On Mac OS you can "speak" a text in almost every app, using built in voice (like the Siri voice or some older voices). All offline, and even from the terminal with "say".
On Mac OS you can "speak" a text in almost every app, using built in voice (like the Siri voice or some older voices). All offline, and even from the terminal with "say".
I tried it a few months ago to narrate an epub in Apple Books and it was very broken in a weird way. It starts out decent but after a few pages, it starts slurring, skipping words, trailing off not finishing sentences and then goes silent.
(I've just tried it again without seeing that issue within a few pages)
> Siri voice or some older voices
You can choose "Enhanced" and "Premium" versions of voices which are larger and sound nice and modern to me. The "Serena Premium" voice I was using is over 200Mb and far better that this Show HN. It's very natural but kind of ruined by diabolical pronunciation of anything slightly non-standard which sadly seems to cover everything I read e.g. people/place names, technical/scientific terms or any neologisms in scifi/fantasy.
It's so wildly incomprehensible for e.g. Tibetan names in a mountaineering book, that you have to check the text. If the word being butchered is frequently repeated e.g. main character’s name, then it's just too painful to use.