I would like to download additional text-to-speech voices for OS X to later install on multiple systems or systems without an internet connection.
Is this possible, or do I have to be online to download them through the System Preferences ?
macostext to speech
I would like to download additional text-to-speech voices for OS X to later install on multiple systems or systems without an internet connection.
Is this possible, or do I have to be online to download them through the System Preferences ?
All voices are in /System/Library/Speech/Voices
. Just like most other Library
items in OS X, they are inherited, which means you could install them in /Library/Speech/Voices
and ~/Library/Speech/Voices
.
Removing items from /System/Library
is indeed usually not a good thing to do, but here, it does not have any practical consequences beyond making the deleted voices unavailable. Indeed, the list in the System Preferences is dynamically generated from the items found in the said folder, just like the Sound alerts, or the wallpapers. You can confirm this by adding / removing / renaming elements in the /System/Library/Sounds
folder, for example.
There's no other way to manage the speech items, but since this one is without consequences as long as you leave at least one voice, it is actually pretty nice to simply manipulate the filesystem. I have personally long removed Alex, along with other /System/Library
and /Library
items.
As you underlined, Lion provides a “Customize” item in the list of voices that allows you to download voices in many languages. Therefore, if you ever delete the original “Alex” voice (the heavy one, 400+MB), you can download it again through this menu.
The “funny” voices, however, are not downloadable. You'll need to back them up if you want to remove them but keep a way to get them back (or you could use a package manager like Pacifist to extract only them from the Lion installer package, but that's a lot of hassle for not much). Nevertheless, considering they weigh, all together, less than 35MB, I'd let them in place.
Please note that you must leave at least one voice for the “Customize” item to be accessible. So, even if you want to remove all voices, leave at least one there, or you won't be able to install any again. “Fred” is the lightest “serious” voice, so I'd advise leaving it in any case.
As for the relative sizes, Alex is very heavy because it is of much higher quality, and is actually from a totally different generation than the others: it shipped with Leopard, while others have been around since Mac OS 7 (had a lot of fun with them, actually ;) ). Of course, Alex would have filled a full hard drive at the time. There's no "logic" that's shared between voices in those packages, hence the heavy weight of installing new “modern” voices in other languages.
You can use the say
command with OS X's other voices to get different languages. Use the Thomas
voice to get French pronunciation or Yannick
for German.
In this example, I will use Thomas and French as this is what I know but Yannick
should work as well for German text.
Try the following command in Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app:
say -v Thomas "Bonjour. Je m'appelle Thomas."
If this is acceptable, you can wrap the say
command up in an Automator service; which we will do next.
To create the Automator Service:
Copy and paste in the AppleScript below:
on run {input, parameters}
do shell script "say -v Thomas " & (quoted form of (input as string))
return input
end run
To use the service:
Et voilà ! Other languages and voices are available.
This Automator approach allows you to keep your computer default voice set to your preferred language. While allowing selected text to be read in the alternative voice.
You can list the available voices and their associated languages with the command:
say -v ?
The available voices can change between versions of macOS. On macOS 10.13, the command returns:
Alex en_US # Most people recognize me by my voice.
Alice it_IT # Salve, mi chiamo Alice e sono una voce italiana.
Alva sv_SE # Hej, jag heter Alva. Jag är en svensk röst.
Amelie fr_CA # Bonjour, je m’appelle Amelie. Je suis une voix canadienne.
Anna de_DE # Hallo, ich heiße Anna und ich bin eine deutsche Stimme.
Carmit he_IL # שלום. קוראים לי כרמית, ואני קול בשפה העברית.
Damayanti id_ID # Halo, nama saya Damayanti. Saya berbahasa Indonesia.
Daniel en_GB # Hello, my name is Daniel. I am a British-English voice.
Diego es_AR # Hola, me llamo Diego y soy una voz española.
Ellen nl_BE # Hallo, mijn naam is Ellen. Ik ben een Belgische stem.
Fiona en-scotland # Hello, my name is Fiona. I am a Scottish-English voice.
Fred en_US # I sure like being inside this fancy computer
Ioana ro_RO # Bună, mă cheamă Ioana . Sunt o voce românească.
Joana pt_PT # Olá, chamo-me Joana e dou voz ao português falado em Portugal.
Jorge es_ES # Hola, me llamo Jorge y soy una voz española.
Juan es_MX # Hola, me llamo Juan y soy una voz mexicana.
Kanya th_TH # สวัสดีค่ะ ดิฉันชื่อKanya
Karen en_AU # Hello, my name is Karen. I am an Australian-English voice.
Kyoko ja_JP # こんにちは、私の名前はKyokoです。日本語の音声をお届けします。
Laura sk_SK # Ahoj. Volám sa Laura . Som hlas v slovenskom jazyku.
Lekha hi_IN # नमस्कार, मेरा नाम लेखा है. मैं हिन्दी में बोलने वाली आवाज़ हूँ.
Luca it_IT # Salve, mi chiamo Luca e sono una voce italiana.
Luciana pt_BR # Olá, o meu nome é Luciana e a minha voz corresponde ao português que é falado no Brasil
Maged ar_SA # مرحبًا اسمي Maged. أنا عربي من السعودية.
Mariska hu_HU # Üdvözlöm! Mariska vagyok. Én vagyok a magyar hang.
Mei-Jia zh_TW # 您好,我叫美佳。我說國語。
Melina el_GR # Γεια σας, ονομάζομαι Melina. Είμαι μια ελληνική φωνή.
Milena ru_RU # Здравствуйте, меня зовут Milena. Я – русский голос системы.
Moira en_IE # Hello, my name is Moira. I am an Irish-English voice.
Monica es_ES # Hola, me llamo Monica y soy una voz española.
Nora nb_NO # Hei, jeg heter Nora. Jeg er en norsk stemme.
Paulina es_MX # Hola, me llamo Paulina y soy una voz mexicana.
Samantha en_US # Hello, my name is Samantha. I am an American-English voice.
Sara da_DK # Hej, jeg hedder Sara. Jeg er en dansk stemme.
Satu fi_FI # Hei, minun nimeni on Satu. Olen suomalainen ääni.
Serena en_GB # Hello, my name is Serena. I am a British-English voice.
Sin-ji zh_HK # 您好,我叫 Sin-ji。我講廣東話。
Tessa en_ZA # Hello, my name is Tessa. I am a South African-English voice.
Thomas fr_FR # Bonjour, je m’appelle Thomas. Je suis une voix française.
Ting-Ting zh_CN # 您好,我叫Ting-Ting。我讲中文普通话。
Tom en_US # Hello, my name is Tom. I am an American-English voice.
Veena en_IN # Hello, my name is Veena. I am an Indian-English voice.
Victoria en_US # Isn't it nice to have a computer that will talk to you?
Xander nl_NL # Hallo, mijn naam is Xander. Ik ben een Nederlandse stem.
Yelda tr_TR # Merhaba, benim adım Yelda. Ben Türkçe bir sesim.
Yuna ko_KR # 안녕하세요. 제 이름은 Yuna입니다. 저는 한국어 음성입니다.
Yuri ru_RU # Здравствуйте, меня зовут Yuri. Я – русский голос системы.
Zosia pl_PL # Witaj. Mam na imię Zosia, jestem głosem kobiecym dla języka polskiego.
Zuzana cs_CZ # Dobrý den, jmenuji se Zuzana. Jsem český hlas.
Best Answer
The downloaded voices are stored in /System/Library/Speech/Voices.
You can copy these between Macs. Download the desired voice on one Mac through System Preferences and copy it to the other Macs that you want.