Top 10 free text to speech software [Windows, Mac，Android, iPhone & O

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Technology has always been in the business of amazing man with its extraordinary abilities. The brain of man has a role to play in this awe as these inventions are not without man’s input. As such, daily improvements are ensured to build upon the existing technology – the computer system.

We have always had one reason or the other to hire voiceover artistes. This could be for the purpose of storytelling and narration, advertisement and so on. As beautiful and reliable as that is in executing our tasks, many seem to consider it a waste of resources in terms of funds, energy and time. This is one of the reasons why the innovation of text-to-speech was established. It comes in handy when we do not need voiceover artistes as it serves as a perfect substitute.

Text-to-speech, which is also known as TTS, is a type of supportive technology that assists in reading digital text aloud. It’s sometimes called “read aloud” technology. The benefit of this technology cannot be overemphasised as it has gained a wide reach and global use across many devices such as computers and smartphones of different brands. With the help of softwares for computers (Windows and Mac), applications for smartphones (Android, iPhone, iPad) as well as online platforms, text-to-speech has been made possible and easy as technology keeps evolving.

Today, content creators are grateful for this life-saving innovation as it has dispelled the thoughts of having to do voiceovers themselves (which could be difficult for many). As such, this article comes in handy as it seeks to discuss ten applications or softwares and online platforms for TTS.

BALABOLKA

Balabolka is a Russian word; it can be translated as “chatterer” in English. It’s a Text-To-Speech (TTS) program that reads converts every written piece to audio. This program will install voices on your computer in different languages and deliver the lines in natural sounding voices. It really does a nice job of converting any text to speech. This software also helps with reading books aloud. In the case of reading a book, it can be converted to an audiobook by just copying and pasting it on the software while you select the voice and make necessary adjustments such as changing the range, pitch and volume control.

FEATURES

• Balabolka lets you customise fonts to your taste; this includes change of colour, background and font size and style.
• The program can extract content from documents, and it supports text file formats such as AZW, AZW3, CHM, DjVu, DOC, DOCX, EML, EPUB, FB2, FB3, HTML, LIT, MD, MOBI, ODP, ODS, ODT, PDB, PRC, PDF, PPT, PPTX, RTF, TCR, WPD, XLS, XLSX.
• The software effortlessly converts texts to audio. Also, you can decide to save your audio in several file formats such as MP3, WAV, MPEG4 for free.
• Another good feature is that it echoes letters or words that you add in settings. More so, you can make Balabolka to pause between sentences.
• The spell check built-in operating system is functional in Balabolka. This feature is available in Windows beginning from Windows 8.

SUPPORT SYSTEM: WINDOWS

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES

English, Arabic, Czech, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese.

PROS

• Audio can be changed and designed to your taste. Also, the part of the text you wish to begin from can be selected.
• Balabolka boasts of quality and flexibility, which is amazing for a free text-to-speech software. It has multiple voice options, file formats, and more!
• For starters or inexperienced users, Balabolka is straightforward in terms of installation as it takes seconds to have it on Windows PC. Also, no technical skill is needed to initiate the process.
• Balabolka comes with a timer, which provides you with more flexibility while listening to recordings. Since the program can be controlled with keyboard shortcuts, it helps save a good amount of time that you’d have spent trying to find your way through the interface.
• It has bookmarking tools that let you jump to a specific part of a text. This feature is useful when you are searching for a particular word in the text that is difficult to find especially in a bulky text. This could be for the purpose of editing or proofreading, or for picking up the audio from your place of choice.

CONS

• The voice available in the software is somewhat robotic and reads devoid of expression.
• It does not have an Android version.
• There are limited languages, which strikes the need for update in that respect.
• It lags sometimes as the workload involves colour grading, correction and others.

PANOPRETER

Panopreter is a text-to-speech and text-to-mp3 software program that reads text aloud with natural sounding voices, and converts the text to audio files in WAV, MP3, OGG and flac formats. In a nutshell, you can listen to your own writing without reading it out loud to yourself.

FEATURES

• You can turn the web into an audiobook using Panopreter. If you can copy and paste it, it is certainly possible to listen to it. This includes having a toolbar for Internet Explorer where reading on the web page is made easy. This does not leave Word document and other formats behind.
• The reading speed can be adjusted. Here, you’re given full control in deciding how fast or slow you want the reading to play out.
• Panopreter supports a wide variety of languages and voices to suit your taste as it opens you to multiple choices to choose from to make your user experience worth it.
• Files can be converted in batches. This will save time, rather than having to convert files one after the other. With Panopreter, more can be done in little time.
• Panopreter allows users to customize interface layout, font, text size, text color, highlight color, and background colour.

SUPPORT SYSTEM: WINDOWS

PROS

• It helps to highlight the word or sentence that is being read.
• Dictates in many languages and voices.
• It supports batch file conversion supported.
• It gives you a full command on the pitch, volume and speed
• It has keyboard shortcut keys.
• Music accompanies the end of the text reading.
• The inculcation of Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word is a great feature that every other TTS software needs to have; Panopreter has made this advantageous.

