SL's response to all inquiries re: Readspeaker voices

Sat Apr 17 16:22:20 UTC 2021

I'm using voiceover in terminal now to write this.  I constructed a screen reader using the so called key commanders in combination with
existing voiceover key commands.

One main reason I don't use linux is the absence of easily intelligible voices, of which the mac and voiceover have many built in; including
in terminal which is a flavor of unix..

On Fri, 16 Apr 2021, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:

> Further, I believe?, that tdsr is recommended for the mac terminal, since
> voiceover cannot run effortlessly in terminal.
> Mac is a Unix based system, like Linux.
>
>
> On Fri, 16 Apr 2021, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
>
> > If you made this synthesizer compatible with Speech Dispatcher then it
> > could be compatible with any screen reader that used Speech Dispatcher.  I
> > know that Orca and TDSR use Speech Dispatcher and others are probably able
> > to use it as well.
> >
> > On Fri, Apr 16, 2021, 5:56 PM Linux for blind general discussion <
> > blinux-list at redhat.com> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> Thanks for yourinterest and for all your good questions. It seems like
> >> maybe some ofyou missed the link to the demos that was posted in the first
> >> email.So for those who didn't see it, I am pasting it again here for you
> >> toclick and listen. I'm putting the link first so you don't miss it.But
> >> then, under that, I will endeavor to answer each of yourquestions as best I
> >> can. So please continue reading after clickingthe link:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> https://www.readspeaker.com/text-to-speech-demo/
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> To Rudy:
> >>
> >> Hopefully the linkin this email will give you an idea of how the voices
> >> sound. When youclick it, it brings you to Readspeaker's official demo page
> >> where youcan hear short samples of the voices available.
If they are not
> >> longenough for you to get a sense of the flow with longer text, you
> >> canemail me for some samples in mp3 format. I tried to include my
> >> emailbefore but it just blanks out the punctuation. So I will spell outthe
> >> punctuation, and you will know to just insert the actual symbolsinstead. My
> >> email is:
> >>
> >> software dotliberators at slmail dot me
> >>
> >> To A:
> >>
> >> If there is enoughinterest in this project to make it official, then the
> >> goal is tomake Readspeakr  voices available to any of the most widely
> >> usedDistros that have Orca or Speakup. Similar to how Voxin offers
> >> Nuancevoices that you can install on most Distros with screenreaders.
> >>
> >> Yes, Readspeakerdoes offer both Swedish and Finnish along with many other
> >> languages.
> >>
> >> Please click on thelink I included at the top of this email. On that page,
> >> you will seea combo box to select your language for a demo. Scroll up in
> >> thatcombo box and you will find Swedish and Finnish, then, once youselect
> >> the language, tab down, and press enter on "listen".
> >>
> >> To the person whosuggested further platforms of usage such as Mac
> >> terminals and Linuxon Windows, I appreciate the suggestion and this is
> >> certainlysomething to look into.
> >>
> >> Personally I onlyhave experience with stand alone Windows, and stand alone
> >> Linux.
> >>
> >> I really don't knowanything about the workings of Mac OS, but if a Mac
> >> terminal runs onLinux compatible software, then it might be possible to
> >> incorporateReadspeaker voices. However, with Mac, I'm assuming you're
> >> dealingwith Apple and whatever protocols they have as a company to
> >> approveof third party TTS providers. That is an avenue that I am really
> >> notfamiliar with, but if anyone hear is a Mac afficionado withexperience
> >> with Apple's protocols for approving third partyproviders, please feel free
> >> to share that knowledge with me.
> >>
> >>  Mac and Windowsalready have so many natural sounding speech options
> >> available thatI'm really focusing on trying to bring Readspeaker to Linux
> >> inparticular, to give Linux users more choices for natural soundingspeech.
> >> So if Apple already provides natural voices for the Macterminal, then it
> >> may be better to focus solely on stand alone Linuxsystems.
> >>
> >>  However, it seemsthat the Linux on Windows that you speak of, should be
> >> able toutilize these voices if its essentially still Linux software.
> >>
> >> I'm still open toany ideas about Mac terminal and Linux on Windows, its
> >> just that Idon't have any experience with that, I don't know if there
> >> arealready existing natural voices for them seeing as it seems to be Linux
> >> software but running on top of Mac or Windows, but any input on that would
> >> be great.
> >>
> >>  To Chime:
> >>
> >> We might be able torequest Heather if we get enough interest to get this
> >> project up andgoing. Although the only place where I have seen Heather
> >> utilized isin their web-reader solutions which are a bit different from
> >> theirLinux compatible SDK. They do offer the option to have
