What is the best freeware or open source text-to-speech program out there?
September 3rd, 2010 | 
Author: I’m trying to help a visually impaired friend of mine find software that can convert text to speech. A lot of textbooks do not have audio versions and reading is extremely difficult. However, as a student, this person does not have a lot of money. Any help would be appreciated. I would prefer you actually know or use the program and know it works great instead of just posting random google links.
Posted in Q&A | 
Tags: audio versions, freeware, google, google links, lot, money, Open Source Text, Speech Program, Text Speech, text to speech, textbooks
on linux/mac festival
http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/
really though for useability, one of the commercial programs is likely to be much better..
If you’re using windows, there’s a (rather outdated) text-to-speech program already in there. Go to start>control panel>sound, speech, and audio devices>speech
It uses a funny voice, too
But it’s pretty outdated, so some words might not come out right. You’ll have to alter punctuation sometimes to get SAM to say it right. *there are MUCH better programs out there, but this is just cool because it’s built-in*