New Plugin Adds Text to Speech to Calibre
Calibre is the best free ebook management tool on the market (it's the most capable, and it's also pretty good at stripping DRM). Now that app is about to get better as an ebook reader.
A new plugin was released on Sunday which enables Calibre to read your ebooks to you.
This Windows-only plugin doesn't add the TTS ability itself; instead it connects calibre to your system's existing TTS features. If you only have the stock Windows voice, it sounds terrible, but if you have installed a better voice or a different TTS tool then you should have a better experience.
You can find the plugin over at MobileRead, and it can be installed from calibre's "change calibre behavior" menu.
I have tried the plugin myself, and I can confirm the developer's statement that this plugin is very rough. There's no speed control, or any way to switch voices, but to be fair this plugin was only just released and it adds a feature you can't find in the other major Windows reading apps like Kobo Reader or Kindle4PC.
I only have the stock voice in Windows, which doesn't hold a candle to Siri on iOS or the voices which were recently updated by Amazon and Google. So it would be good if other users could try it and report back both to inform readers here and help the developer.
Have you tried it?
image by Muffet
Just curious, but what Windows voice do you have? Win XP’s Sam was awful, and Win 7’s Anna was terse, but I simply love Win 8/10’s David. (Zira isn’t too bad either,IMO.) I actually like these two quite a lot, though I wish MS included more options. I’ve played with Eloquence and Ivona voices at work, and OMG, do my reports sound good when an Australian reads them!
I have Windows 7. I guess that is Anna.
With a little searching you can download additional voices from Microsoft. I even purchased a voice for $30. It is worth it for books that are not available in audio. Granted the voices are generic but they work for older books that do not have audio available.
Just for people who are interested in the development of this plugin this is the github link : https://github.com/christineye/calibre-tts-ebook-viewer , it might be usefull…
Thanks!