The Jovie HandbookCopyright © 2009 Jeremy Whiting
Copyright © 2004-2005 Gary R. Cramblitt
Jovie - the KDE Text-to-Speech system - is a plugin based service that allows any KDE (or non-KDE) application to speak using the D-Bus interface.
Jovie intends to be the implementation for the KDE Text-to-Speech API.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Using Jovie
- 3. Developer's Guide to Jovie
- 4. Questions and Answers
- 5. Credits and License
- A. Installation
IntroductionJovie is a subsystem within KDE for producing Text-to-Speech (TTS). It provides a common API for KDE programmers to give TTS capabilities to their applications. It provides some nice capabilities for end users as well.
User features:
Speak contents of a text file.
Speak KDE notification events (KNotify).
Speak all or part of the text of a web page in Konqueror.
Speak all or part of the text in Kate text editor, including instances where Kate is embedded in another KDE application.
Speech is spoken via speech-dispatcher, so any speech-dispatcher backend can be used (espeak, festival, etc.)
User-configurable filters for substituting misspoken words, choosing speech synthesizers, and transforming XHMTL/XML documents.
Programmer features:
Priority system for screen reader outputs, warnings and messages, while still playing regular texts.
Permit generation of speech from the command line (or via shell scripts) using the qdbus utility.
Provide a lightweight and easily usable interface for applications to generate speech output.
Applications need not be concerned about contention over the speech device.
FUTURE: Provide support for speech markup languages, such as VoiceXML, Sable, Java™ Speech Markup Language (JSML), and Speech Markup Meta-language (SMML).
FUTURE: Provide limited support for embedded speech markers.
Asynchronous to prevent system blocking.
Jovie actually consists of several programs:
- jovie
the KDE Text-to-Speech Daemon, which is an application that provides TTS services to applications via D-Bus. It also sits in the system tray.
- libkhtmlkttsdplugin
A plugin for the Konqueror web browser that permits you to speak all or a portion of the text on a web page.
- ktexteditor_kttsd
A plugin for the Kate text editor that permits you to speak all or a portion of a text file.
In addition to the KDE Bugzilla database ( http://bugs.kde.org/ ), discussions for Jovie currently take place in the kde-accessibility mailing list. Subscribe at https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-accessibility. Developers also hang out in IRC (irc.kde.org, channel #kde-accessibility).
Using Jovie
Warning
Before you can use Jovie, you must install speech-dispatcher and make sure it is working. See Appendix A, Installation.
To start the Jovie system, type the following command in a Konsole
jovie
or click on Jovie in the KDE Menu.
If this is the first time running jovie, or if you have not yet configured any talkers, the Talkers screen appears. See the section called “Configuring Talkers”. If you have already configured at least one talker, the General screen appears. See the section called “Starting Jovie and Setting General Options”.
Configuring TalkersMost text-to-speech (TTS) synthesizers offer multiple languages and voices and may offer multiple speaking genders, volumes, and rates. You may configure more than one instance of a synthesizer. Each combination of language, synthesizer, voice, gender, volume, and rate is called a talker. You should configure at least one talker before you use Jovie otherwise speech-dispatcher will use a default voice.
Note
Multiple talkers for the same synthesizer is similar to multiple print queues for a single physical printer.
When you click the Talkers tab in jovie, the Talkers screen appears. This screen also automatically appears if you start jovie and you have not yet configured any talkers.
| Click to add a new talker. |
| All the configured Talkers are listed here. Highest priority Talkers are listed at the top. The top-most talker will be used to do the speaking when an application does not specify a talker. |
| Click on a talker in the list to highlight it and click this button to remove it. |
| Click on a talker in the list to highlight it and click this button to change its configuration. See below. |
| Click on a talker in the list to highlight it and click this button to move it down one row in the list. The lower a talker appears in the list, the lower its priority. |
| Click one of these buttons to apply the changes you have made to the running Jovie system. |
When you click the button, the Add Talker screen appears.
| You should give your new talker a name, this can be anything. |
| Choose the language and synthesizer here. |
| Choose the voice type here, there are three Male, three Female, one Male Child and one Female Child voices to choose from. |
| Set any custom voice parameters here. |
| When you click here your new talker will appear in the list in the Talkers screen. Click the button to edit the talker's configuration. |
You are almost ready to begin using Jovie. Now go back to the General tab and check the Enable Text-to-Speech System (Jovie) box. This will start the KDE TTS Daemon. See the section called “Starting Jovie and Setting General Options”. You may now begin using Jovie to speak text. Click the Jobs tab to create and manage text jobs. See the section called “Managing Text Jobs”.