> >> customizedvoices though, so we might be able to request Heather if we
> >> reallywant that. Personally, for US English I like the Julie voice which
> >> isavailable to demo on the Readspeaker site, as well as the Sophievoice
> >> which is what they used to record that mp3 file for Consoleusers that you
> >> listened to.
> >>
> >> Let me know if youever end up finding any samples of the Voxygen Hypra
> >> voices, I'd liketo know what they sound like in English and I havn't found
> >> any Hyprasamples either.
> >>
> >> To Debin Prater:
> >>
> >> Thanks for theinput.
> >>
> >> I'm a beginnerso I don't have experience with the Emacspeak servers you
> >> speak of.But if we move forward with a project with Readspeaker, the
> >> goalwould be to offer the voices for the most widely used Distros
> >> thatinclude Orca or Speakup for people to install the voices and use on
> >> their localsystem.
> >>
> >> I really havn'tsmoothed out the finite details on that as to how exactly
> >> the interface making Readspeaker available for Linux screenreaders would
> >> work in terms of the technicalities. For example, how to make it available
> >> both for Debian based systems and for something like Arch, just throwing
> >> out examples. But Voxin has done it with Nuance, so it should be doable
> >> with Readspeaker and the guys at Readspeaker are apparently willing to
> >> consider developing an interface to make it possible, as long as there is
> >> enough interest in the community, and so long  as it would be commercially
> >> viable for them.
> >>
> >> My first step is to simply find out ifthere is any interest, which, it
> >> seems like there is a small handful here on this list that would be
> >> interested.
> >>
> >> Other Consolereaders might be considered as well, and would be mentioned
> >> in an officialsurvey before actually getting started on the project, to
> >> determinewhat is the most popular Console screenreader for Linux users
> >> andstart with that. Hopefully offering voices for Orca graphical, and
> >> atleast the most widely used Console reader. I know there's quite a
> >> fewConsole readers out there, but we'd have to really decide where
> >> thedevelopers at Readspeaker would focus their time and effort intomaking
> >> their Linux compatible interface to bring Readspeaker voicesto
> >> screenreaders.
> >>
> >>
> >>  I think startingwith Orca for Graphical, and then one Console Reader,
> >> would be good.
> >>
> >> Havn't even gotteninto Emacs yet, but if that uses a seperate screenreader
> >> and iswidely used, then that would be something to consider including
> >> ifpossible. I'm just trying to cover the basics of something forgraphical,
> >> and something for console. As far as I know, isn't Emacslike a text editor
> >> and used for programming etc? Do people also useit like a screenreader to
> >> access daily tasks on Linux instead of OrcaOr Espeakup?
> >>
> >> To Didier:
> >>
> >> Wow, didn't know youalso reached out to Readspeaker as an Ivona
> >> distributor back in theday. Good to know. Its too bad that something can't
> >> be done to bringIvona to Linux seeing as one of their original pages said
> >> that anIvona SDK was compatible. But when I asked them, I got the
> >> sameresponse that Ivona is linked with Amazon now so Ivona is not an option.
> >>
> >>  I'm not the only oneto inquire. You asked them years before me, and I
> >> wouldn't besurprised if we're not the only ones to ask for Ivona.
> >> Quitefrustrating that Ivona is not more open to collaborating
> >> foraccessibility solutions on multiple platforms. Even from a
> >> strictlybusiness standpoint, Ivona could make additional proffits from
> >> selling solutions to Linux users. Oh well.
> >>
> >> As for theReadspeaker brand voices, when I contacted them, they did say
> >> thatthey usually only sell to businesses, not individuals; but they
> >> saidthat in this case, they would be willing to consider developing
> >> aninterface to bring Readspeaker voices to Linux screenreaders providedthat
> >> there is enough interest in the community, and that it would becommercially
> >> viable. Thats why I'm trying to get a baseline ofinterest, to see if its
> >> worthwhile to try to move forward with this.
> >>
> >> To Francisco:
> >>
> >> Yes, I totally agreewith you. Thats why I started this endeavor, first
> >> trying to bringIvona to Linux but that didn't work out. Now trying to
> >> bringReadspeaker's own brand of voices  to Linux. I too want to see
> >> morenatural sounding voices become available to Linux. Allowing Linuxusers
> >> to have a similar range of natural TTS choices as Windowsusers, and in
> >> return, more people may decide to give Linux a try.
> >>
> >> Thanks to all forthe inquiries, hope I was able to answer at least some of
> >> yourquestions, feel free to keep asking questions or sharing ideas, andfor
> >> those of you who missed the link the first time around, please dotry
> >> listening to the demos available on Readspeaker's web page.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> SL
> >>
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-- 
XR