Speech recognition software is available for many computing platforms, operating systems, use models, and software licenses. Here is a listing of such, grouped in various useful ways.

1. Speech To Emotion Software Mac Free
2. Speech To Emotion Software Mac Download
3. Speech To Emotion Software Mac 10

Automated speech recognition software is extremely cumbersome. This project's aim is to incrementally improve the quality of an open-source and ready to deploy speech to text recognition system. Runs on Windows using the mdictate.exe, but the core workings are found in the mdictate.py script which should work on Windows/Linux/OS X. Emotion recognition in speech free download. Speech Recognition in English & Polish Software for speech recognition in English & Polish languages. Basic versions of SkryBot: 1. The speech in PowerTalk is provided by synthesized computer voices that come with Windows 7, Vista, and XP. ClipSpeak is a small, portable, TTS tool that speaks text copied or cut to the clipboard. It’s compatible with all SAPI5 speech synthesizers.

Acoustic models and speech corpus (compilation)[edit]

The following list presents notable speech recognition software engines with a brief synopsis of characteristics.

Macintosh[edit]

Cross-platform web apps[edit]

Temi.com

Ebby.co

Sonix.ai

Simonsays.ai

Cross-platform web apps based on Chrome[edit]

The following list presents notable speech recognition software that operate in a Chrome browser as web apps. They make use of HTML5 Web-Speech-API.^[1]

Mobile devices and smartphones[edit]

Many mobile phone handsets, including feature phones and smartphones such as iPhones and BlackBerrys, have basic dial-by-voice features built in. Many third-party apps have implemented natural-language speech recognition support, including:

Windows[edit]

Windows built-in speech recognition[edit]

The Windows Speech Recognition version 8.0 by Microsoft comes built into Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.Speech Recognition is available only in English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese and only in the corresponding version of Windows; meaning you cannot use the speech recognition engine in one language if you use a version of Windows in another language. Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 8 Pro allow you to change the system language, and therefore change which speech engine is available. Windows Speech Recognition evolved into Cortana (software), a personal assistant included in Windows 10.

Add-ons for Windows 7 speech recognition[edit]

• Voice Finger – software for Windows Vista and Windows 7 that improves the Windows speech recognition system by adding several extensions to accelerate and improve the mouse and keyboard control.

Windows 7, 8, 10 third-party speech recognition[edit]

• Braina – Dictate into third party software and websites^[3], fill web forms and execute vocal commands.^[4]
• Dragon NaturallySpeaking from Nuance Communications – Successor to the older DragonDictate product. Focus on dictation. 64-bit Windows support since version 10.1.
• SpeechMagic – Nuance Communications acquired Philips owned. Medical industry focus according to Frost & Sullivan. Standalone or embedded.^[5]
• Tazti – Create speech command profiles to play PC games and control applications – programs. Create speech commands to open files, folders, webpages, applications. Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 versions.^[6]

Windows XP or 2000 only[edit]

• Microsoft Speech API – Speech recognition functionality included as part of Microsoft Office and on Tablet PCs running Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. It can also be downloaded as part of the Speech SDK 5.1 for Windows applications, but since that is aimed at developers building speech applications, the pure SDK form lacks any user interface, and thus is unsuitable for end users.

Built-in software[edit]

• Microsoft Kinect includes built-in software which allows speech recognition of commands.
• Older generations of Nokia phones like Nokia N Series (before using Windows 7 mobile technology) used speech-recognition with family names from contact list and a few commands.
• Siri, originally implemented in the iPhone 4S, Apple's personal assistant for iOS, which uses technology from Nuance Communications.
• Cortana (software), Microsoft's personal assistant built into Windows Phone and Windows 10.

Interactive voice response[edit]

The following are interactive voice response (IVR) systems:

• Genesys^[7]
• HTK – copyrighted by Microsoft, but allows altering software for licensee's internal use
• LumenVox ASR
• Tellme Networks; acquired by Microsoft

Unix-like x86 and x86-64 speech transcription software[edit]

• Janus Recognition Toolkit (JRTk)^[8][9]

Discontinued software[edit]

