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Top Rated Text To Speech Software For Mac?

The Best Free Text-to-Speech Software app downloads for Mac: Voice TextSpeech Pro Elements Toau SpeechMirror Speechissimo Listen Later. The Best Free Text-to-Speech Software app downloads for Mac. There are many free text to speech software available in the market. Most of these software work almost the same way – basically convert to speech. They differ in the type of documents that they support, and in ease of conversion from text to speech. If your OS of choice is Mac OS X, and all you need is basic but extremely solid text to speech (TTS) functionality, you don’t even have to bother with a third party software application, as the OS’ native Text to Speech feature has you covered.

Top Rated Text To Speech Software

Mac Text To Speech Online

Free Text To Speech Software

In years gone by, text to speech software was rather expensive, but these days there are excellent text to speech tools available free of charge. We're here to help you find the very best tools that will make converting written documents to audio files as easy as possible.

Text to speech software can be enormously helpful for anyone who's visually impaired, or has a condition like dyslexia that makes reading on screens tricky. It can also help overcome language barriers for people who read a language but don't speak it, or are in the process of learning.

Text to speech software is also ideal if you want to listen to a document while doing something else, if you find it easier to retain information you've heard, or if you want to sense-check something you've written.

Here's our pick of the best free text to speech software for reading either individual paragraphs or whole documents aloud.

1. Balabolka

Save text as a spoken audio file, with customizable voices

Lots of voices to choose from

There are a couple of ways to use Balabolka's free text to speech software: you can either copy and paste text into the program, or you can open a number of supported file formats (including DOC, PDF, and HTML) in the program directly. In terms of output you can use SAPI 4 complete with eight different voices to choose from, SAPI 5 with two, or the Microsoft Speech Platform if you download and install the necessary files. Whichever route you choose, you can adjust the speech, pitch and volume of playback to create custom voice.

In addition to reading words aloud, this free text to speech software can also save narrations as audio files in a range of formats including MP3 and WAV. For lengthy documents you can create bookmarks to make it easy to jump back to a specific location and there are excellent tools on hand to help you to customize the pronunciation of words to your liking.

With all these features to make life easier when reading text on a screen isn't an option, Balabolka is best free text to speech software around.

2. Natural Reader

Free text to speech software with its own web browser

Choice of interfaces

Natural Reader is a free text to speech tool that can be used in a couple of ways. The first option is to load documents into its library and have them read aloud from there. This is a neat way to manage multiple files, and the number of supported file types is impressive, including ebook formats. There's also OCR, which enables you to load up a photo or scan of text, and have it read to you.

The second option takes the form of a floating toolbar. In this mode, you can highlight text in any application and use the toolbar controls to start and customize text to speech. This means you can very easily use the feature in your web browser, word processor and a range of other programs. There's also a built-in browser to convert web content to speech more easily.

3. Panopretor Basic

Easy text to speech conversion, with WAV and MP3 output

Top Rated Text To Speech Software

Exports in WAV and MP3 formats

As the name suggests, Panopreter Basic delivers free text to speech conversion without frills. It accepts plain and rich text files, web pages and Microsoft Word documents as input, and exports the resulting sound in both WAV and MP3 format (the two files are saved in the same location, with the same name).

The default settings work well for quick tasks, but spend a little time exploring Panopreter Basic's Settings menu and you'll find options to change the language, destination of saved audio files, and set custom interface colors. The software can even play a piece of music once it's finished reading – a nice touch you won't find in other free text-to-speech software.

If you need something more advanced, a premium version of Panopreter is available for US$29.95 (about £20, AU$40). This edition offers several additional features including toolbars for Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer, the ability to highlight the section of text currently being read, and extra voices.

4. WordTalk

An extension that adds text to speech to your word processor

Customizable voices

Developed by the University of Edinburgh, WordTalk is a toolbar add-on for Word that brings customizable text to speech to Microsoft Word. It works with all editions of Word and is accessible via the toolbar or ribbon, depending on which version you're using.

Mac Text To Speech Online

The toolbar itself is certainly not the most attractive you'll ever see, appearing to have been designed by a child. Nor are all of the buttons' functions very clear, but thankfully there's a help file on hand to help.

There's no getting away from the fact that WordTalk is fairly basic, but it does support SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 voices, and these can be tweaked to your liking. The ability to just read aloud individual words, sentences or paragraphs is a particularly nice touch. You also have the option of saving narrations, and there are a number of keyboard shortcuts that allow for quick and easy access to frequently used options.

5. Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader

A great choice for converting text from websites to speech

Good file format support

Despite its basic looks, Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader has more to offer than you might first think. You can open numerous file formats directly in the program, or just copy and paste text.

Alternatively, as long as you have the program running and the relevant option enables, Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader can read aloud any text you copy to the clipboard – great if you want to convert words from websites to speech – as well as dialog boxes that pop up. Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader can also convert text files to WAV format.

