Provided by: ebook-speaker_2.7.1-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       eBook-speaker  -  read  aloud  eBooks  and  other  text  formats  using a software speech-
       synthesizer

SYNOPSIS

       eBook-speaker [eBook_file | -s] [-d ALSA_sound_device] [-t TTS_command]

DESCRIPTION

       eBook-speaker reads aloud eBooks and other text formats and even scanned documents using a
       software speech-synthesizer. By default the tool espeak is used for speech output.  eBook-
       speaker also can scan a documant by itself using the scanimage application.

       A list of items on the eBook will appear. Press <ENTER> to start reading. When reading  of
       an  item  has  finished,  eBook-speaker  will  read  the  next  item  and  the cursor will
       automatically skip to that item, so that an attached  braille-terminal  will  display  the
       name of that item.

OPTIONS

       eBook_file
              Give an eBook_file as argument to eBook-speaker.  Many eBook formats are supported.
              eBook-speaker also tries  to  read  scanned  documents  through  Optical  Character
              Recognition.

                       Supported formats
                       -----------------
                       AportisDoc
                       ASCII mail text
                       ASCII text
                       Broadband eBooks (BBeB)
                       Composite Document File (Microsoft Office Word)
                       DAISY3 DTBook
                       EPUB ebook data
                       GIF image data
                       GutenPalm zTXT
                       HTML document
                       ISO-8859 text
                       JPEG image data
                       Microsoft Reader eBook Data
                       Microsoft Windows HtmlHelp Data
                       Microsoft Word 2007+
                       Mobipocket E-book
                       MS Windows HtmlHelp Data
                       Netpbm PPM data
                       OpenDocument Text
                       PDF document
                       PeanutPress PalmOS
                       PNG image data
                       PostScript document
                       Rich Text Format
                       UTF-8 Unicode mail text
                       UTF-8 Unicode text
                       WordPerfect

       When no input-file is supplied, eBook-speaker will bring up a file-manager.

       Keyboard-commands in the file-manager:

               enter or cursor right Start eBook-speaker with current file as input.
               cursor left           Select previous directory and open it.
               cursor down           Move cursor to the next file.
               cursor up             Move cursor to the previous file.
               page-down             View next page.
               page-up               View previous page.
               /                     Search for a file.
               B                     Move cursor to the last file.
               h or ?                Give this help.
               H                     Toggle hidden files displaying on or off.
               n                     Search next.
               N                     Search previous.
               q                     Quit eBook-speaker.
               T                     Move cursor to the first file.

       -d ALSA_sound_device
              eBook-speaker will play on this sound device. Default is "hw:0".

       -l     Deprecated. eBook-speaker now determines the file-type using the libmagic library.

       -s     Scan a document using a hardware scanner and OCR it with the tool tesseract.

       -t TTS-command
              Be  sure  that  the TTS reads from the file eBook-speaker.txt and that it writes to
              the file eBook-speaker.wav.

       Examples:

       •  eBook-speaker some.epub -t "espeak -f eBook-speaker.txt -w eBook-speaker.wav -v nl"

       •  eBook-speaker some.epub -t "flite eBook-speaker.txt eBook-speaker.wav"

       •  eBook-speaker some.epub -t "text2wave eBook-speaker.txt -o eBook-speaker.wav"

SCREEN

       The name and version of this program and the name of the author is displayed left  aligned
       at the top of the screen. The name of the current loaded book is displayed right aligned.

       The  second  row of the screen displays the number of pages of the current loaded book (if
       any), the current selected level and the total number  of  levels,  the  total  number  of
       phrases and the current displayed screen and the total number of screens.

       The  spoken  phrase  will be displayed on the bottom-line of the screen, so one can follow
       along on a braille-terminal what he hears.

       The next rows displays the title of the item, the first page of the item  within  brackets
       (if  there are pages) and the total number of phrases in this item. Items in higher levels
       are indented. (Three spaces each level.) When "just reading this item" is active, a "J" is
       viewed at the first column of that item.

