Read Text 0.8.76

All

•     Bug fixes, documentation and performance improvements.

•     Spanish help on supported platforms.

•     Images of Dialogues in Help on supported platforms.

•     When you enable Use Experimental Mode in your Office program, the settings are saved in a different file.

•     Note: To accommodate the improved settings behaviour, when you update this extension, or the version of Office, the settings will revert to their defaults.

Linux

•     AppImage application settings are saved in a different file than when you are using the standard application.

•     Snap support for Mimic3.

•     Flatpak support for PiperTTS and Mimic3.

    Note: On supported architectures and platforms, the Pied application from the Snap or Flatpak App Store is an easy way to install and manage high fidelity PiperTTS voices on your local desktop. You can listen to samples of Piper voice models using the online Piper samples page.

About Pied

Pied is a program for Linux distributions. When you first start the Pied program, it allows you to download the Piper speech synthesis program and compatible voice models. You can use Pied to choose the voice model that accessible programs like Firefox and Thorium ePub reader use to read text aloud. If a client program does not support selecting a particular voice from a voice model that includes several voices, then the program uses the first available voice.

If Pied has downloaded a voice model in a different language, but you have not set it as the default voice, Read extension can use that voice instead of the default voice using

"(PIPER_READ_TEXT_PY)" --language "(SELECTION_LANGUAGE_COUNTRY_CODE)" "(TMP)" 

in the command line options field.

About Linux AppImage

 Every AppImage contains an app and all the files the app needs to run. In other words, each AppImage has no dependencies other than what is included in the targeted base operating system(s).

--- “Linux apps that run anywhere”. AppImage. Accessed May 3, 2024.

The document foundation distributes various versions of their LibreOffice application as Linux AppImages. AppImages are mostly self-contained, but the application might share settings or system resources with the native version of the application. Apache does not currently distribute an official release of OpenOffice as an AppImage, although you can compile OpenOffice as a 64 bit AppImage yourself using a Debian archive file and AppImage publishing tools.

When set up as per the instructions, Linux AppImages can give nearly native support for text to speech programs, although some tools might not look or work exactly the same on different distributions or different releases of the host operating platform.

About Linux Snap

A snap is an application containerised with all its dependencies. A snap can be installed using a single command on any device running Linux. With snaps, software updates are automatic and resilient. Applications run fully isolated in their own sandbox, thus minimising security risks.

-- “Introduction to snaps”. Ubuntu core. Accessed May 3, 2024.

Because Snaps are isolated by default, Read Text Extension cannot use the default Linux speech-dispatcher speech synthesis system. Instead, it uses a locally hosted speech server that you install using a third party source. For example, Mycroft-AI released the Mimic3 speech engine as a distribution package and as a Docker image. For the current version of Ubuntu LTS, Snap versions of the office suite text to speech work using the default video player.

About Linux Flatpak

 Flatpak is a framework for distributing desktop applications across various Linux distributions. It has been created by developers who have a long history of working on the Linux desktop, and is run as an independent open source project.

-- “Introduction to Flatpak” Flatpak documentation. Accessed May 3, 2024.

Since Flatpak applications can be independently distributed, the permissions, paths and included tools can vary even for applications with the same name. For Debian and Fedora based open desktop distributions, the office application currently can run PiperTTS and Mimic3 using an instance of ffplay player, with a slightly higher latency than with the native office application.

read_text_2024.05.01_11.01a.oxt

Version 0.8.77

Works with Apache OpenOffice 4.1

read_text_2024.05.01_11.01.oxt

Version 0.8.76

Works with LibreOffice 7 and OpenOffice.org 3.4