Python Text To Speech | pyttsx module

pyttsx is a cross-platform text to speech library which is platform independent. The major advantage of using this library for text-to-speech conversion is that it works offline. However, pyttsx supports only Python 2.x. Hence, we will see pyttsx3 which is modified to work on both Python 2.x and Python 3.x with the same code.

Use this command for Installation:

pip install pyttsx3

Usage –
First we need to import the library and then initialise it using init() function. This function may take 2 arguments.
init(driverName string, debug bool)

• drivername : [Name of available driver] sapi5 on Windows | nsss on MacOS
• debug: to enable or disable debug output

After initialisation, we will make the program speak the text using say() function. This method may also take 2 arguments.
say(text unicode, name string)

• text : Any text you wish to hear.
• name : To set a name for this speech. (optional)

Finally, to run the speech we use runAndWait() All the say() texts won’t be said unless the interpreter encounters runAndWait().

Code #1: Speaking Text

# importing the pyttsx library
import pyttsx3

# initialisation
engine = pyttsx3.init()

# testing
engine.say("My first code on text-to-speech")
engine.say("Thank you, Geeksforgeeks")
engine.runAndWait()

Code #2: Listening for events

import pyttsx3

def onStart():
   print('starting')

def onWord(name, location, length):
   print('word', name, location, length)

def onEnd(name, completed):
   print('finishing', name, completed)

engine = pyttsx3.init()

engine.connect('started-utterance', onStart)
engine.connect('started-word', onWord)
engine.connect('finished-utterance', onEnd)

sen = 'Geeks for geeks is a computer portal for Geeks'


engine.say(sen)
engine.runAndWait()

Why pyttsx?
It works offline, unlike other text-to-speech libraries. Rather than saving the text as audio file, pyttsx actually speaks it there. This makes it more reliable to use for voice-based projects.