Hey guys, I need something similar to command + option + esc functionality on MacOS that reads the selected text. I do not need a full-fledged screen reader, I just need an app that will read the text I select with a TTS engine like espeak. It would be great if it works for Wayland and on a system-level (not bound to a one app like the browser). Any suggestion would be appreciated.
(I am open to CLI hacks like piping into espeak; however, I am hesitant, especially on Wayland since I do not want to clutter my clipboard)
crow translate offers a “play” button to that will speak text pasted into the app.
there are similar apps for text to speech if you search in discover
there is also a dolphin service menu called lectura that uses espeak to speak text from a file using the context menu…
Thanks for the suggestions, while I will keep them in mind (especially the dolphin lectura), I am looking for an app or service that can function like in MacOS. Are there any?
i don’t know what macOS does, but there is a built in screen reader in plasma under the accessibility settings…. but i got from your initial post that was not what you wanted.
so you are going to need to be more specific about your use case, i’m afraid.
I am visually impaired; but, not blind, making my needs in the middle of accessibility for screen readers. I can read and interact with short forms of text and UI entries comfortably; however, I need a TTS system to read long forms of text, like articles, books; but, also stuff I write as well.
Thus, I need a TTS system that will read what I have highlighted with my cursor when I execute a keyboard shortcut. It should not be always active and should not read what is under my cursor like a screen-reader. I would like to also have basic controls over the reading like pause/play and skip/rewind 10 seconds (the last one is not that necessary; but, appreciated if available). The closest thing I can find to what I need on Linux would be the “Read Text Aloud“ extension on firefox and chrome. However, this extension only works on the browser and I need something that is on a system-level since I use other apps in which I need TTS.
I would be delighted to develop something like this if I had the ability to; however, I am missing an import tool: an equivalent to xsel for Wayland where it will output what is selected/highlighted with the cursor without touching the clipboard.
Any tool, utility or application suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
i would search discover for “text to speech” and see what strikes you… there seem to be a lot of options.
and there is always the command line utility espeak that could be utilized.