Command Line Text To Speech

Open up the terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) and type:

say MacTips.org Rocks!

As you can see this is an extremely easy way to convert text to speech. You can also have the computer say something after completing a command to notify you when the command has been completed.

For example:

ls *.jpg; say finished listing jpeg images

Terminal-Say-1

You can also speak the contents of a file by using the -f switch:

say -f text_file

You can also specify different voices by using the -v switch:

say -v Ralph Hi, my name is Ralph

There’s a whole list of available voices in the Text to Speech preferences (System Preferences -> Speech -> Text to Speech -> System Voice).

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Submitted on July 29, 2005 at 5:19 pm - Command Line Text To Speech was written by Brad Jasper - There have been 3 comments - Categorized in Intermediate Tips, Terminal Tips

3 Responses to “Command Line Text To Speech”


  1. Trackback
    iHeartApple » » MacTips - Mac Tips and Tricks

    [...] For example, open up Terminal and type this - say iHeartApple kicks ass, be-yahtch [...]

    August 2nd, 2005 at 1:05 am

  2. 4Avatars
    JubbaG
    Also, try piping other commands to the say command such as: ls | say. This will speak the output of the commands. August 3rd, 2005 at 5:58 pm

  3. 4Avatars
    Brad
    JubbaG,

    I didn't know that, thanks!

    - Brad August 4th, 2005 at 3:13 am

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