Starting Jovie and Setting General OptionsOnce you have configured at least one talker, you can start the KDE Text-to-Speech System. Click on the General tab. The General screen appears. You can also set some general options on this screen.
| Check this box to activate the Jovie system. This starts the KDE TTS Daemon (Jovie). If Jovie starts successfully, the Jobs tab will appear. Once Jovie has been started, you can begin creating and speaking text jobs. See the section called “Managing Text Jobs”. Unchecking will stop Jovie and deactivate the KDE TTS system. |
| Be sure to click here to save your settings. |
Managing Text JobsWhen you click the Jobs tab in jovie, the Jobs screen appears.
| The controls here allow you to change attributes of the currently speaking voice. Note this only works if you have no voices configured in the Talkers tab. |
| The buttons in this row permit you to stop, cancel, pause and resume the current text job. |
| The buttons in this row permit you to speak the text currently in the KDE clipboard, or open a text file for speaking. You can also change the talker for a job. |
| When you click or , all changes to settings on other screens are applied (if any). |
Note
The Jobs tab only appears when Jovie is running. If you do not see the Jobs tab, click on the General tab and check the Enable Text-to-Speech (Jovie) box.
Speaking Text from Web PagesWhile running the KDE Konqueror web browser, you can speak the text of the web page displayed. First ensure that Jovie is running. Highlight the text you want spoken and choose → on the main menu. After a moment, the highlighted text should begin speaking.
Tip
It is almost always a good idea to highlight the text on the web page you want spoken. You can skip this step, but you will hear a lot of HTML headers and other invisible tags spoken.
Speaking Text from Kate Text EditorWhile running the KDE Advanced Text Editor (Kate), you can speak the text displayed. First ensure that Jovie is running and enable the KTextEditor Jovie Text-to-Speech Plugin in Kate's settings dialog. Highlight the text you want spoken and choose → on the main menu. After a moment, the highlighted text should begin speaking.
Tip
You do not have to first highlight text. In this case, the entire file will be spoken.
Tip
This also works when Kate is running embedded in another application, such as Konqueror or Quanta.
Speaking Notifications (KNotify)KNotify is the notification subsystem within KDE, which alerts you to events you configure within the KDE system. You can configure Jovie to speak text notifications.
For example, Konversation, a KDE IRC application, permits you to configure a wide variety of notifications. For instance, you can tell Konversation to notify you whenever a message appears in an IRC channel with your nickname in it. Together with Jovie you can have KDE speak the text of the IRC message to you.
In general, if a KDE application supports KNotify, a Notifications menu item will appear under the application's Settings menu. The specifics for configuring each application with KNotify vary from application to application.
Tip
String Replacer filters are a good way to clean up messages
sent from applications if they are mispronounced or misspoken in
Jovie. The kmail.xml file, which
comes with Jovie, is a good example. It removes br,
and b tags from the KMail notification messages and also removes the
phrase /local/inbox/, since this
may be safely assumed in most cases. See the section called “Configuring String Replacer Filters”.
Filters (Advanced)Filters are an advanced feature of Jovie. For the basic operation of Jovie, they are not needed.
Filters are used to pre-process text before it is sent to speech-dispatcher. They are useful for enhancing speech, substituting for misspoken words or abbreviations, choosing the appropriate language and talker to do the speaking, or working around certain limitations of speech synthesizers and their voices.
To understand how to use filters, it is helpful to first understand how text is processed by speech-dispatcher. Text spoken by Jovie is of four possible types.
Screen Reader Output.
Warnings.
Messages
Text Jobs
The type is determined by the application that sends the text to Jovie.
Screen Reader Output has the highest priority. It is reserved for use by Screen Reader applications. Screen Reader Output preempts all other messages, causing those jobs to pause. Once the Screen Reader Output has been spoken, the preempted messages will automatically resume.
Warnings are the next highest priority. It is reserved for high-priority messages, such as "CPU is over-heating." A Warning will preempt Messages and regular text, causing those jobs to pause. Once the Warning has been spoken, the preempted messages will automatically resume.
