Voiceover of text. Review of programs.

Everyone knows about the benefits of reading. It develops one's horizons, increases literacy in oral and written speech, develops thinking and imagination, etc. A person who reads is a person who is literate and interesting in communication. But it is not always possible to read a book “live”. Especially considering the prices in bookstores. But there are e-books that you can download and easily flip through on the screen of your PC or mobile device.

And many applications allow you not only to read letters from the screen, but also to enjoy listening to your favorite book while doing other things. Voice-over programs have made the lives of many busy book lovers easier and more convenient. But there are audiobooks, you say. But it is not always possible to find a work that is easy to read. And, besides, not all books are voiced by professional readers. There is also specialized literature that you rarely hear in such processing. We can also talk about learning foreign languages, improving skills, reading mail, etc. Not everyone has the opportunity to print out text every time, but sitting in front of a PC and reading live takes time.

The text voice acting is also good for people with low vision. This way they can satisfy their hunger for information without harming their health. The program can read text on the screen in a female or male voice, depending on your preference.

What do you need to voice text?

The first thing that comes to mind is specialized software. But in addition, you must have the appropriate voice engine installed on your PC. What it is? The speech synthesis engine, also known as text-to-speech engine in English transcription, is special software that is designed to convert electronic text into speech.

Sapi 4 (legacy versions)
Sapi 5 (installed by default on Windows XP and higher)

Most speech engines only support one version. But the versions themselves are not compatible. That is, votes for SAPI 4 will not be supported by SAPI 5. And vice versa.

The Microsoft Speech Platform is a set of tools that enables application developers to enable text-to-speech conversion in their products. For the synthesizer to work, you need to install Microsoft Speech Platform – Runtime and Runtime Language, which also supports the Russian language.

Programs for reading aloud

Today you can find a variety of programs on the Internet for converting text into human speech. Some services will help when you need online voiceover of text.

Text-to-speech.imtranslator.net – the service allows you not only to read texts in one of the specified languages, but also, if necessary, to translate from one to another, and then listen to the sound of the translation. The Russian-language text is read in a female voice.

Translate.google.com – Google's translator can not only translate text, but also read it aloud. The service is completely free.

ivona.com – Russian language is available for selection. But there is a limit of 250 characters.

Ivona

If you are ready to download the program on your PC and want to listen to more than two sentences, one of the following will suit you.

. A simple program - a text editor. It can either read the text loaded into it, or convert the text file into audio format. Supports both SAPI standards. Here you can put a background picture, check spelling, set reading speed and timbre, and display statistics. The program also supports importing pictures from opened documents. Supports almost all popular formats. Created in 2007. Free.
. Another free Russian-language program. Serves for reading text by voice or recording it into an audio file (mp3). Supports html, txt, doc formats. Features: adjusting the height, speed and volume of the voice, tracking the text, highlighting what is read in color. You can open up to 8 documents at the same time. You can correct the pronunciation of a word. The talker can remember where you left off when you exit the program.
. Free program for voiceover of text. Supports more than 20 languages, including Russian. As for formats, there is also a large selection: AZW, AZW3, CHM, DjVu, DOC, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC and RTF. The application itself is free. Works under all standards, compatible with Windows, including version 10. If desired, you can change the design themes. It is possible to correct pronunciation, change fonts, and head parameters. There are quite a lot of settings, especially compared to previous programs. You can check spelling, split one file into several small ones. If necessary, the text can be saved as audio (WAV, MP3, MP4, OGG and WMA).
. Shareware program with trial demo version. Designed for voicing texts, creating audio books (wav, mp3, amr, vmo + m3u playlist), placing accents. Supports SAPI 5. You can convert books from fb2 to txt. The program highlights the sentence being read in color. The user can change the font and background color. RussAcc remembers the current position for the five dozen most recently opened files. Record books into audio quickly thanks to support for SAPI 5. Large database of words with their grammatical parameters and forms. Based on neighboring words, he places accents where they are ambiguous.
. A simple program for reading text by voice. Supports txt and rtf formats. It perfectly recognizes the encoding, protecting against strange characters in an open document. The voiced text can be saved as mp3. The settings include line wrapping and highlighting of what is being read. The reader can be displayed on the full screen or minimized to tray, and the reading speed can be set. There are design themes, but they are not very different from each other. There is a setting for the font and background color. Supports popular voice engines.
. Another program from the same developer (Sacrament). Simple free software for reading texts and books aloud. Minimum set of functions and settings. There is a dictionary of accents. The voice can be adjusted in speed, the font and background color can be customized.

Mobile readers

In our age of the ubiquitous appearance of gadgets, e-readers for mobile devices simply could not help but appear. Now there is no need to carry paper volumes with you. All you need to do is download the application to your tablet or smartphone, upload a selection of your favorite works and enjoy them anytime and anywhere. Almost all of them offer voiceovers. Examples of such programs:

Nomad Reader is a convenient reader with a large number of settings. Free. Supports epub and fb2 formats. Does not require special permissions or Internet access.
Aldiko Book Reader is a popular application that is included in the list of pre-installed programs for about 20 models of smartphones and tablets. Multilingual, with Russian support. Books can be read from the device itself or purchased in a store. Lots of individual settings. Supports epub and pdf.
EBookDroid is an open source application with a huge number of settings. Supports many formats (PDF, DjVu, XPS, cbz, cbr, fb2, fb2.zip). The desired file can be retrieved through a virtual “shelf” or from the device’s memory.
FBReader is an application that works well even on slow devices. Supports a sufficient number of formats: fb2 (.zip), ePub, mobi, rtf, plain text. Books can be read from a memory card or from catalogs (liters, for example). The library in the application can be conveniently sorted by book titles, authors, series or categories. There are lists of recently opened books and favorites.
Cool Reader is an omnivorous free program for mobile gadgets. Opens fb2, epub (without DRM), txt, doc, rtf, html, chm, tcr, pdb, prc, mobi (without DRM), pml without any problems. The application is stylized as a bookcase, on which volumes of works are comfortably located. You can organize books in the library by title, author, or file name. Numerous display settings - background color, font settings, night mode, display of covers, image scaling, etc.

ReadAloud - online reading of texts

“It’s better to hear once than to read a hundred times” - this is the motto of the ReadAloud project. This resource is capable of voicing any text in English or Russian, regardless of its complexity and purpose.

Users can download news or listen to messages or convert text documents into audiobooks.

The resource’s interface is simple, just copy the text into the desired window, select the voice and voice speed and click “Voice”. The information can be listened to or saved in mp3 format on your hard drive or in your profile (for the latter you must be a registered user).

If a visitor notices that when voicing the accents in complex words were incorrectly placed or that the intonation of the sentence was read incorrectly, then changes can be made to the reading style, which will also be saved for your profile. Thus, each user has the opportunity to customize the “reader” for themselves.

If users do not have constant access to the Internet or are unable to constantly be online, the application can be downloaded and installed on their home computer. In addition, there is also an application option for working on Apple devices.