FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

---

What is Steel TTS?

Steel is a Python library of wrappers and useful functions for common text-to-speech engines in Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It is designed to make it as simple as possible to integrate text-to-speech capabilities into your own Python applications.

Steel TTS currently supports the following text-to-speech engines:

• Microsoft Speech API 5.x
• NS Speech Synthesizer
• eSpeak
• FreeTTS

For each of these text-to-speech engines, Steel allows you to:

• Synthesize speech directly to the system speakers
• Synthesize speech to a .wav audio file
• Play .wav files
• Interrupt speech production
• Find available voices and voice variants
• Set voice, rate, volume, pitch, and other settings

---

How do I install Steel TTS?

See the [Installation] wiki page.

---

Are there any special installation instructions for the speech engines themselves?

Steel TTS is fairly flexible regarding the installation of the text-to-speech engines. However, there are a few things to keep in mind.

• Windows: SAPI5 should come already installed on all Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8 computers. For eSpeak and FreeTTS, make sure that they are installed to either your default 'Program Files' or 'Program Files (x86)' folder, and have the same name as the respective Steel TTS wrapper ('eSpeak', etc).

• Mac OS X and Linux: NSSS comes installed on all Mac OS X computers. For eSpeak and FreeTTS, make sure to either use an installer or follow the default instructions. For eSpeak, make sure that the 'espeak' executable is in your /usr/bin folder and the espeak-data folder is either in /usr/share or your home directory. For FreeTTS, simply place the 'freetts' folder in your /usr/share directory.

• Cygwin: Follow either the Windows instructions or the Linux instructions.

For more detailed information, see the [Installation] wiki page.

---

In a few sentences, what does the MIT license mean?

• You are free to use Steel, for any purpose
• You are free to distribute Steel
• You can study how Steel works and change it
• You can distribute changed versions of Steel

---

How do I comply with the MIT license when releasing my code that uses Steel?

If you distribute any of the Steel code, the only restriction is that you must include a copy of the original copyright and MIT license with it. Other than that, there are no restrictions on what purpose you use Steel for or what license you release your own software under.

If your project does not contain, but merely references Steel (I.E.: the users are expected to download it themselves), then you are not obligated to do anything, but a little thank you note somewhere would be welcome.

---

Where can I file a bug report?

All bugs or issues with Steel TTS should be reported at http://sourceforge.net/p/steeltts/tickets/.

---

Where can I make a feature request?

If you have an idea for a new or improved feature for Steel, or improved functionality of any kind, email the Steel TTS lead developer, Jasper Danielson, at jrd4@rice.edu.

---

How can I get involved?

If you are interested in contributing to the Steel codebase, email the lead developer, Jasper Danielson, at jrd4@rice.edu.