# Text-to-voice program? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2003, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/text-to-voice-program/166108 "2003-04-03T02:34:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sqube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Sqube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sqube)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/text-to-voice-program/166108/1 "2003-04-03T02:34:37Z")
Hey, I’m looking for a program where you can input whatever text you want and then have the computer say it back to you. All types of options and whatnot are appreciated but not necessary by any stretch of the imagination. Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/text-to-voice-program/166108/2 "2003-04-03T02:44:00Z")
How’s [this](http://www.readplease.com/)? ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/text-to-voice-program/166108/3 "2003-04-03T02:48:31Z")
A sight impaired guy I know uses [these guys](http://www.nextup.com/) stuff and says it’s good. ---
**Author:** ![Sqube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Sqube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sqube)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/text-to-voice-program/166108/4 "2003-04-03T02:58:28Z")
Thanks for the help **Q.E.D.** and **don’t ask**. Those are exactly the type of programs I had in mind. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/text-to-voice-program/166108/5 "2003-04-03T03:02:06Z")
How about the Macintosh OS? They’ve been able to convert Text to Speech for years now in TextEdit, their Text app that ships with the OS. There’s dozens of different voices to choose from. In OS X there’s even a Speech System Preference that lets the machine speak every alert, all text under the mouse cursor, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Sqube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Sqube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sqube)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/text-to-voice-program/166108/6 "2003-04-03T03:11:45Z")
Well… that’s pretty good, but this whole problem isn’t really worth buying a new computer for. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mcbiggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7c8e57/32.png) [@mcbiggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcbiggins)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/text-to-voice-program/166108/7 "2003-04-03T03:22:15Z")
I’ve always liked [TextAloud MP3](http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/index.html). It can read text, but also allows you to save to space-saving mp3. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/text-to-voice-program/166108/8 "2003-04-03T03:26:18Z")
Windows XP has it in the control panel under Speech. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/text-to-voice-program/166108/9 "2003-04-03T04:00:46Z")
Windows has had text to speech (TTS) for a very long time. Almost all TTS engines available today conform to Microsoft’s SAPI standard. By default, the only way to have Windows read text to you is to turn on the Accessibility “Narrator” utility (Start -\> Programs -\> Accessories -\> Accessibility). However, there are many free SAPI utilities available, including demos that are part of the SAPI SDK ([version 5.1](http://www.microsoft.com/speech/download/sdk51/) of the latter also includes many speech recognition examples, including a basic utility that will answer the phone via a voice modem and respond to voice commands). ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/text-to-voice-program/166108/10 "2003-04-03T05:41:20Z")
My browser (iCab) does it. I can have it read your post out loud if I want.