Do you know that you can make your Mac speak? If you are curious how to do it, I will show you how to perform text to speech via command line on MacOS.
The trick here is to use the say command, a little great built-in utility on MacOS that make text-to-speech. Here is how.
To say a given text with default voice:
$ say "It is wonderful to have Mac speak for me"Make sure to turn on the volume and hear the voice.
You can add a pause with a comma:
$ say "Hello, this is Pete. Nice to meet you"You can repeat the comma to make it pause longer if you want:
$ say "Hmm,,,, has it paused for too long?"You can even change the voice, by default, it is Alex voice, let say you want to speak with Samatha (female) voice:
$ say -v Samantha "Hi, this is Samantha. Who am I talking to?"To can select the voice from this list, which might look different depending on MacOS version.
$ say -v '?'
Alex en_US # Most people recognize me by my voice.
Alice it_IT # Salve, mi chiamo Alice e sono una voce italiana.
Alva sv_SE # Hej, jag heter Alva. Jag är en svensk röst.
Amelie fr_CA # Bonjour, je m’appelle Amelie. Je suis une voix canadienne.
Anna de_DE # Hallo, ich heiße Anna und ich bin eine deutsche Stimme.
Carmit he_IL # שלום. קוראים לי כרמית, ואני קול בשפה העברית.
Damayanti id_ID # Halo, nama saya Damayanti. Saya berbahasa Indonesia.
Daniel en_GB # Hello, my name is Daniel. I am a British-English voice.
Diego es_AR # Hola, me llamo Diego y soy una voz española.
Ellen nl_BE # Hallo, mijn naam is Ellen. Ik ben een Belgische stem.
Fiona en-scotland # Hello, my name is Fiona. I am a Scottish-English voice.
Fred en_US # I sure like being inside this fancy computer
Ioana ro_RO # Bună, mă cheamă Ioana . Sunt o voce românească.
Joana pt_PT # Olá, chamo-me Joana e dou voz ao português falado em Portugal.
Jorge es_ES # Hola, me llamo Jorge y soy una voz española.
Juan es_MX # Hola, me llamo Juan y soy una voz mexicana.
Kanya th_TH # สวัสดีค่ะ ดิฉันชื่อKanya
Karen en_AU # Hello, my name is Karen. I am an Australian-English voice.
Kyoko ja_JP # こんにちは、私の名前はKyokoです。日本語の音声をお届けします。
Laura sk_SK # Ahoj. Volám sa Laura . Som hlas v slovenskom jazyku.
Lekha hi_IN # नमस्कार, मेरा नाम लेखा है. मैं हिन्दी में बोलने वाली आवाज़ हूँ.
Luca it_IT # Salve, mi chiamo Luca e sono una voce italiana.
Luciana pt_BR # Olá, o meu nome é Luciana e a minha voz corresponde ao português que é falado no Brasil
Maged ar_SA # مرحبًا اسمي Maged. أنا عربي من السعودية.
Mariska hu_HU # Üdvözlöm! Mariska vagyok. Én vagyok a magyar hang.
Mei-Jia zh_TW # 您好，我叫美佳。我說國語。
Melina el_GR # Γεια σας, ονομάζομαι Melina. Είμαι μια ελληνική φωνή.
Milena ru_RU # Здравствуйте, меня зовут Milena. Я – русский голос системы.
Moira en_IE # Hello, my name is Moira. I am an Irish-English voice.
Monica es_ES # Hola, me llamo Monica y soy una voz española.
Nora nb_NO # Hei, jeg heter Nora. Jeg er en norsk stemme.
Paulina es_MX # Hola, me llamo Paulina y soy una voz mexicana.
Rishi en_IN # Hello, my name is Rishi. I am an Indian-English voice.
Samantha en_US # Hello, my name is Samantha. I am an American-English voice.
Sara da_DK # Hej, jeg hedder Sara. Jeg er en dansk stemme.
Satu fi_FI # Hei, minun nimeni on Satu. Olen suomalainen ääni.
Sin-ji zh_HK # 您好，我叫 Sin-ji。我講廣東話。
Tessa en_ZA # Hello, my name is Tessa. I am a South African-English voice.
Thomas fr_FR # Bonjour, je m’appelle Thomas. Je suis une voix française.
Ting-Ting zh_CN # 您好，我叫Ting-Ting。我讲中文普通话。
Veena en_IN # Hello, my name is Veena. I am an Indian-English voice.
Victoria en_US # Isn't it nice to have a computer that will talk to you?
Xander nl_NL # Hallo, mijn naam is Xander. Ik ben een Nederlandse stem.
Yelda tr_TR # Merhaba, benim adım Yelda. Ben Türkçe bir sesim.
Yuna ko_KR # 안녕하세요. 제 이름은 Yuna입니다. 저는 한국어 음성입니다.
Yuri ru_RU # Здравствуйте, меня зовут Yuri. Я – русский голос системы.
Zosia pl_PL # Witaj. Mam na imię Zosia, jestem głosem kobiecym dla języka polskiego.
Zuzana cs_CZ # Dobrý den, jmenuji se Zuzana. Jsem český hlas.Last but not at least, you can even save the voice output into a recorded file.
$ say -v Samantha "Hi, this is Samantha. Who am I talking to?" -o intro.aiffFollowing file formats are supported:
$ say --file-format='?'
3gp2 3GPP-2 Audio (.3g2) [Qclp,aac,aace,aacf,aacg,aach,aacl,aacp]
3gpp 3GP Audio (.3gp) [Qclp,aac,aace,aacf,aacg,aach,aacl,aacp]
AIFC AIFC (.aifc,.aiff,.aif) [lpcm,ulaw,alaw,ima4,Qclp]
AIFF AIFF (.aiff,.aif) [lpcm]
BW64 WAVE (BW64 for length over 4 GB) (.wav) [lpcm,ulaw,alaw]
NeXT NeXT/Sun (.snd,.au) [lpcm,ulaw,alaw]
RF64 WAVE (RF64 for length over 4 GB) (.wav) [lpcm,ulaw,alaw]
Sd2f Sound Designer II (.sd2) [lpcm]
W64f Wave64 (.w64) [lpcm,ulaw,alaw]
WAVE WAVE (.wav) [lpcm,ulaw,alaw]
adts AAC ADTS (.aac,.adts) [aac,aach,aacp]
caff CAF (.caf) [Qclp,aac,aace,aacf,aacg,aach,aacl,aacp,alac,alaw,flac,ilbc,ima4,lpcm,opus,ulaw]
flac FLAC (.flac) [flac]
loas LATM/LOAS (.loas,.latm,.xhe) [aac,aace,aacf,aacg,aach,aacl,aacp]
m4af Apple MPEG-4 Audio (.m4a,.m4r) [aac,aace,aacf,aacg,aach,aacl,aacp,alac,flac,lpcm]
m4bf Apple MPEG-4 AudioBooks (.m4b) [aac,aace,aacf,aacg,aach,aacl,aacp]
mp4f MPEG-4 Audio (.mp4) [aac,aace,aacf,aacg,aach,aacl,aacp,alac,flac,lpcm]Alright, that’s it! Now you know how to perform text to speech via command line on MacOS.
Have fun!