• IBM ViaVoice – Embedded version still maintained by IBM.^[10] No longer supported for versions above Windows Vista.^[11] Untested above macOS 10.4 or on Macintoshes with an Intel chipset.^[12]
• Quack.com; acquired by AOL; the name has now been reused for an iPad search app.
• SpeechWorks from Nuance Communications.
• Yap Speech Cloud – Speech-to-text platform acquired by Amazon.com.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Web Speech API Specification'. dvcs.w3.org. Archived from the original on 2016-06-21.
2. ^Orlowski, Andrew. 'Total recog: British AI makes universal speech breakthrough'. The Register. Situation Publishing. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
3. ^'Speech Recognition Software for Windows PC – Braina'. www.brainasoft.com. Archived from the original on 2015-04-07.
4. ^'Dynamic Faceting-List of Most 57 Speech Recognition SWs and Web Services'. Archived from the original on February 13, 2019. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
5. ^'Philips SpeechMagic named European Technology Leader by Frost & Sullivan'. www.frost.com. Archived from the original on 2008-04-15.
6. ^O'Neill, Mark (2013-11-06). 'Control your PC with these 5 speech recognition programs'. PC World. Archived from the original on 2014-01-01. Retrieved 2013-12-30.
7. ^'Interactive Voice Response'. Genesys. Archived from the original on 2016-10-14.
8. ^[1]^{[dead link]}
9. ^Lavie, A.; Waibel, A.; Levin, L.; Finke, M.; Gates, D.; Gavalda, M.; Zeppenfeld, T.; Zhan, Puming (1 April 1997). 'Janus-III: speech-to-speech translation in multiple languages'. 1997 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. IEEE Xplore. 1. pp. 99–102. CiteSeerX10.1.1.36.6967. doi:10.1109/ICASSP.1997.599557. ISBN978-0-8186-7919-3.
10. ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2010-08-08. Retrieved 2010-06-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
11. ^'Nuance product support for Microsoft Windows 7'. Nuance Communications, Customer Help. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
12. ^'ViaVoice for Mac OS X on Intel Chipset'. Nuance Communications, Customer Help. Retrieved 2019-03-16.

Whether you prefer articles read to you while you do something else or trying to grasp a new foreign language or even for specially abled students, TTS (short for text-to-speech) has proved to be very useful.

In our previous articles we saw some of the best text to speech apps for Windows and Android. And today, we take a look at some of the best TTS options available for Macs.

Text To Speech For Mac

1. macOS TTS

Before we get too ahead of ourselves and start downloading third party apps, it is very trivial to know that macOS itself comes with a built-in TTS and you can use it anywhere on your computer from the Notes app to any browser.

To get started, highlight or select the text which you want to be read and then right click, go to Speech and then to Start Speaking; and your Mac should start reading the text to you. It also supports a lot of other languages other than English and there are a lot of voices to choose from in all the languages. To change the language option simply go to Accessibility > Speech. Although some voices are very robotic, there are a few which aren’t and sound more like a human.

But the TTS is far from perfect; it is very basic and barebones and lacks options like pause/play, picking up from a selected word instantly and a lot more.

Quick Tip: It blew my mind and might even blow yours to know that the native TTS on Mac also supports converting your text into audio files. Just select the required text, right click and go to Services > Add to iTunes as a spoken track. The text will be converted to an audio track and added to your iTunes library.

Pros:
– Built-in system wide
– Lots of voice options
– Converting text to iTunes track

Cons:
– No Pause/Play
– Have to select manually all the words to be read
– No instant pickup

Verdict:
Overall, the TTS that comes with macOS is very barebones without all the bells and whistles and should be perfect for somebody looking for a basic TTS experience without even buying or installing any third party software.

2. Invicta TTS

Invicta TTS is a very simple free Text To Speech app available on the Mac App Store.
Once you open up the app, it presents you with a text box where you can enter or paste any text which will be then converted to speech. The app is very lightweight and minimal in nature with everything being to the point.

Speech To Emotion Software Mac Free

Although the app is very basic, unlike the built in TTS of Mac OS, it does add the option of playing or pausing the audio which becomes crucial when listening to long texts or articles. The voice settings cannot be changed but the in built voice does the job pretty good enough.

Pros:
– Minimal and Light
– Play/Pause Option

Cons:
– Cannot read documents automatically
– Supports only English

Verdict:
If you need a simple and light TTS app and might be listening to long articles, Invicta TTS does the job pretty well but do remember that it can only read English.

