All

• Bug fixes

• Updated lexicons

MacOS

• Support for pipx (python pip using a virtual environment manager)

• Better support for user installed pip3 libraries

Linux

• Support for pipx (python pip using a virtual environment manager). The pipx library allows you to install and run python applications in isolated environments. The pipx program replaces pip3 in Debian 12 and its derivatives.

• Support for developer-oriented speech servers – Mycroft Mimic3 and CoquiAI TTS.

• You can tell if the speech server is installed correctly if you can open a sample speech synthesis page in your web browser.

• Use either server using an option that includes the string "(NETWORK_READ_TEXT_PY)" --language "(SELECTION_LANGUAGE_COUNTRY_CODE)" "(TMP)" in the Read Text Extension main dialog.

• You can install spacy with pipx to reduce latency when using a local speech server with a long text selection. The spacy python library can intelligently split up long text selections into sentences.

Mycroft Mimic3

Mimic3 is a fast local neural text to speech engine for amd64, arm64 and armv7l processors. It’s available as an apt package for Debian or as a docker.io image.

• The documentation tells how to set up a Mimic3 server using the Debian deb package manager or a docker.io application.

• To test it out, use mimic3-server

• Once installed you can test the server and install voice models by using a web browser to open a local webpage.

• If you use the Read Text Extension dialog as described above, then the extension will try using mimic3-server first.

• If you prefer normally the system’s speech-dispatcher voice as your main speech manager and Mimic for a secondary language, then use "(SPD_READ_TEXT_PY)" --language "(SELECTION_LANGUAGE_COUNTRY_CODE)" --voice "AUTO" "(TMP)" in the main menu. The "AUTO" voice name enables using the local mimic3-server for languages that the system’s speech-dispatcher does not support directly.

• The instructions for Mimic3 describe how to set up speech-dispatcher to use mimic3 by default. In this case, you can omit the AUTO voice (i. e.: "(SPD_READ_TEXT_PY)" --language "(SELECTION_LANGUAGE_COUNTRY_CODE)" "(TMP)")

Read Mimic3 documentation and requirements for more details.

CoquiAI TTS

CoquiAI TTS engine is a deep learning toolkit for Text-to-Speech, mainly intended for use in research and production services. It includes a tool called tts-server that uses a local http service to allow web browsers and other programs that can connect to a local http server to convert text to speech. With the Read Text Extension network client you can check how new TTS models work with real world text. See tts-server --help

A server instance only serves one model at a time, but you can specify the language by selecting a model that includes the iso language code for the language in the model name. See tts-server --list_models

If you do not specify a model, then the server uses a female en-US model by default.

Example server commands

• Default tts-server

• English tts-server --model_name tts_models/en/vctk/vits

• French tts-server --model_name tts_models/fr/css10/vits

Check the documentation for specific hardware and software requirements. Some voice models require system files that are not explicitly stated in the documentation. Best practice is to use TTS python libraries in a virtual environment by installing TTS using venv, pipx or docker.io tools. You can use the web page interface to test if the server works and if there are any problems with a particular voice model. If a model does not work at all, run the tts-server program in a command window and note any error messages that mention missing libraries or system packages.

Read Text Extension's python TTS client uses a few additional system packages - python3-bs4, python3-pip, pipx and espeak-ng. On supported Ubuntu distributions you can use:

sudo apt-get install python3-bs4 python3-pip pipx espeak-ng

To troubleshoot the server and the client, you can see information and error messages when you run the server and office program using separate terminal windows.

• Server tts-server --model_name tts_models/en/vctk/vits

• Client  /usr/bin/libreoffice

Enable Coqui.ai TTS server in the office program using the main Read Text Extension dialog with

"(NETWORK_READ_TEXT_PY)" --language "(SELECTION_LANGUAGE_COUNTRY_CODE)" "(TMP)"

If you prefer normally the system’s speech-dispatcher voice as your main speech manager and tts-server for an unsupported secondary language, then use

"(SPD_READ_TEXT_PY)" --language "(SELECTION_LANGUAGE_COUNTRY_CODE)" --voice "AUTO" "(TMP)"

Read CoquiAI TTS Documents and CoquiAI GitHub pages for more details about the CoquiAI project and tts-server.

read_text_2023.05.15_05.54a.oxt

Version 0.8.67

Works with Apache OpenOffice 4.1

read_text_2023.05.15_05.54.oxt

Version 0.8.66

Works with LibreOffice 7 and OpenOffice.org 3.4