CONTROL KEYS

       eBook-speaker recognizes the following keyboard-commands:

       cursor down
              Move cursor to the next item.

       cursor up
              Move cursor to the previous item.

       cursor right
              Skip to next phrase.

       cursor left
              Skip to previous phrase.

       page-down
              View next screen.

       page-up
              View previous screen.

       enter  Start reading.

       space  Pause/resume reading.

       home   Read on normal speed.

       /      Search for a label.

       B      Move cursor to the last item.

       d      Store current item to disk in WAV-format.

       D      Decrease reading speed.

       f      Find the currently reading item and place the cursor there.

       g      Go to phrase in current item.

       h or ? Give this help.

       j      Just read current item and place a "J" at the first column.

       l      Switch to next level.

       L      Switch to previous level.

       n      Search forewards.

       N      Search backwards.

       o      Select an output sound device.

       p      Place a bookmark.

       q      Quit eBook-speaker. The reading-point is saved as bookmark.

       s      Stop reading.

       t      Select a TTS.

       T      Move cursor to the first item.

       U      Increase reading speed.

TTS

       When  pressing  the  't'-command,  the  TTS-selector  appears.  A few TTS-applications are
       defined by default.

       •  Choose one by moving the cursor with the cursor-keys and  select  it  by  pressing  the
          ENTER-key.

       •  To delete a TTS-command press the DEL-key.

       •  A new TTS-command can be provided by adding the TTS-command to the TTS-line.

       •  To edit an existing TTS-command one has to edit the ~/.eBook-speaker.xml file by hand.

       Be sure that the new TTS reads its information from the file eBook-speaker.txt and that it
       writes to the file eBook-speaker.wav.

TTS EXAMPLES

       Here are some examples to insert into the TTS-selector:

          espeak -f eBook-speaker.txt -w eBook-speaker.wav
          espeak -f eBook-speaker.txt -w eBook-speaker.wav -v mb-en1
          espeak -f eBook-speaker.txt -w eBook-speaker.wav -v de
          espeak -f eBook-speaker.txt -w eBook-speaker.wav -v nl
          espeak -f eBook-speaker.txt -w eBook-speaker.wav -v mb-nl2
          flite eBook-speaker.txt eBook-speaker.wav
          swift -n Lawrence -f eBook-speaker.txt -o eBook-speaker.wav
          text2wave eBook-speaker.txt -o eBook-speaker.wav
          text2wave -eval '(voice_en1_mbrola)' eBook-speaker.txt -o eBook-speaker.wav
          pico2wave -w eBook-speaker.wav "`cat eBook-speaker.txt`"

FILES

       ~/.eBook-speaker/
              This directory contains the bookmarks in XML-format. Each file has the name of  the
              book  and contains the name of the current item, the start-phrase of that item, the
              current level, the desired TTS and the desired reading speed.

       ~/.eBook-speaker.xml
              This file, in XML-format,  contains the name of the desired audio  device  and  the
              TTS's to use. (See TTS EXAMPLES)

       /tmp/eBook-speaker.XXXXXX
              eBook-speaker makes use of a temporary directory. It is removed after quiting.

SEE ALSO

       ebook-convert(1),    calibre(1),    lowriter(1),    tesseract(1),   espeak(1),   flite(1),
       text2wave(1), mbrola(1), pico2wave(1), scanimage(1), magic(5)

AUTHOR

       Jos Lemmens <jos@jlemmens.nl>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C)2013 Jos Lemmens <jos@jlemmens.nl>

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
       the  GNU  General  Public  License  as  published  by the Free Software Foundation; either
       version 2, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the  hope
       that  it  will  be  useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU  General  Public  License
       for  more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
       with this program (see the file COPYING); if not, write to the Free  Software  Foundation,
       Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA