Filed under: Software
GhostReader 1.5: text to audiobook
GhostReader is a text to speech application that allows you to have your computer read aloud PDF, Word, and text files and save the output in a variety of formats for importing into iTunes. While Mac OS X does have built-in text to speech capabilities in the Universal Access Preference Pane (VoiceOver), GhostReader adds more voices (including various voices tailored to multiple European languages), allows you to modify how words are pronounced, and automates the conversion to audiobooks.GhostReader 1.5 is $39.95 for one language; additional languages are extra; a demo is available.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
acidscan said 11:26AM on 5-20-2008
It should be like Stephen Hawkins reading you a bed time story....
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CaptSaltyJack said 11:56AM on 5-20-2008
I'm having trouble determining whether that icon is cute or creepy...
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Luigi193 said 12:03PM on 5-20-2008
$40!!! FOR A FEATURE THAT IS INCLUDED IN OS X!!! There are COUNTLESS ways to do this without any additional software... and then there are free programs to do the same thing!!!
I normally love the Shareware coverage, but why cover this?!?!?!
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Mat Lu said 12:14PM on 5-20-2008
As the post explains GhostReader does several things that the built-in VoiceOver does not do. What "free programs" add voices and allow modifying pronunciation?
Dave said 4:27PM on 5-20-2008
Mat, I believe VoiceOver does let one modify pronunciation. In the VoiceOver Utility select Speech > Pronunciation. Perhaps this software is better at it, but the feature is still present in VoiceOver.
psxp said 12:22PM on 5-20-2008
@Mat Lu
I wouldnt call this "Shareware" -its Commerical to me.
Shareware used to be programs with minimal contributions .. ie < $10
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FoundInTheFlood said 1:10PM on 5-20-2008
Luigi, please use your brain. The voices in Leopard suck totally compared to professional voices...those in tiger were really bad, those in leopard are a bit better.
But the voices in GhostReader are very good for their price !
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brian said 1:20PM on 5-20-2008
I'm not doubting that GhostReader is worth the money for people who want its features, but for anyone who wants a free way to play with something similar, you can use OS X's built-in 'say' command. For example, if you've got a text file on your Desktop named 'story.txt', first go to System Prefs -> Speech and choose a good voice (the new ones in 10.5, like "Alex" are decent) and then open Terminal and enter this command:
say -f Desktop/story.txt -o Desktop/story.aiff
That will create an AIFF audio file, which you can drag into iTunes and covert to an MP3. I used that to convert Cory Doctorow's book Little Brother
http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/
into an audiobook (one chapter at a time) and it's not too bad. Not super-great, but decent.
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med007 said 2:56PM on 5-20-2008
will someone please reply to my message with a quick tutorial on how to get the built in voice reader in OS10.4.11 to work with adobe acrobatprofessional 8.0?
I can get the adobe acrobat pro voice reader to work but not the apple one.
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David Niemeijer said 2:09AM on 5-21-2008
Sure there are text-to-speech functions built into Mac OS X, but they do not do everything GhostReader does, do some things in less practical ways, and, unless you buy third-party voices won't speak any other language than American English. Just try letting Preview read a PDF to you and you will find that you need to go into a hierarchical menu to start and stop reading. Try letting the reading start in the middle of the page: impossible. Try to convert the PDF to an iTunes track: impossible. Now open the same PDF with GhostReader. It will extract the text and will let you put the insertion point anywhere you like so that you can listen from that point forward. You can fast-forward, rewind, skip paragraphs, export as audio to iTunes. Now tell me, which is more practical to listen to PDFs, Preview or GhostReader.
Now turn on "speak text below the cursor" in the GhostReader preferences and set it so that it will only speak when the option key is held down. Now hold your option key down any time you want to listen to the paragraph below the cursor in Safari or Mail. Alternatively, select any text and press the speak selection button. Compare these ways of reading text with that of the Mac OS X function that will speak selected text with a hotkey. Which is easier?
People talk a lot about VoiceOver. VoiceOver is great solution and provides excellent access for blind users, but would you use it just to have it read some text to you occasionally? It is not designed for that purpose, requires lots of keyboard commands, speaks all the time...
Luigi193, did you actually, download and try the software before posting your comment. Have you listened to the included voices? Where did you find free voices of similar quality?
Cheers,
david (author of GhostReader)
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