Text-to-speech program that allows controlling the reading speed

Question

I need a text-to-speech program. I am planning to use this software for proofreading purposes therefore understandable quality is enough for my purposes. There is a similar question here but I do not need sound file or other features of suggested program.

Ideally it should have following features:

• Able to read English.
• Able to read txt files.
• Able to read other formats like PDF, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, ….
• Has a speed option to control reading speed.
• Windows 8 support or Mac OS or Linux.
• Ideally free software.

Actually the old Microsoft Reader has some of these features, but it is not available for Windows 8.

Answer 1

On OS X, there's already a text-to-speech utility integrated with the OS. You can simply use the say command from a terminal like this:

say "Hello World"

or with text from a file:

say -f mytext.txt

Use the -v option to choose a different voice:

say -v Agnes "Hello World"

The reading speed and default voice can be configured in System Preferences -> Speech:

If you check the [x] Speak selected text when the key is pressed option, you can select text from any application and have it spoken by using that keyboard shortcut.

So while the command line say utility only supports plain text directly, you can get it to speak selected text in any format using the keyboard shortcut.

Answer 2

The Edge browser has free (very high quality) TTS integrated and over 300 different voices + adjustable speed.

Answer 3

You can try Intelligent Speaker - extension for Google Chrome. You can open your text in browser and listen it. Speech rate is adjustable. I am the author.

Answer 4

I programmed the Windows app Select to Speak for this purpose.
It can read out loud every selected text and is therefore program or file independent.
You can contact me for a free version or if you have issues or missing a feature.

To answerer your question in detail. It is able to:
- read English (or any other installed Language)
- read text from txt, PDF, DOC or anything else where you can select the text
- to speed up the reading
- windows support
- contact me for a free version