What do Agnes, Kathy, Alex, and Junior have in common? They are the voices of the Mac OS and they are used by Narrator, a text-to-speech and dictation app for your Mac. Have one or multiple voices read back your story (a great tool for novel or screenwriting that have conversations between two people), or help you study for a part in a play. Dictate a letter and listen as it is read back to you. The possibilities are endless.

It’s really quite simple. You can paste text or import an RTF, .txt, or .doc file into Narrator and you can hear it read back to you. Control the rate, pitch, inflection, and volume to give the voices a wide range of expressiveness. There are also silent read-along options for stage directions or if you need to just read out your own parts.

The Mac is good at assisting those with learning and sensory challenges with its VoiceOver and other assistive features. When it comes to TTS (text-to-speech) Narrator takes it one step further. Once you copy text or import it, you can assign voices to read out different parts. For example, you can select Victoria to read out the part of a novel or play when you need a female character, or assign the voice of Alex – whatever you want or need. Need something read back to you in Italian? or purchase Vittoria, the Italian voice (or many other voices from different languages) available from our partners at Cepstral. With its flexibility, Narrator can be a product to assist anyone who desires to maintain their independence or enhance their learning experience.