Scan & Fix 50 registry issues FREECNET Editors' note: CFS-Technologies no longer supports the Speakonia software, but still allows the download and use of it. Visit the CFS-Technologies site for a free registration key for Speakonia.
CNET Editors' review
Not a fictional Eastern European country from a Marx Brothers movie, Speakonia is actually a modest freeware utility that reads text out loud. Speakonia comes with about 20 voices (all with strong robotic accents) and lets you quickly change the reading speed and pitch. It's also little trouble to correct the pronunciation of words (proper names, for instance). Speakonia can save text in WAV files for playback when you're driving or jogging, but unfortunately it can't save sound files in the MP3 format, so you may need a third-party conversion utility. The program interface is clear and straightforward; you simply select text in any document and press Ctrl C to read it aloud. However, Speakonia lacks controls for skipping to the next sentence or paragraph. In spite of those drawbacks, its decent performance and free price make it a reasonable choice for the vision-impaired or people who'd rather do their reading with their ears than their eyes.Publisher's Description
From CFS-Technologies:
Speakonia is a Text-To-Speech Program which is controlled through a graphical user interface (Similar to Notepad). Speakonia reads aloud any given text. The reading can be paused, resumed and can be exported to a wave file. Speakonia is able to fetch webpages through an internal http interface and read them aloud for you. You can have your mails read to you using the 'Clipboard Reading' feature.
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All versions:
4.1 starsout of 100 votes
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Current version:
4.1 starsout of 100 votes
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My rating:
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"Brilliant, Perfect & Elegantly Simple!"
Version: Speakonia 1.3.5
Pros
Everything you could hope for in a Free program to read you lengthy documents etc & more!
Cons
None what so ever!
Summary
I first came across this program in '08, Downloaded it again for my new computer & cant recommend it enough :D!!
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"speakonia very effective tool"
Version: Speakonia 1.3.5
Pros
easy to use asssists in dialogging while diction is taken. clearly spoken and reconizable words
Cons
not many found.
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"Easy to install"
Version: Speakonia 1.3.5
Pros
Very little instruction is needed to use this product. I was looking for a simple point and click Text-to-Speech program for an adult who can't read. Speakonia filled that need
Cons
I would only read the first item on an on-line program and after that you had to copy and paste onto the Speakonia page.
Summary
I will continue to use this product. But I will also keep trying other Text-to-Speech programs to see if there is one that requires fewer steps for the non-reader. .
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"It's free, after all"
Version: Speakonia 1.3.5
Pros
Low cost (free), installs quickly
Cons
Does not contain encoding (that I was able to determine) for reading PDFs or Word or equivalent.
Summary
I cannot recommend it for someone looking for an intuitive and flexible optin. Naturally, one might expect to have to pay for that sort of thing. However, if you have clean text files lying around, waiting to be read, or don't mind pulling content into clean text files or into the application itself via the sorcery of copy/paste, then this software is your magical mate. Common files (PDF, HTML, Open Office, MSWord standards on file inquiry are translated into the sort of ASCII text equivalent you might expect from a reader that is looking for plain text. It would be eminently useful if it could be expanded to either function as a shortcut/accelerator from webpages to allow users to have the page read to them. Obviously, given the amount of "bonus material" on webpages this might be challenging, unless the user's frame of focus could be captured, but that isn't likely full-proof either depending on the site. I don't have superb sound on my laptop, but the volume of the application was low-that might not be a common problem, since sound settings differ so widely in their calibration options.
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"I want it but.."
Version: Speakonia 1.3.5
Pros
I like all the voices in it but it cant download
Cons
It will not download on my Windows 7 laptop and i am Admin
Summary
Overall i would love this download to make my Angry German Kids with but i cant download it.
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"Not bad. I like it."
Version: Speakonia 1.3.5
Pros
It can easily save text into sound files, which makes it good for voice actors. I often make animations and I can use Speakonia to make voices for cartoon characters.
Cons
Not the best thing for reading text. The voices aren't very natural. A lot of people say that Text Speaker is better, but Text Speaker has the EXACT SAME VOICES as Speakonia, with the exception of one voice called "Microsoft Anna."
Summary
It's not bad. Unfortunately, the developer's official website says that development of this program has been discontinued. Also, the unnatural voices are due to Lernout & Hauspie and Microsoft's speech engine, not Speakonia.
EDIT: When I downloaded it on my laptop, AVG said there was a virus and blocked the setup. For some reason that didn't happen on my desktop computer (that had Avast)... why is that?
Updated on Aug 8, 2011 -
"Easy but unusable voices"
Version: Speakonia 1.3.5
Pros
Easy and free
Cons
Voices incredible bad sounding. Totally useless to me.
Summary
The voices makes the program useless. I haven't maneged to integrate better voices in the time I would use for the trial period. Choose Text Speaker instead. Paid the reasonable price and downloaded the most listenable voices for a reasonable price too. 10 min. and I was converting my first book(PDF) to mp3 - now that works!
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"Amazing!!!"
Version: Speakonia 1.3.5
Pros
I needed a product to read back to me my files. I'm a writer and I thought it would be useful if I had something to read back my stories to see if I missed anything or errors. And this never fails to amaze me! The pronunciation is great!
Cons
None that I think of. Maybe more voices to choose from.
Summary
This is amazing and even better that it's free!
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"Best freebie I've found for the job!"
Version: Speakonia 1.3.5
Pros
Trued 3 others first and was disappointed. Speakonia has the most natural synthesized voice and it has a more natural cadence! All the others wanted money to download a more natural voice. Simple interface, easy to use!
Cons
A real natural song voice, like the paid for ones, would be nice.
Summary
I like it! My eyesight is going away rapidly. I NEED something like this but can't afford to buy one. My money is all going to stop the deterioration of my sight. Now all I need is one to use my voice to control my computer and type text. I'm looking and will submit a review on the one I choose for that.
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"Works better than a lot of other software but..."
Version: Speakonia 1.3.5
Pros
Comes up with multiple voices (the other program I tested only came with one default). These voices also sound pretty realistic.
Cons
I'm having problems registering directly from the software AND their website. Via the software it just keeps saying "Receiving answer..." but nothing happens. When I request a reg key via email, I keep checking my email and still nothing.
Summary
Until this gets resolved, I'm going to have to keep it a 2 star rating. For me it's useless if I can't export it to wav file. I'm really hoping this works though because out of all the programs I tested, it's really one of the best.
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