In addition to reading words aloud, this free text to speech software can also save narrations as audio files in a range of formats including MP3 and WAV.įor lengthy documents, you can create bookmarks to make it easy to jump back to a specific location and there are excellent tools on hand to help you to customize the pronunciation of words to your liking. Whichever route you choose, you can adjust the speech, pitch and volume of playback to create a custom voice. There are a couple of ways to use Balabolka's free text to speech software: you can either copy and paste text into the program, or you can open a number of supported file formats including DOC, PDF, and HTML in the program directly. For ripping audio from videos, check out our guide to the best YouTube to MP3 conversion software. Here's our pick of the best free text to speech software for reading either individual paragraphs or whole documents aloud.
Text to speech software is also ideal if you want to listen to a document while doing something else, if you find it easier to retain information you've heard, or if you want to sense-check something you've written. It can also help overcome language barriers for people who read a language but don't speak it, or are in the process of learning. Free text to speech software can be enormously helpful for anyone who's visually impaired, or has a condition like dyslexia that makes reading on screens tricky.