TTSMP3Learn about language and speech
Guides to text to speech, accessibility, pronunciation and spoken language, from the team behind TTSMP3.
Why every website should have a text to speech button
How a "listen to this article" button makes your website more accessible to people with low vision, dyslexia and reading difficulties, and why readers on the go like it too.
Speech technologyWhat is text to speech, and how does it work?
A plain-English guide to text to speech (TTS): how a computer turns written words into a spoken voice, step by step.
AccessibilityText to speech and accessibility: who it helps
Screen readers, dyslexia, low vision, learning a new language: the many people who rely on text to speech, and how to make your content work well for them.
Speech technologyA short history of talking machines
From an 18th-century bellows to Bell Labs, the Speak & Spell and today's neural voices: how computers learned to talk.
Speech technologyRobotic vs natural voices: how modern TTS voices are made
Why some computer voices sound robotic and others sound human. Formant, concatenative and neural speech synthesis explained.
TipsHow to write text that sounds good read aloud
Practical tips for punctuation, numbers, abbreviations and sentence length so text to speech reads your words clearly.
LanguageUsing text to speech to learn a new language
How to use text to speech for listening practice, pronunciation, shadowing and vocabulary in any language.
LanguagePhonemes: the building blocks of spoken language
What phonemes are, why languages have different sounds, how the International Phonetic Alphabet works, and how speech engines use them.
LanguageSpeed, pitch and rhythm: what makes speech sound natural
Speaking rate, pitch, pauses and stress, and how to set them for narration, learning and accessibility.
TipsMP3, WAV or OGG: which audio format should you use for speech?
The differences between MP3, WAV and OGG for spoken audio, with file sizes and when to pick each one.