Link: Get Invicta TTS on the App Store

Price: Free

3. Natural Reader

Speech To Emotion Software Mac Download

The next app on our list is Natural Reader which is an extremely powerful TTS software available not only on Mac OS but also on Windows, iOS, Android and even has an online reader.

The app comes in many flavours, each with its fair share of features for the price. The free version comes with basic TTS features along with the ability to read directly from file formats such as Docx, PDF, ePub and Txt. It also has a floating bar which can be used to read text while you are in other applications. The next option or the Personal version, at a steep $100, allows you to read web pages directly, converting text to audio files and syncing everything between your phone apps. There are also Professional and Ultimate versions which add OCR support and a bunch of natural voices.

Pros:
– Support for file formats
– Convert to audio files
– Cross Platform
– OCR Support

Cons:
– Pricey
– No instant pickup

Verdict:
All the features of Natural Reader definitely come at a price and you should be able to decide whether it is a suit for you with respect to your investment in TTS, but even for a casual user the free version works really well. Overall, Natural reader is not just best text to speech software with natural voices, but since it also support PDF, it’s also a good option for those who are looking for PDF Voice Reader for macOS.

Pricing Options: Pricing for Natural Reader

Link: Download Natural Reader from here

4. Read Aloud

Read Aloud is not exactly a stand alone Mac app but instead a Chrome extension which might appeal to some people. Considering how many posts and articles are read on the internet everyday, we had to include Read Aloud.

It is completely free and once you install it, its icon will appear in the extension bar which you can now use to read any webpage or any online article, just by a single click. When it is in work, you get a play/pause button along with a forward or rewind button which can be used to advance or backtrack paragraphs. Considering it is free, the voice options are really good and feel very natural and premium.

Speech To Emotion Software Mac 10

Pros:
– Great natural voice
– Forward or rewind by paragraphs
– Listen to webpages

Cons:
– Works only on Chrome

Verdict:
Suggesting Read Aloud is very straight forward; if you are someone who reads a lot on the internet and are looking for a free TTS software for that, nothing beats Read Aloud.

Price: Free

Link: Download Read Aloud from the Chrome Store

5. Capti Voice

Capti Voice is probably the most polished and well rounded TTS software available for the Mac and the award are only there to justify that. Starting off, Capti Voice uses your browser for the app to function instead of a stand alone Mac application. Don’t worry, you can still use it while you are offline as it stores all its data locally and personally I have had no issues.

Capti Voice has a subscription based model and even the free version has a lot to offer from various file format supports to text search while the premium versions add features like creating playlists, OCR Support and intelligent dictionary lookup. The voices offered across all the platforms are very high quality and commendable.

Quick Tip: Don’t forget to use the Chrome extension which allows you to save articles or webpages to be read later by Capti Voice.

Pros:
– Cross platform with mobile apps
– Create Playlists
– Dictionary lookup
– Shortcuts to get around

Cons:
– No standalone app
– Syncs only when you add to cloud storage

Verdict:
Overall, Capti Voice is a really compelling app with features packed to the brim and is very similar to natural Reader but with a subscription based model. It is really the best TTS experience you can get on Mac OS.

Pricing Info: Pricing Options for Capti Voice

Link: Download Capti Voice from here

6. Honorable Mentions

CereProc has some of the most natural sounding computer speeches available on the market, which you can use to replace the default voice on your Mac (also available for other platforms). There are a lot of high quality voice packs to choose from and each costs around $35.

Zamzar is a free online service which you can use to convert your text to audio files or mp3s. Unlike the iTunes spoken track which you can use only on Apple devices, you can use it on any platform without any hassle.

Wrapping up: Best Text to Speech for Mac

So these were some of the TTS software available on the Mac and we hope we made your decision a little bit easier. If you are someone who reads mainly on the internet, Read Aloud is by far the best free option. Although a little limited, the built-in TTS feature seems to work just fine, but it can be a pain for long stretches of texts or long articles for which there is Invicta which is also free.

Natural Reader and Capti Voice both are spectacular TTS apps with a lot of plans to choose from, but I guess what it comes down to is the paying model. Natural reader is a one time purchase and should be better if you feel you will be invested in TTS for a long time whereas Capti Voice follows a subscription based model also with a one week free trial. Thanks for reading and do comment below which one is your favorite TTS app on Mac OS.

Read: Make your Devices Read Out Text, With Text to Speech