Messages are the next highest priority. A Message will preempt regular text jobs. KMouth is an example of an application that uses Messages. For example, while reading out long text from a web page, KMouth can be used to greet someone who walks into the room. KDE Notifications are also Messages (see the section called “Speaking Notifications (KNotify)”).
The rest are ordinary Text Jobs. Any job you initiate from the Jobs tab is a Text Job. KSayit is an example of an application that uses Text Jobs. Text Jobs are intended for longer speech output that is not urgent.
All four kinds of jobs are queues, except for Screen Reader Output. If a Screen Reader Output is sent from an application while Jovie is speaking another Screen Reader Output, the speaking message is stopped and discarded.
The first thing you must know about filters is that they are never applied to Screen Reader Output. They are applied to Warnings, Messages, and Text jobs, and also KDE notifications (KNotify).
Filters process the text and pass it on to the next filter. There are currently three kinds of filters.
String Replacers.
XML Transformers
Talker Choosers.
Note
Filters are implemented using a plugin architecture. In the future, there may be additional kinds of filters.
String Replacer filters substitute pieces of text with other text. The replaced pieces are matched either as words or as regular expressions. Jovie comes with pre-defined String Replacer filters for speaking abbreviations, speaking chat emoticons, such as ":-)", or reformatting notification messages from Konversation or KMail into a more understandable form.
XML Transformers use an XML Style Language - Transforms (XSLT) file to convert XML of one format to another format. Jovie comes with a couple of XSLT files for converting XHTML into SSML.
Talker Choosers permit you redirect jobs to a talker based on the contents of the text, or upon the application that sent it to Jovie. For example, if you have configured a female talker in the Talkers tab, you can direct text coming from KSayIt to that talker. See the section called “Configuring Talkers”.
Each of these kinds of filters has configurable rules for when the filter should apply itself to the text to be spoken. If the filter determines that it should not apply itself, the text is passed on to the next filter unaltered.
When a Text Job, Message, Warning, or KDE Notification message is sent to Jovie, it passes through each of the enabled filters you have configured in the screen below. The order is from top to bottom.
To use filters, click the Filters tab in jovie.
| This is the list of configured ordinary filters. If unchecked, the filter is inactive and will be bypassed. Filters are applied in the order specified here, top to bottom. |
| Click here to add a new filter. You will be prompted for the kind of filter to add. After choosing the kind, see the configuration dialogs below. |
| Click here to remove a filter. |
| Click here to change the configuration of a filter. See the configuration dialogs below. |
| Click these buttons to move a filter up or down in the list. |
| Be sure to click here, otherwise your settings will not take effect. |
You configure String Replacer filters by supplying a list of words or regular expressions to be matched. When the matched words or regular expressions are found in the text, each is replaced by a substitute string you supply.
| Enter a name for your filter. Use any name you like that distinguishes it from all other filters. |
| This is the list of words and regular expressions. The filter searches for matches on each string in the Match column, replacing the matched string with the string in the Replace With column. The list is processed in the order displayed, top to bottom. |
| Click here to add another word or regular expression to the list. |
| Click here to move the currently highlighted word or regular expression up or down in the list. |
| Click to change an existing word or regular expression in the list. |
| Click to remove the currently highlighted word or regular expression from the list. |
| Use these buttons to load a list of words or regular expression from a file, save the current list to a file, or clear the entire list. When loading from a file, the items in the file are appended to the existing list. |
| If not blank, the filter will apply itself only if the job's talker language matches the language you enter here. Click the button to display a list of languages. You may select more than one language by pressing Ctrl while clicking. |
| If not blank, the filter will
apply itself only if the text came from one of the applications listed.
You may enter more than one application separated by commas.
Example: TipYou can discover the Application ID
of running programs using the qdbus program.
You should leave the D-Bus numbers out. For example, if qdbus shows
an Application ID of kopete-3432, you would just
enter |
The String Replacer filter will only apply itself to the text if all non-blank conditions are met in the Apply This Filter When box. If all the boxes are blank, the filter will apply to all text.
When matching words, the String Replacer filter internally uses a
regular expression of the form \sword\s.
In other words, the word must have word boundaries (spaces) on either side of it.
A discussion on how to write regular expressions is outside the scope of this handbook. If you have the KDE Regular Expression editor installed, there is a button available on the Add or Edit screens that will assist you at constructing regular expressions. The KDE Regular Expression Editor is part of the Utils Git module in playground.
