[DESKTOP] Text so speech Engines TTS. Know any good ones that can be installed easily

[sparxz]

Text to speech Engines (TTS). Know any good ones that can be installed easily,
and used cross application ?

The only ones listed in Kubuntu are not quite as good as the robots voices from the 1980s.

Eg I use Okular PDF document viewer alot. There is TTS option but the default voice is very very primitive,
and makes Linux sound cheap.

One of the better ones I have come across is available in KDictionary under 'Pronunciation".
Voices are clear and credible. But not available outside KDictionary.

Any ideas.

Thanks

[claydoh]

Kdictionary is probably using an online or dictionary source that is using recordings as opposed to actually reading text.

You did not mention which specific TTS you tried, or more importantly, which voices you used. Festival seems to have a broad selection of voices of varying quality, but I am sure others, like eSpeak, have better voices available.

[sparxz]

I have tried easy to install "Kmouth", which seems to have originated from a pre-Linux era.

eSpeak installs partially but misses installing data files(voices).

KDictionary and Okular give very little away in indicating plugins or backends they use.
I have searched and others say same, on the same on lack of documentation.

One good link I found was:
http://www.ubuntubuzz.com/2018/12/te...to-speech.html

They say they Okular uses espeak with speech-dispatcher.
But no mention of voice used, its poor quality and how to upgrade/change it.

This link below gives some great demos of TTS, but not how to install

The State Of The Art: Linux Text To Speech (TTS)

https://blog.michaelamerz.com/wordpr...to-speech-tts/