One of the features of OS X Lion that was discussed early on in its development was the updated text-to-speech technology that not only brings much more natural-sounding voices, but also has options for dialect and accent support for various regions of the world. Since early in the Classic Mac OS, Apple has supported text-to-speech technology, with very basic and robotic output that has improved over the years, but with Lion the technology takes a relatively major leap forward.
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Speaks the text in the Use the following text to preview the voice box using the selected voice. Each word is highlighted as the engine speaks it. When speaking, the Preview Voice button changes to Stop, which allows you to end the speech. Url:text search for 'text' in url selftext:text search for 'text' in self post contents self:yes (or self:no) include (or exclude) self posts nsfw:yes (or nsfw:no) include (or exclude) results marked as NSFW. Subreddit:aww site:imgur.com dog. See the search faq for details.
The system ships with some default voices, including the long-standing novelty ones such as laughing, whispering, bells, and alien voices, but now includes the option to enable high-quality male and female voices that mimic accents from numerous areas of the world. These include numerous European languages, Eastern European, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, other Asian languages, world variations of English (Indian, Australian, U.K., U.S., and more), and Middle Eastern languages like Arabic and Turkish.
The enhanced languages are a bit large at between 300MB and 1GB each. Like other aspects of the OS such as Java, Apple has made them available for download through the OS. To do this, follow these steps:
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Go to the Speech system preferences
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Select the 'Text to Speech' tab
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Click the 'System Voices' menu and choose Customize
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Check the boxes of voices you would like (you can preview them by selecting them and clicking 'Play')
If the voice is high-quality then there will be a yellow triangle warning next to it, indicating the voice will need to be automatically downloaded.
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Click OK when you have your desired voices
The system will automatically launch Software Update and install the desired voices when you click OK, after which you will be ready to use your new voices. Now just go to an application that supports Apple's Text to Speech (such as TextEdit, Safari, or Mail), select some text, and then right-click it and choose 'Start Speaking' from the Speech submenu. This option should also be available in one of the application's menus, such as the Edit menu.
Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or e-mail us!Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.Mac Os Text To Speech RecordActive2 years, 8 months ago
The mac command say can specify the voice used with the -v flag.
The available voices can be seen in System Preferences/Speech/Text to Speech. How can I get this list programmatically?Mac Os Text To SpeechMark HarrisonMark Harrison182k104104 gold badges282282 silver badges406406 bronze badges 6 Answers Monolo17.1k1111 gold badges5959 silver badges100100 bronze badgesChuckChuck208k2929 gold badges276276 silver badges375375 bronze badgesMark Harrison182k104104 gold badges282282 silver badges406406 bronze badgesIgor ShubovychIgor Shubovychnroosenroose1,15822 gold badges1515 silver badges2424 bronze badgesCommunity♦Mark HarrisonMark Harrison182k104104 gold badges282282 silver badges406406 bronze badges
Shell Version, no hack too cheap!
(Don't actually use this, use the python version instead.)Mark HarrisonMark Harrison182k104104 gold badges282282 silver badges406406 bronze badges
It is worth going through several of the voices before deciding on one. There is a huge variation in quality.
For example, Tom sounds a bit impatient, but way more realistic than Alex. And some of the British voices are great.
Using say -v '?' gives you a list of the installed voices plus some sample sentences that give you an idea what to expect of the voice. You have to go through preferences to install most of the really good voices, but they come with a Compact voice file that lets you hear what each voice sounds like before you actually download them.Karsten JohanssonKarsten JohanssonChrome Os Text To Speech Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged macostext-to-speech or ask your own question.
