It’s impossible to keep track of all the free text-to-speech options that are available.  Some of these are downloadable programs that will work off line, while others are online applications.  My favorite app for reading online content is the Firefox addon CliCk,Speak.  CliCk,Speak, of course is a cross-platform application becuase it works inside the browser.

For reading online content with Internet Explorer, the best option I’ve found is the free Natural Reader toolbar, which will also read in Microsoft Outlook, OpenOffice, Google Docs, etc.  A huge bonus with Natural Reader is that this software is available for both the PC and Mac. I believe the best text-to-speech option for reading content in Microsoft Word, at least on a PC, is the free and versatile WordTalk toolbar.

Free online text-to-speech options include AudioPal, iSpeech, YaKiToMe, vozMe, and probably more.   Today I want to write about the  downloadable stand alone option that is included as part of the AccessApps suite that can be run on any PC from a pen drive.

DSpeech is free text-to-speech software for the PC, that offers a set of useful features in an intuitive user interface.  DSpeech is similar im many respects to ReadPlease (2003) and Speakonia, which I wrote about here more than three and a half years ago.   Overall, I think DSpeech would be my top pick of the three.  Of course, the only opinion that really counts is that of the user, so please try all three.

With DSpeech, text can either be typed directly into DSpeech, or it can be pasted in from the clipboard.  A plugin is available for opening pdf files in DSpeech. DSpeech creator Dimio’s website indicates that DSpeech is available in 13 languages besides English.

With DSpeech, it’s easy to change the voice, volume, pitch and reading rate while reading.   I was pleased to note that DSpeech automatically used my default text-to-speech voice. A set of keyboard shortcuts has been pre-programmed.  DSpeech will turn text into audio files (MP3, WAV, or OGG).

I didn’t test this feature, but apparently you can combine voices when text includes dialogue between characters.  A basic voice recognition system has also been built into DSpeech, and this enables the user to construct a dialogue in which he or she participates.

Here’s a view of the DSpeech user interface.