Hi Esther, What I think would be nice about ghostreader is that you can for example translate books in text or pdf or html format into mp3 audio files using the voice you like, i am not sure if you can do this on the mac natively. Greetings, Anouk On Nov 7, 2009, at 6:26 PM, Esther wrote:
> Hi Anouk, > > Visiovoice is designed for visually impaired individuals. It was an > alternative solution that would work out of the box if you wanted to > run your Mac using French or Dutch voices in Tiger, where starting > up with VoiceOver required knowledge of English. Visiovoice has a > separate interface from VoiceOver and a different pronunciation > editor. You also have to separately purchase the Infovox iVox voices > for the languages Visiovoice supports. It has a number of other > features for low vision users in terms of its cursor magnification > support, and it also has features such as simply creating an audio > file from text. The main interest in using Visiovoice was among > VoiceOver users who wanted to work in languages other than English. > I think that at one point, version 1.2 supported Japanese using the > DTalker voices. > > GhostReader is targeted as "convenience ware" for users who want to > have mail, web pages, and documents read to them with text-to-speech > on the Mac. It is is not designed for visually impaired > individuals, though probably low-vision users would find it > convenient. This application is relatively inexpensive (around > $39.95 list price for one language), and can only read documents, > web pages, pdf files, etc through the GhostReader interface. It > comes with compressed versions of the Infovox iVox voices, but can > use any of the system voices. I looked at it as a low-price > alternative to getting the Infovox iVox voices. (I happened to find > this on sale as a one-day new promotion at half price -- $19.95 vs. > the then $149.95 price for the regular voices). I was slightly > surprised that Anne was using this, since she has Visiovoice, and > since this application is not that convenient to use without > vision. Also, I think anyone who wants to get non-English voices > for their Mac will want to use them for all applications (with > VoiceOver), and not just for selected reading of web pages or PDF > files and documents through the GhostReader interface, since you > don't have the same kind of detailed navigation control that > VoiceOver provides; GhostReader is better for doing a straight read > through. > > However, as an add-on (for $10), or as an application for low vision > users who use multiple languages, GhostReader can be a great > option. They also sell it with multiple language (2, 3, etc.) > options, though a VoiceOver user would use the better quality > Infovox iVox voices that work system-wide. (The GhostReader voice > versions are like slightly lower quality mp3 renditions of an audio > CD). The two nice features of GhostReader are: (1) an undocumented > feature that lets you automatically switch voices (and languages) > when reading text and (2) the feature (also in Visiovoice) to create > and audio file from read text. > > The way the voice/language switching works is by using the sequence: > \vce=speaker=newspeaker\ > when I specify a French voice, e.g. > \vce=speaker=julie\ > the text that follows gets pronounced with French intonation. > Changing to an English voice, e,g. > \vce=speaker=heather\ > gives the text in English. If you want to read through a dialog > with voices speaking multiple languages, this is great. It only > works in GhostReader (not VisioVoice), and only with voices of the > same type. So if you have only the lower quality ConvenienceWare > versions of voices that come with GhostReader for French, you can > only switch between that quality voice in French and English. Since > most VoiceOver users will get the better quality Infovox iVox voices > for system-wide use in all applications, they can switch between all > the higher quality Infovox iVox voices on their system > > HTH > > Cheers, > > Esther > > anouk radix wrote: > >> Hi Anne, What is the difference between visiovoice and ghostreader? >> Greetings, Anouk >> On Nov 7, 2009, at 4:51 PM, Anne Robertson wrote: >> >>> Hello Donna, >>> >>> On Nov 6, 2009, at 7:25 PM, Donna Goodin wrote: >>>> >>>> So what do you use Ghost-reader for? I just can't seem to get >>>> excited >>>> about it. >>> >>> I use it for converting text files such as scanned books into >>> audio files. I wouldn't actually have bought it since I already >>> have VisioVoice except that lots of French Mac users have >>> GhostReader and I felt I should know about it to help them with >>> it. After all, I have a French-language website for VI Mac users >>> so I feel some responsibility toward them. >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Anne >>>>>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