Unfortunately the selection of voices is limited, and the only settings you can customize are volume and speed unless you burrow deep into settings to fiddle with pronunciations. Additional voices are available for a US$25 fee (about £20, AU$30), which seems rather steep, holding it back from a higher place in our list.

Update (July 2018): Please refer to our full article on free speech to text softwareThe Best (Free) Speech-to-Text Software for WindowsThe Best (Free) Speech-to-Text Software for WindowsLooking for the best free Windows speech to text software? We compared Dragon Naturally Speaking with free alternatives from Google and Microsoft.Read More.

I’m writing lots, and frequently getting arm ache. Are there any free good speech to text software programs available to download? I just want to up notepad and start talking, and have my voice translated into text and typed into notepad.

Free Text To Speech Software

What is the best stt software then?

good

Windows 7 has speech recognition which is good.

Great Question. I am looking for the same thing but I don't have windows 7 or vista. Or any money.

Free text editor for mac free download - VideoPad Free Video Editor for Mac, Plain Text Editor, MovieMator Free Mac Video Editor, and many more programs. The Best Free Text Editors for Windows, Linux, and Mac Lori Kaufman April 28, 2012, 12:00pm EDT We all use text editors to take notes, save web addresses, write code, as well as other uses. Free text editors for mac os x. How can the answer be improved? The best free and paid text editor programs for Mac whether you're a web developer, programmer, technical writer, or anything in between! Text editors are an entirely different story. Text editors are much more helpful if you're editing code, creating web pages, doing text transformation or other things for which a word processor is just overkill.

just found this i hope it work as well as they say, [Broken Link Removed]

I'm no big Windoze fan but the speech to text in Windows is every bit as good aS Dragon as I use them both. In ANY speech to text you have to be aware of mic positioning and extraeous noise. Work on those two things and the text will take care of itself.

i found the speach recognition software on my computer, but i need the speech to text and now i can only find text to speech! someone can help?

Dragon naturally speaking software is the best one.

I'm a special ed teacher who needs a Speech to text software (hopefully free) for 12 students with great ideas but few or no writing skills (K-1).

I haven't read where anyone has mentioned Talk It Type It yet. It is very economical. I bought the basic software about 6 years ago. I paid aprox 20.00 for it. Much cheaper than Dragon. TITI does have higher priced editions but I only needed the basic. I had to train it to recognize my voice, but you will have to do that with any of them. Google them to ck them out. I haven't checked recently to see if the co. is still in business. I say that because I haven't heard any ads about the software like they had a few years back. It could be worth checking them out? I like mine.

Just started using the Windows Speech Recognition and it seems to work well, but needs a lot of patience in training the computer to recognise your voice. Wanted a free option to start with and didn't know I had this on my computer all this while.. Anyone know how I can access the dictionary so as to add a few words? Or does it work with the standard windows dictionary, so I edit my words there. Still getting used to it..thanks to all who recommended this!

Of that I'm not certain, but it may be a great question to ask on MUO Answers..

Text plus for mac. With textPlus for smartphones and tablets, get a FREE number and start texting and calling today! With textPlus for smartphones and tablets, get a FREE number and start texting and calling today! Home Features News. Free unlimited text. Calls for 2¢ / min. TextPlus for PC is a free video, voice & text messenger. Free download Text Plus for Computer/PC Windows 10/8.1/8/7 & Mac Laptop. Textplus for PC is now available and can be easily installed on a desktop PC/Laptop running Windows XP/7/8/8.1/10 and MacOS/OS X. Let’s learn a little bit about this all new app and then have a look on the installation method via BlueStacks or BlueStacks 2.

Fortunately, this is MakeUseOf Answers. :)

What Ryan means though is, please ask a new question! The above is many weeks old and it will take a while to get an answer. If you post a new question, however, you will receive an answer within hours.

Beware Dragon, works fine but when you upgrade from say XP to Vista or Vista to 7, the version of Dragon no longer works, and they want you to buy it again.

If you have a reasonably fast computer running Windows 7, the speech recognition which comes with windows works pretty well.

The latest stable version of Google Chrome 11 has been released sporting the new flat icon with improved security and with the speech-to-text support through HTML speech input API. The first official Google service to make use of this service is Google Translate.

Once after downloading and installing Chrome 11 you can head over to Google Translate page to check out Speech-to-text translation. Right now Google supports only English to other languages. If activated you will see a microphone icon turn blue when you hover over it and the Speak Now speech bubble appear. When you have finished speaking and Chrome 11 speech input API has successfully converted voice to text, Google Translate service steps in and translates language. Hit listen button to heart the translated word.

I'm in Australia and they didn't have the icon you described. Maybe this feature is only enabled in particular countries? Just a thought.

Make sure that you have the source language set to English.

