Today, I’m going to focus on text to speech (TTS) software and how to get what’s going to be best for you.

With the enormous computing power of your everyday computer and the sophistication of software, text to speech is actually pretty easy.

Accurate voice recognition is the real challenge, but I digress.

The big thing in the text to speech world is making the voice sound “natural.”  I’m sure we’ve all heard those robotic sounding voices, but fortunately, they’re getting a lot better.

Before writing this guide, I tested the online demos from Neo Speech and AT&T’s Natural Voices and while nobody is going to mistake them for a real human speaking, they’re getting close.

Uses for TTS software

TTS software comes in handy in a variety of situations.  I think most people are familiar with new GPS devices being able to say things like street names and destinations.

For example, my previous GPS would simply tell me how far I had to drive before I needed turn.

It sounded something like this: “In one quarter mile, take, exit right.”

It was all based on pre-recorded phrases – nothing was being generated on the fly.

The current one I’m using is a lot more specific and gives directions like this:

“In one quarter mile, take exit 332, US Highway 275 Right”

It’s really handy if you’re in an unfamiliar place in heavy traffic and need to place all of your attention on the road and not on the little GPS screen on your dash.

Cell phones are becoming another big user of TTS technology – for example, many cell phones can read your text messages to you so if you’re driving and checking texts, you can stay focused on your driving instead of reading.

I remember a big hullabaloo among audio book makers who weren’t happy when the Amazon Kindle included technology that could read the book using text to speech software.

I’m not sure why they were so worried – if you’ve ever listed to the Amazon Kindle read a book vs a professional reader, you’ll notice there’s no comparison.  The professional is way better and gives you a much better book experience and you’ll likely have far better comprehension and enjoyment… the feature is cool in a pinch though.

On the web it’s easy to use if you have any type of reading issue, such as dyslexia.

You can get free add-ons to your browser so that if you need something read to you, it’s a piece of cake.  I’ve listed two below that are free – they’re not as good as some of the paid software I’ve listed below, but again, if you just need the words and don’t care about “natural sounding voices,” they’ll work just fine.

Internet Browser Add-ons

Internet Explorer

• Clean Page

Firefox

• Click Speak

Another great use for text to speech is proofreading.  Like most people, I’m notoriously bad at proofreading my own work.  I know what I meant to type, and while spellcheckers have come a long way, they still can’t differentiate when I type “you” and really meant “your.”

However, if you listen to your article or paper as a means of proofreading, you’re far more likely to notice the error because its much easier to hear the error than if you’re reading.

If you really need quality text to speech software, then here is a list of some of the top manufacturers – many of them will give you a demo to test it out first so you can see which one will work best for you before you buy.

Text To Speech Software (TTS) Manufacturers:

• NeoSpeech
• Claroread
• Nextup
• Natural Readers
• Zubaware
• Wizzard Software
• Read Please
• Expressivo
• Script VOX Studio
• AT&T Labs Natural Voices
• Text Speech Pro