILL need to enable 'Read file URLs' in the settings, but that's the only change needed.)

This one works in ANY Chromium-based browser, too. I don't know about 'zilla-based browsers, 'cos I very rarely use them.

--------------------------------------

@wiak :-

I agree with you and Amaponian; yes, an offline tool will always be better, but I take the same view as the OP. While my internet connection remains, I'll make use of the online tools, 'cos the sheer amount of stuff available these days online is just unreal....

And why NOT make use of the 'grunt' offered by somebody else's server?

I use on-line tools to make my own greetings cards (Canva.com; highly recommended!); another site offers all sorts of wee widgets; on-line Unicode tables come in useful, and, while most of my video-editing I'll do locally, I know a handful of sites that offer 'extras' which many video-editors would struggle with, so......those sometimes come in handy, too. And I have a couple of image editing sites that will perform some unusual tricks.....including converting to and from just about any format you can possibly imagine.

And then there's Ez-GIF.com.....no need to elaborate on that one.

It's ALL good stuff.

Mike.