Extra Voices for NVDA
NVDA already comes packaged with its own speech synthesizer called eSpeak. It is very responsive, has the ability to speak in over 30 languages, is understandable at fast rates, and is very tiny. As it is built right in, it will be available on any system you choose to run NVDA.
However, as some users feel it sounds a little robotic and would prefer something a little more friendly sounding, a list of speech synthesizers has been created, to help you find a voice that suits your needs. Each synthesizer in the list has been marked as either free or commercial.
Table of contents:
Microsoft Speech API version 5
NVDA supports Microsoft SAPI5 voices. There are many commercial SAPI5 voices available to purchase and download online, however most computers will already have at least one SAPI5 voice already installed ready to use with NVDA. To use SAPI5, go to Synthesizer... under Preferences in the NVDA menu, and select Microsoft Speech API version 5. Now from NVDA's voice settings dialog (also under preferences) you can choose from the available voices.
Pre-installed voices
For English versions of Windows XP, Microsoft Sam is already included, and on Windows 7, you have access to the rather popular Microsoft Anna. Non-English versions of Windows may have other voices available.
SAPI4 compliant voices
SAPI 4 is an older Microsoft standard for software speech synthesizers. The following synthesizers, once installed on your system, can be accessed by selecting Microsoft Speech API version 4 from NVDA's Synthesizer dialog. If you can't see the Microsoft Speech API version 4 synthesizer in the Synthesizer dialog, you may need to also install the SAPI4 runtime
SAPI4 Microsoft Speech Synthesis Engine (Free)
The rather popular Mike Mary and Sam voices from Microsoft can be downloaded and installed for use with NVDA on any Windows Operating System. Mike and Mary are certainly a good choice for those who are looking for a free but friendly sounding voice. Download SAPI4 Microsoft Synthesis Engine
L&H TruVoice? (Free)
TruVoice? is another English SAPI4 synthesizer that can be used with NVDA. There are 8 male voices and 2 female voices in this engine.
Download TruVoice - American English
Portable voices
The following speech synthesizers can all be installed in to your NVDA user configuration directory, meaning that they can be carried around with NVDA on a USB key or other storage device where ever you go. The voices will of course also work with an installed copy of NVDA.
Svox Pico (free)
Svox Pico is a rather small but human sounding synthesizer that supports English U.S., English U.K., Spanish, French, Italian, and German languages.
Extract the files by running this executable, and place them in the synthDrivers directory found in your NVDA user config directory.
- For portable NVDA this is the userConfig directory in the NVDA directory.
- For Installed NVDA, this is the NVDA directory in your user profile (to get there go to Explore user configuration under NVDA in the start menu).
Festival (Free)
Another synthesizer that attempts to offer more natural sounding voices though slightly larger and less responsive than SVox Pico. This package provides two English and one Czech voices.
Download Festival for NVDA after 2010.2
Extract the files by running this executable, and place them in the synthDrivers directory found in your NVDA user config directory.
- For portable NVDA this is the userConfig directory in the NVDA directory.
- For Installed NVDA, this is the NVDA directory in your user profile (to get there go to Explore user configuration under NVDA in the start menu).
Newfon (Free)
Newfon is a synthesizer by Sergey Shishmintzev which supports the Russian and Ukrainian languages.
RHVoice (Free)
RHVoice is a speech synthesizer for the Russian language.
Download RHVoice for NVDA 2010.2 and older
To install the sinthesizer unpack the archive into the synthDrivers subdirectory of the NVDA's user config directory.
Microsoft Speech Platform (Free)
Starting with NVDA version 2011.3, the Microsoft Speech Platform is now supported by NVDA. You will first need to install the Speech Platform Runtime. Then you may browse the redistributable language packs for the specific voices for the languages you prefer. Some voices are lower quality, though they are generally quite understandable and there are many languages available. When downloading, be careful not to install the MSSpeech_SR MSI files, as those are not voices, rather they are for speech recognition. Keep looking down the list and you'll come to the MSSpeech_TTS MSI files for the individual voices, those are what you'll need.
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