Replying to Bill in reply to Robert Aussies have to be careful to recognize that Strine is not English, which is not spoken in Aussie except by English-Speaking visitors -- and that they tune to International (IE: American) English. <]:^)-<

and you, mr. or ms. anonymous, should be careful as well, since strine is as 'english' as 'american english', both a dirivative of the TRUE original British english, which when you come to think about it is closer to strine than it is american english.

Thanks, it works..

hi, can You help me? I need from my phone iPhone from voice recorder translate it to the text in word. It is somehow possible? And it will be perfect if is for free. Thank Ypou so much. I am not talent for technology so I do not know how to do it.

What about any speech to text for Windows XP?

Marylou above recommended Dragon Naturally Speaking. Did you try that one, yet?

It's a bit pricey and I haven't tried it yet

Try using a bit torrent site with peerblock installed and running.

stop going on about dragon

does not work very well on windows 7 home premium thats what i have and it didnt get one word right

that is for windows 7

Dictating textWhen you speak into the microphone, Windows Speech Recognition converts your spoken words into text that appears on your screen.To dictate textOpen Speech Recognition by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, clicking Ease of Access, and then clicking Windows Speech Recognition. Say 'start listening' or click the Microphone button to start the listening mode.Open the program you want to use or select the text box you want to dictate text into.Say the text that you want dictate.

Might try [Broken Link Removed]. There is a zip file installer available at [Broken Link Removed]. The trial is fully functional, and I tried this on Windows 7. It seemed to act as a front end for MS Speech Recognition, but I am not sure. Worth a shot, though.

free good speech to text software programs available to download http://www.tazti.com/

Thanks for this info although, the term, 'if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is'. I checked out the website in your comment & found that it is free, but for only 15 days. After that, it's $29.95. which is a good price but, I'm afraid the term, 'you get what you pay for' may apply.

So Harry, you went on to check some free software, it wasn't free, and now you're complaining that it's too cheap. Did I sum it up correctly?

I use the Microsoft inbuilt version and it works fine. The trick is to slowly train the program to understand your voice and practice until it does. Accuracy for me is now about 85 to 95%. Its no good expecting speech to text software to work out of the box, although dragon is faster than the others to do that as I have used both. I will upgrade to Dragon 11 later but for now I am using Microsofts version and I write articles from it, so it does work.

Andy

People just don't seem to understand the English language anymore do they??? HUGE difference between 'text to speech' and 'speech to text' .. But if you're reading carefully and not just jumping in because you think you know what you're talking about, it's pretty easy to catch..

Did u guys just use google to find this website : hope it will help u ppl ;) http://www.naturalreaders.com/index.htm from : softlogik

you did not read carefully. they are looking for speech to text NOT text to speech. BIG difference.

i,m in a fix guys. i dont have a card yet and cant buy any? isnt there any freeware?

I have just switched on Windows Seven speech recognition and am trying it out for the first time. With a bit of juggling it seems to be going quite reasonably, but I can see that there is a pretty steep learning curve, especially as I have a quite pronounced lisp (and wasn't that fun to have to spell out).

Still for a first try it's not going too badly and I can see me having some fun playing with this to see if I can get anywhere near my not very impressive typing speed. One interesting thing that I have noticed in my short acquaintance with this program is that less common words seem to be recognized easier, a not unsurprising result all things considered. One thing, I am using the microphone built into my web cam, perhaps with a better quality microphone there would be fewer errors, although I'm not sure if a better microphone would be more susceptible to ambient sound. A secondary issue, and one that might not bother others, is I like to have music playing in the background whilst on my computer, either from my sound system or the computer itself, and that would have to go if I were to use speech recognition as more than an occasional thing. tempersfugue

I use a MacMice Microphone with Vista and it's great. I also use it with my favorite MacBook Pro and one of the newer versions of MacSpeech. The mike is a goosenecked usb item that works well up to 2 feet from my mouth. I can use headphones if I don't want music to interfere as ambient sound. Works with PC or Mac. I've been trying and using speech programs for years. The Vista one trains in about 7 minutes. What has to be done though is corrections, otherwise if it practices mistakes, it gets better at them. My son also uses Dragon Naturally Speaking on his XP and just likes it better every time he uses it. Mike is plug and play, look here: [Broken Link Removed]

I use Google Voice, a free service, when I want speech to text. I use it with my Android cell phone and call my own phone number to leave a message. Google does a good job of transcribing my voice message to text and emailing me the text to my Gmail account.

How to edit text in a pdf. I'm pretty sure Google Voice works with any phone. You don't need to own an Android phone to use it. The service is now out of beta and is open for anyone to use.

Hope this helps.

The built in speech recognition works reasonably well IF you have the right mic and sound card. Wrong mic or sound card and you won't get good results no matter what software you use.