Jovie comes with a few word list files, including a list of emoticons, such as ":-)", some abbreviations typically used in IRC or instant messaging applications, and a list of other abbreviations. There is also a list of special characters which the current version of the Polish Festival voice cannot handle. If you develop useful word lists of your own, use the button to save them to a file and send them to the Jovie team for inclusion in the next version.
The XML Transformer filter uses XSLT files to transform XML from one format to another. XSLT, the XML Style Language - Transforms, is a W3C standard language for performing such transformations. It can only be used on well-formed XML. You must have the xsltproc utility installed.
| Enter a name for your filter. Use any name you like that distinguishes it from all other filters. |
| Enter the full path to an existing XSLT file, which will perform the transformation. |
| Specify the path to the
xsltproc utility. If xsltproc is in your environment
PATH, simply enter |
| If not blank, the filter
will apply itself only if the XML has the specified root element
or a <!DOCTYPE specification
beginning with the entered string. This distinguishes one
form of XML from another. For example,
|
| If not blank, the filter will
apply itself only if the text came from one of the applications listed.
You may enter more than one application separated by commas.
Example: TipYou can discover the Application ID
of running programs using the qdbus program.
You should leave the D-Bus numbers out. For example, if qdbus shows
an Application ID of kopete-3432, you would just
enter |
The XML Transformer filter will only apply itself to the text if the specified root element or DOCTYPE are met and if the application ID is met in the Apply This Filter When box. If an item in this box is blank, the test is not performed, so if all the boxes are blank, the filter will apply itself to all text. However, you should fill in at least one box, since many text jobs will not be in XML format.
Talker Chooser filters are used to direct the text to a desired talker configured in the Talker tab, or to any talker having specified attributes. For example, you can specify that text coming from kmail should be spoken using a talker configured with a female voice. See the section called “Configuring Talkers”.
Just before Jovie begins sending text to each of the filters, it picks a talker to speak the text. The talker chosen is based on the talker attributes specified by the application that sent the text to Jovie and the attributes of the talkers that you have configured on the Talkers tab. The Talker Chooser filter permits you to override the chosen talker.
| Enter a name for your filter. Use any name you like that distinguishes it from all other filters. |
| If not blank, the filter will apply itself only if the text contains the entered regular expression. If it is installed, click the browse button to launch the KDE Regular Expression Editor to assist you at entering the regular expression. TipFor better performance, try to "anchor" the regular expression to the
start of the string. In other words, start your regular expression with
|
| If not blank, the filter will
apply itself only if the text came from one of the applications listed.
You may enter more than one application separated by commas.
Example: TipYou can discover the Application ID
of running programs using the qdbus program.
You should leave the D-Bus numbers out. For example, if qdbus shows
an Application ID of kopete-3432, you would just
enter |
| Specify the attributes of the talker you prefer to speak the text here. If the text meets the filter conditions above, a talker will be chosen that most closely matches the attributes you specify here. Click the button at the right to display the Select Talker screen. |
| Use these buttons to save your Talker Chooser settings, load settings from a saved file, or clear all the settings. |
The Talker Chooser filter will only apply itself to the text if all non-blank conditions are met in the Apply This Filter When box. You must fill in at least one of the boxes.
Developer's Guide to JovieJovie has two Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs):
The KDE Text-to-Speech API, which is used by application programmers to give their applications TTS capabilities. Applications communicate with Jovie via D-Bus.
The Jovie Text-to-Speech Plugin API, which is used to add speech synthesis plugins to Jovie so that Jovie will work with a new speech synthesis engine.
The following section gives a short description of the KDE Text-to-Speech API D-Bus Interface. Full documentation for both APIs is available online at the KDE Accessibility web site (http://accessibility.kde.org).
Applications communicate requests for Text-to-Speech services via the KDE D-Bus interface to program jovie object KSpeech.
Enter the following commands in a Konsole.
If Jovie is not already running
jovie
To queue a text job to be spoken
qdbus org.kde.jovie /KSpeech say "text" "options"
where textoptionsency
Example.
qdbus org.kde.jovie /KSpeech say "This is a test." "en"
There are many more commands that can be sent. To see a list of possible commands,
qdbus org.kde.jovie /KSpeech
or read the KDE Text-to-Speech API online.
Questions and AnswersThis document may have been updated since your installation. You can find the latest version at http://docs.kde.org/.
- 4.1. I need to start over. How do I get Jovie completely terminated?
- 4.2. How can I see debugging output from jovie?