CONS

• It does not have a mobile version.
• It is limited to Windows.

ZABAWARE

Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader is a software that that makes it possible for your written documents to be read aloud. This program is unique as it makes reading and voiceovers efficient. It will save energy, time and resources especially when you’re considering spending lots of money to hire a voiceover artist for your content creation.

FEATURES

• The Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader is more like a twin of the Windows program WordPad in that it opens any text file (.txt) or rich text file (.rtf). This program can be used to edit, format, and save text files. You can change font type, size, alignment and color using the controls in the toolbar and menu bar.
• Zabaware is capable of reading aloud any text you have copied to the Text-to-Speech Reader.
• The software can also convert text files to WAV format.
• The clipboard function of the Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader automatically monitors your

Clipboard for text changes. Every time you copy some text into the clipboard, this program will automatically read it out loud. This can be great for reading internet pages out loud and email messages.

SUPPORT SYSTEM: WINDOWS

PROS

• It helps to place validity on the work you engage.
• Speech error detection is easy by listening to the audio that is being rendered.
• Both male and female voices are available. It also offers the option of listening directly from the window instead of copying and pasting the content on the program.

CONS

• It is available only on Windows.
• It runs for free, but you won’t get the benefits such as better voices, more natural speech and realistic sounds advertised until you purchase the premium version.
• The voiceover gets activated even when it’s not needed. This causes disturbances while working
• The formats it supports are very limited.
• The voice selection is limited.
• It has no merge feature: You can’t merge multiple audio files to make one big audio file. You have to use your own computer.
• It has a poor storage organisation.
• It has only 3000 Characters per voiceover.
• You can’t use multiple voiceovers in a single script.

NOTEVIBES

NoteVibes is an online text to speech application and software that provides both free and paid options for users. It allows you convert your text to natural sounding voices with free MP3 download. In the free version, you have 5000 characters available for testing its functionality. This is good for personal use in working on small projects as it makes it possible for you to hear multiple sentences at once. Notevibes has over 18 languages and 177 unique voices; you won’t have a hard time reading your text due to its natural sounding voices.

FEATURES

• It has 17 languages and 177 voices.
• You can easily add a Background Music.
• It has a DJ voice creation feature.
• You can add pauses, pitch and change the speed of your audio along with emphasis and voice control.

SUPPORT SYSTEM: WINDOWS, ANDROID

PROS

• Its editor is very advanced, and the user has luxury of control over so many things.
• A specific portion of the script can be emphasised; the volume can also be controlled alongside rate and pitch for the specific parts as well. Only few text-to-speech softwares have this feature. This one feature therefore makes it stand out from others. Its voice quality is no different from others.
• Notevibes also lets you make dialogue videos where you can use more than one voice to create a voiceover. Your narration then sounds more creative and captivating when this feature well utilised. There are total 201 voices available in NoteVibes.

CONS

• It has issues with speed, and also produces a highly concentrated robotic sound. Coming along these is its very expensive commercial options. Notevibes can also not read from PDF and docs.
• There is no preview in NoteVibes; you can’t listen to the voice preview of the script; rather, the voiceover has to be generated to listen and to know how a speaker sounds.
• Demos are unavailable. On the homepage, demo can be found and played, but while generating voiceovers, no demo will be found.
• It has no merge feature: You can’t combine multiple audio files to make it one. Almost all major text-to-speech tools have a merge feature, but, Notevibes lags in this respect.
• Voiceover & Editor Page is different. There is one specific page for generating the voiceover and one page for downloading audio files. Switching between both of them will consume time. If you have a big project, switching between both pages will be tiring.
• No Project-Based Structure: This is another feature that you need when you have big project. Keep multiple files in one place can create a mess. You can’t create any project inside Notevibes. This is a very immature structure.

LANGUAGES SUPPORTED

English (us, UK, AU, IN), Spanish, German, Spanish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Japanese, Danish, Swedish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Hindi, Vietnamese, Korean, Indonesian, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese.

MAC OS TTS

Mac OS X is a built-in text-to-speech software for Mac. This can be used to read your written content aloud anywhere on your computer from Notes app and other formats. This means it has the ability to dictate to you what you have written in order to bring your writing to life. This could come in form of an audiobook, trailer, ads, videogames, tutorials and many more. It has a ton of voices and languages to select from alongside different accents in English language.

FEATURES

• A lot of languages are included other than English and there are a lot of voices to choose along with languages. Although some voices are very robotic, there is a few which aren’t and sound more like a human.
• Text-to-speech on Mac also supports converting your text into audio files.

PROS

• A lot of voice options are available for you to play around to get familiar with.
• Texts can be easily converted to iTunes track.

CONS

• It does not have Pause/Play option.
• For all the words to be read, they have to be selected manually.
• The software is very basic and does not have the feature of picking up or continuing from where it stopped reading like other TTS softwares have.

TTS MP3.com

It is an online software which is very easy to use. TTS MP3 Which converts your text to the English language. It has a variety of preset voices and languages which are related to different countries. This gives you flexibility as it concerns your language choice. The software is user friendly. You can easily gain access to it by visiting www.TTSMP3.com, and it’s free.

SUPPORT SYSTEM: ONLINE

FEATURES

• With TTSMP3.com, you can easily convert text to audio, change speech and pitch, or even whisper.
• A lot of languages are available for you to explore.

PROS

• It supports both Hindi and English languages.

CONS

• The software does not support formats such as DOC, TXT, FB2, DOCX, PDF, RTF, and HTML.

READ ALOUD

Read Aloud is not exactly a stand-alone Mac software but instead, a Chrome extension which might be appealing to some people. When we put to heart how articles and posts are read on the internet every day, Read Aloud had to be devised to come in handy in making reading easier and less stressful. It is completely free and once it is installed, its icon will be displayed in the extension bar which can now be use to read any webpage or any article found online just by a single click. When it is in use, you get a play/pause button alongside a forward or rewind button which can be useful in advancing or backtracking paragraphs. Considering the fact that it is free to use, the voice options are really good and sound very natural.

FEATURES

• It can extract texts online to convert them into audio files.
• It possesses an exceptional feature of backtracking paragraphs.
• It helps you listen to audio files at your own pace, speed in natural sounding voices and different accents. Text typed in the app and text extracted from any photo uploaded is converted to an audio file.

PROS

• It has a great natural voice.
• It is completely secure as it ensures confidentiality. This is useful for people who would love to keep their data private.
• It helps people with social needs to listen to any text in different languages. This is very useful for those who are limited in language varieties.

CONS

• It can work only on Chrome.

SPEAK4ME

As its name implies, Speak4me literally speaks for you! Like other TTS softwares and apps, Speak4Me works as an instrument of text conversion into audio. One advantage this application has is that it can enhance multitasking. When you have to read and make tea or coffee, or cook at the same time, you don’t have to move around with the text material; all you have to do is to allow Speak4me to do what it was made to do. This is therefore a software to consider in turning your writing to speaking without much stress. With amazing features like changing the rate and pitch of the voice alongside volume control and an array of voices to choose from which comes with a variety of languages, it affords you flexibility regarding your choice of usage. It also allows you to share your audio on the social media, and you can decide to save them locally for later use.

SUPPORT SYSTEM: iPHONE, iPAD

FEATURES

• With Speak4Me, you can easily navigate the control speech generator volume, pitch and rate of speech.
• It filters all the PDFs easily; it highlights the text as you go along too.
• It has a fully customizable reading experience: Adjustment font size, font and background colours, alignment, line spacing to best suit your preference and much more is available on the software.
• Speak4Me can speak PDF in languages such as English and Hindi.

PROS

• It comes with a Night Mode functionality to facilitate a comfortable reading in dark environments.
• The software has smooth navigation, auto scroll and can search for words to jump to a point in your text. This feature comes in handy especially when you have a bulky text to work on.
• With Speak4Me, your eyes are guarded from smartphone light rays.

CONS

• The languages are limited.
• If your device does not have a TTS engine of that language, speaking will not be supported.

NATURAL READER

Natural Reader is a text-to-speech app that covers your text, webpages, eBooks, and webpages aloud to you with quality and natural-sounding voices. NaturalReader is a useful tool for those who have dyslexia and other reading difficulties. 50 voices in over 20 languages are therefore available for you to open up your ears to.

FEATURES

• Adjustment of speaker’s speed: This feature enables you to adjust the speed of a selected speaker. This gives you control on how slow or fast you want the speech to be rendered.
• It is able to read email attachments; it also grants access to Dropbox, Google Drive or One Drive.

PROS

• The pronunciation editor gives you control on how you want certain words to be pronounced. This way, you can fine-tune the pronunciation of new or unusual words, or improve the readability of acronyms.

CONS

• Access can only be gained to additional features when you upgrade to the pro version.
• The application crashes lags a bit when there is too much text pasted for the application to process.
• It sometimes skips lines.
• Its sound becomes unpleasant when volume is too high.

NARRATOR’S VOICE

This application helps convert text to speech with a wide variety of voices in many languages. Narrator’s Voice app lets you create and share amusing messages using a narrator’s voice of your choice with a wide range of languages and reliable, pleasant sound voices. The end result is a customised narration of your original message, which you can share as desired. Videos are one of the hottest projects for Narrator’s Voice, letting the narrator explain or comment on whatever is happening on the screen. In fact, many people have been using the Narrator’s Voice app to add audio to their YouTube and TikTok videos, giving them a distinct voice that enhances the overall video’s vibe.

FEATURES SUPPORT SYSTEM: iPHONE, iPAD AND WINDOWS

• It executes your tasks with voices alongside effects in many languages.
• New voices have been added, which makes it +380 voices in total.
• It has waveform graphics for your to monitor the height and depth of the sound of your audio.

PROS

• Theme can be changed to Dark or Light.
• It has the ability to turn images to text.

CONS

• Too many ads roll out in the free version.
• The sound and vocal is not loud enough.