Text-To-Speech? But I use Linux! What about me......?

Text-To-Speech? But I use Linux! What about me…?

That’s a fair question, but good news: it IS doable. PS - Windows Users, the original thread for windows people is here. The package you need to install is called FESTIVAL. Apparently there’s also a GUI add-on for festival, called CARNIVAL, though I haven’t installed or configured that one yet. Installation and configuration are made easy with Ubuntu 7.04 (feisty fawn):

1. Install Festival: sudo apt-get install festival Enter your password and agree to any prompts.
2. Create a text file containing the content you want read aloud: gedit godiva.story // open gedit (the graphical editor) with a new file named “godiva.story”.
3. Copy or paste the forum text into it (for example, a long true or fictional story; I’m using “go diva” for this demonstration…). Save and exit (keep track of where you saved it). For instance, you could create a folder in root called /boundanna_stories. To keep things simple for this FAQ article, I’ll save to a file named /boundanna_stories/godiva.story.
4. Have Festival speak the text inside “hello.txt” by piping the data into festival (from a terminal/command line). Type: cat /boundanna_stories/godiva.story | festival —tts Just in case (like me, though I blame the font…) you can’t quite make out what I typed above: it’s “cat godiva.story”, followed by a SPACE, then a PIPE symbol, another SPACE, “festival”, another SPACE, and finally MINUS MINUS “tts”. Don’t worry if this seems confusing; you probably aren’t using Linux anyway. Let it go… move on… If you do use Linux and STILL didn’t get it, PM me for more help. Disclaimer: The community, its moderators, and members do not take responsibility for damage to computer systems, loss of data, or any other losses/damages incurred as a result of following this HOWTO. The article above refers to Ubuntu, an open-source operating system based on Debian with the GNOME desktop. Although I (the author) am willing to help, I may not know all answers, especially if you’re using a different distribution. But the offer stands and I’ll do my best to get you up and running. As I said, take my advice at your own risk; if it breaks, you’re on your own. Sorry!