JAWS/Fusion speech engine choices

JAWS/Fusion speech engine choices

Information

This document discusses the choices and relative merits of two types of speech TTS engine supplied with JAWS and Fusiuon products

Explanation

A TTS engine is a software offering that turns text to speech. They are normally offered as part of screen readers and magnifier software but can be offered for sale separately. The Freedom Scientific stable of products offer a number of the Eloquence and Vocalizer TTS engines.

Eloquence

The Eloquence TTS has been supplied with JAWS since version 3.2 as the default speech engine.

Pros

  • Is compact and very responsive
  • Works better a high speeds
  • Pronunciation is more predictable

Cons

  • May sound robotic and primitive to some ears
  • Range of voices offered is limited

Vocalizer

The Vocalizer TTS offering is the latest generation of speech. These engines are based upon samples from real human voices and sound more natural than Eloquence. These voices are not installed by default but can be added through the JAWS window.

Pros

  • Sounds more natural
  • A wide range of voices and languages are supported

Cons

  • May not be as responsive on less well specified systems
  • Consume more RAM and other system resources
  • May not be so easy to hear when speech is at higher rates.
  • Less predictable prunounciation
Info your title goes here

In managed IT scenarios it may be necessary to download Vocalizer speech engines using a browser. Visit this page for available downloads: https://support.freedomscientific.com/Downloads/Synthesizers

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