KMouth
 Kmouth version 1.1.1 (2005) | |
| Original author(s) | Gunnar Schmi Dt |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 2002 --> |
| Written in | C++ |
| Platform | Qt/KDE frameworks |
| Type | Speech synthesizer frontend |
| License | GNU GPL v2 |
| Documentation | docs.kde.org /trunk5/en/kdeaccessibility/kmouth/ |
| Website | community.kde.org/Accessibility |
KMouth is a simple speech synthesizer front-end built using the KDE framework libraries. It is a very simple program with an input field where you can type what you would like it to say and a fine button that makes it read the text you typed in out loud.
KMouth does not include or contain any actual text to speech synthesis software, it is merely a front-end for other tools capable of translating text to speech. KMouth will always use the systems speech-dispatcher daemon even if you configured it to use something else.
Features And Usability[edit]
KMouth version 20.04.3 on KDE frameworks 5.73.0.
KMouth is a simple program. You type what you would like it to say into the input field and press and the text you wrote is read out loud. That's what it does and that is all it does.
There is a built-in "Phrase Book" for quick access to commonly used predefined or custom phrases like "thank you very much" and "have a nice meal".
KMouth lets you cut and paste text so you can have text copied from a web page or a text file read.
There is no button. If you accidentally paste a long page of text into KMouth then you'll have to sit through it all because there is no way to make it stop reading once it starts going.
The KMouth toolbars can only have text, not icons. There used to be icons on the KMouth toolbars in earlier versions. Those were either intentionally dropped or accidentally removed as a side-effect of changes to the KDE Frameworks.
Configuration[edit]
KMouth will, by default, use the systems speech-dispatcher service to read text out loud. It can be configured in the configuration file /etc/speech-dispatcher/speechd.conf.
KMouth can in theory only be configured to use any text to speech program in ▸ ▸ ▸ . That doesn't actually work. Unchecking and entering an changes absolutely nothing. The configuration file $HOME/.config/kmouthrc is not changed regardless of what you enter in the configuration dialog box.
Verdict And Conclusion[edit]
KMouth is a handy little program if you just want your computer to say something real quick. You will have to configure the underlying text-to-speech synthesis program it uses by configuring the system-wide speech-dispatcher service because the configuration within KMouth is plain broken. The lack of a button could be a problem so make sure you do not paste long pages of text into it unless you actually want all of it read aloud.
See also[edit]
Links[edit]
There is a wildly outdated KMouth homepage with some broken links at www.schmi-dt.de/kmouth/ (http)
There is also a semi-maintained "homepage" for KDE accessibility tools at community.kde.org/Accessibility.
Enable comment auto-refresher