Text to Speech in Linux Mint 19.3

[cain2log]

Hello to the forum that says it is the most welcoming and helpful out there, making Linux Mint the more attractive to me.

I have just been fiddling with Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia, seriously considering altogether giving up on Windows 10. I have been impressed with what I see so far, except for one thing that is starting to convince me that I cannot (yet?) give up on Windows. This is the matter of TTS. Is there a TTS app in Linux (Mint) that is comparable to those that can run on Windows and even Google?

Linux Mint points me to Festival, but its voices are too primitive compared to what I have been used to in Windows and Google--if one can even get Festival to work at all, which is quite a challenge. The Linux (Mint) community also seems to consider TTS unimportant, judging by the paucity of discussions and guides in the forums and the Web.

1. Can anyone please point me to the best TTS software packages in Linux (and Mint)? and to a newbie-friendly guide to make them work?
2. Is there a reason why TTS seems to be underdeveloped (or, perhaps, just not widely promoted) in Linux?

Thanks for your help on this last hurdle for me over Windows to Linux.

Cain

[Smily_Lynx]

Hi,

I don't know TTS but if it's a Windows software you can try to launch it using Wine.
Wine is a linux software allowing you to run Windows Software.

More info here

[WharfRat]

The only text to speech synthesizer I'm aware of is espeak.

There's also gespeaker which is a GTK+ front-end for eSpeak .

[trytip]

2. Is there a reason why TTS seems to be underdeveloped (or, perhaps, just not widely promoted) in Linux?

i went on a journey in 2014 with pclinuxos and made my computer speak to me and dictate anything highlighted on a text or browser or even commands. i successfully used festival and a small GUI called Omilo to control what it dictates. once i got festival+omilo working together it was time to hunt for voices. the amount of unusable voices that were developed for festival boggles the mind yet they are still in some ubuntu repositories sitting there collecting dust.

i will tell you it made me completely insane trying to figure out which voices worked and which did not and which festival patch to use with which voices.

this is still working in my old computer with mint 17.3 but did not take the time and try it with mint 19.3 and my new ryzen3 or ryzen5.

that said i also once made my windows98 talk the same way so i don't know why i was so excited to make linux talk 15 years later.

[kukamuumuka]

Gespeaker is good.

Code: Select all

apt install gespeaker

[cain2log]

2. Is there a reason why TTS seems to be underdeveloped (or, perhaps, just not widely promoted) in Linux?

that said i also once made my windows98 talk the same way so i don't know why i was so excited to make linux talk 15 years later.

Having been used to Google TTS and even Ivona TTS on my Android, I am the opposite of excited at the sate of the TTS art in Linux. I do understand now the monetary hurdle that's preventing state-of-the-art TTS in Linux, as explained in this article https://blog.michaelamerz.com/wordpress ... peech-tts/. Two years after that article, Linux TTS seems to still be something to hope for. gespeaker and pico2wave do not really make the grade yet.