- 4.3. None of the supported speech synthesizers support the language I need. Where can I get a synth for my language?
- 4.4. I have the HTML XML Transformer filter configured, but web pages are not spoken at all using the Festival plugin.
- 4.5. Certain characters or punctuation seem to be producing errors in the synthesizer, making it skip entire sentences, or pronounce gibberish. What can I do?
4.1. | I need to start over. How do I get Jovie completely terminated? |
Enter the following commands in a Konsole: kquitapp jovie
| |
4.2. | How can I see debugging output from jovie? |
Open a Konsole window. Then start jovie. | |
4.3. | None of the supported speech synthesizers support the language I need. Where can I get a synth for my language? |
Google(tm) is your friend. This link might also help. If you find a free synthesis engine that supports your desired language, and want to add support for it to Jovie, please contact the development team. Open source engines are especially welcome. If you know of a commercial synth, perhaps you can persuade the vendor to donate a free copy to the Jovie development team. In the meantime, you may be able to get the synth working using speech-dispatchers command backend. | |
4.4. | I have the HTML XML Transformer filter configured, but web pages are not spoken at all using the Festival plugin. |
Due to a bug in Festival 1.95 beta, you must install the rab_diphone (British male) voice for SABLE to work at all, even if you are not using that voice to speak the web pages. Also, make sure the xsltproc utility is installed and in the PATH. | |
4.5. | Certain characters or punctuation seem to be producing errors in the synthesizer, making it skip entire sentences, or pronounce gibberish. What can I do? |
First, make sure the Character encoding option in the talker's configuration dialog is properly set for the language. If certain words or characters are causing problems, a String Replacer filter might help. See the section called “Filters (Advanced)”. |
Credits and LicenseJovie
Program Copyright (c) 2002 José Pablo Ezequiel "Pupeno" Fernández (pupeno AT kde.org)
Current Maintainer: Jeremy Whiting (jpwhiting AT kde.org)
Contributors:
Gary Cramblitt
(garycramblitt AT comcast.net)Olaf Schmidt
(ojschmidt AT kde.org)Gunnar Schmi Dt
(gunnar AT schmi-dt.de)Paul Giannaros
(ceruleanblaze AT gmail.com)
Documentation Copyright (c) 2009 Jeremy Whiting (jpwhiting AT kde.org)
(c) 2004 Gary R. Cramblitt (garycramblitt AT comcast.net)
This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Note
Speech synthesis engines used by Jovie have their own licenses. See each engine's documentation or website for details. Some voices also have their own licensing.
Installation
Jovie is part of the KDE project http://www.kde.org/.
Jovie can be found on the download site of the KDE project.
Debian Install Command: apt-get install jovie
Note
You will find links to source and binary packages on the KDE Accessibility web site (http://accessibility.kde.org).
If you have access to the KDE code repository, you can download Jovie
by checking out the jovie archive. Jovie
will be found in the jovie folder. You can also
download tarballs of the Jovie source code from
http://download.kde.org/stable/
RequirementsMandatory requirements:
KDE version 4.8 or later.
speech-dispatcher version 0.67 or later.
A speech synthesizer. The following synthesizers and spoken languages are currently supported.
Espeak Most languages, check http://espeak.sourceforge.net/languages.html for the current list of supported languages Festival American English, British, Spanish, German, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Russian, Italian, French Canadian, Kiswahili, Zulu, and Ibibio It also works with any synthesis engine that can be run from a command in a Konsole.
Note
The languages listed above may not be comprehensive or up-to-date. Check the specifications for each engine for a complete list of supported languages. Also check the Jovie website for additional information that might not have made it into this handbook.
Note
speech-dispatcher uses a flexible plugin architecture for speech synthesis engines. If you want to enhance Jovie to support another engine, contact the development team.
See the section called “Configuration” for specific instructions for each of these engines.
Optional components:
The xsltproc utility is needed for SSML support and for the XML Transformer filter, but not required. Debian users can install xsltproc with the command apt-get install xsltproc.
Compilation and InstallationIn order to compile Jovie, you must have a recent (KDE 4.8 or greater) copy of the KDE development files, including kdelibs and the development files for speech-dispatcher.
If you downloaded the Jovie source from the
kdeaccessibility code repository module, or downloaded the nightly
tarball, use the following commands to compile and install.
cd jovie mkdir build cd build cmake ../ make sudo make install
Configuration