Text To speech technology is the one that allows a computer to read a text so that it can be listened to as if it were read by a real person. While on Windows the default program for text to speech, i.e. the voice assistant or Narrator found in the Start - Programs - Accessibility menu, has an unpleasant and robotic voice and is not of great use in general, the equivalent of Chromebooks, the ChromeVox function, works really well, with a natural voice.
Google has greatly improved the technology of its TTS engine, the same also integrated in Google Translate to speak with the computer in all the languages of the world and in the Google Maps navigator.
The Italian voice in this case is almost human, tries to respect pauses and punctuation and does not cripple words.
Using the Google TTS, an official extension has been created for the Google Chrome browser plus 4 other derived extensions, to listen to the reading of the texts on the web pages, in all supported languages, including Italian.
1) The official extension to make Chrome read with human voice everything that appears on the screen is Chromevox, which allows you to use the same voice assistant on your Windows and Mac PC as the Chromebook with Chrome OS. This extension is activated immediately and immediately begins to read each highlighted box and to describe in words every action that is done on the internet, including also the clicks on the Chrome menus. It also works when writing, repeating letters written on the keyboard.
The best part of Chromevox is the possibility, in the options, to choose the natural voice in Italian and to be able to recall the reading by voice for each action, through many combinations of keys to study and memorize. Even if it is a tool with a clear assistance purpose for the blind, it can also be useful to those who see little of it or to those who, on some occasions, want to listen to the reading of articles by voice without necessarily being in front of the PC or not to strain the eyes.
2) The Speak It extension is unofficial but works well for selecting text on a web page and converting it into spoken speech. To read the text of a page aloud, select it with the mouse and then press the right button selecting the Speak It option or use the button at the top right. To stop listening just click the extension button and pause. The icon shows the number of sentences still to be read.
The best part of Speak It is the automatic recognition of the language it needs to speak, depending on the selected text.
Contrary to other TTS extensions for Google Chrome such as Chrome Speak, the Italian voice is of excellent quality, understandable and at least not unpleasant to hear.
In the options you can only choose the volume of the voice and whether to show the voice Speak It on the right-click menu of Chrome.
2) Alternatively, if Speak it is not too comfortable, you can download Read Aloud another Chrome extension with the same tts technology to make the browser speak and make it read, any website in Italian, English and other languages. The difference is that, in this case, just press the extension button to listen to the reading of the entire page, without selecting anything.
3) Select And Speak is just like SpeakIt and is used for reading in Italian or other languages.
Once installed, you can easily configure in the Select and Speak options by right clicking on the icon to set the reading speed, the text to speech engine, the male or female voice and more.
To listen to a web page, select the text, then right click and press " Speak it ".
Since we talked about Microsoft voice assistant, I want to clarify that it works with all Windows windows and also with Internet Explorer, reading aloud everything that is written on the screen.
It is a function for assistance for those who have vision problems and repeat every single written character.
The voice in Italian is not included in Windows so you need to download the RSSolo4Italian file from this address and install Silvia's voice.
In the past, an article with the best free possibilities has been written about other programs to read a text aloud and convert the text into speech on Windows .