Dragon is better than the built in software, particularly Dragon 10 & 11. I use it all the time. I blogged about it here: [Broken Link Removed]

Wade Hatler

if you have broadband, use [Broken Link Removed], just copy/paste your text and hit the play button. (it was mentioned in makeuseof directory)

the question is about free 'speech to text' software. not 'text to speech'. that's a whole different question. but a useful piece of software nevertheless.

SPEECH TO TEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SPEECH TO TEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT TEXT TO SPEECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yo y u wearin a rag, n wat color is dat.. looks lik dark brown, i wanna say blacc.. u folk?

Irrelevant, Jonathan P.

Hi Massey Speech Project [Broken Links Removed]

possible it can do what you want, mostly freewares will not be good and sharewares like viavoice and dragon are little expensive

It also looks like Dragon is for 32 bit computers. mine's 64bit.

If I ever get a copy, i will be sure to post here and give my verdict, but still think the price is too steep.

this topic is best FREE SPEECH TO TEXT dragon is not free and all the other crap is not speech to text like what theyre looking for not just for commands but to write with

Mango - I'm in the same boat as you, I've been searching for not only a good speech to text program, but also decent API to use in some of my programming. But it appears that speech technology is one of those things that's a bit too advanced to get for free. I'm leaning toward Dragon as well, especially now that a couple people here say that it performs well. My own fear was buying it and then seeing that it doesn't perform any better than the free ones!

If you do buy a copy, let us know how you like it!

Tried Dragon and it did not work well at all

Dragon is great! Here is ver10 and $ 59.00 @ [Broken Link Removed] It is the last version but performed very well. Hope it helps.

@Eduardo I just found the inbuilt voice recognition software in windows 7, and tested it out. it is very poor quality, and even with a microphone, it's unable to get sentences right, so I'm afraid I'll have to pass on that one.

@ha14 I don't have microsoft office installed. i use notepad++ or openoffice.

@Aibek, dragon looks ok, but far too expensive, I was hoping for something completely free. have you had any experience using dragon?

I tried for a few days about 5 years ago. Back then I was mainly looking for a program that would let me use my PC using voice commands. Dragon did fairly well but required user to train it first. Because I wanted something quick I uninstalled it:-)

I heard lots of positive feedback about Dragon Naturally Speaking, http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm Mac os find file.

Unfortunately it's a bit pricey.

[Broken Link Removed]

If you are using Windows Vista or 7, you may have access to the built in voice recognition program. Look for it in the Star menu. Note: I think you have to be running Home Premium or superior to use this feature, though I'm not completely sure.

isnt this just for voice commands to mover around on your computer????we are looking for somethiing that takes your vocals and types them into text!!!!!!!!!

Windows 7 speech recognition does both - controls the computer, and takes dictation. Like most speech to text programs there is some learning to be done on your and the computer's part. If you want punctuation you'll need to say that (period/stop, comma, etc.) If you have a decent microphone then you are all set.

I guess almost all Vistas, Windows 7 and higher specification XPs have speech recognition. In Vista, go to control panel, then Ease of Access, Follow, Speech recognition and you are set.. The tutorial is easy and the best adive is do not get a cheap microphone.

more punctuation does not the answer change -_-

Sublime text 3 for mac. Sublime Text is available for Mac, Windows and Linux. One license is all you need to use Sublime Text on every computer you own, no matter what operating system it uses. Sublime Text uses a custom UI toolkit, optimized for speed and beauty, while taking advantage of native functionality on each platform. Sublime Text 3 may be downloaded from the Sublime Text 3 page. This is the recommended version of Sublime Text to use, and is available for Windows, OS X and Linux. This is the recommended version of Sublime Text to use, and is available for Windows, OS X and Linux.

dear Eduardo, lot of merit to you. I was looking for voice recognition software without knowing it is with me installed in computer. thank you

nanda

Btw y has no one noticed that there is no such thing as Windows superior

read better, he meant windows home premium or better!

Ha, that was funny.

I think he just meant home premium or better

there is actually windows superior. its just not a 'legal' copy of windows 7, the product has been modified to suit the user and the pc in usability and response times. my supervisor was talking about it in work when we were discussing upgrading the OS's in the office computers.

Hi, have experience using the Microsoft Speech to Text software built into Office XP/2002. First computer was Compaq AP200, PII400, 512MB PC100 SDRAM. Headset with boom mike turned out to be the problem. Changed it to Logitech USB set. Ran nicely on USB 1.1 at its rate. Worked amazingly better on the new OptiPlex 745 with its Pentium D dual core and 2 GB of specified RAM - 533 MHz. End of buzz and fuzz, beginning of virtually perfect translation of speech to text paragraph after paragraph. Customer agreed to invest her time and effort in training with her 19' LCD monitor. Good luck, dc

Thanks for sharing your experience, Dick!

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