QuickSpeechPi

A modern, lightweight Python application that provides a graphical interface for Text-to-Speech (TTS). It supports both offline local synthesis and high-quality cloud synthesis.

Features

• Dual-Engine Support:
  • Local Engine (eSpeak): Fully offline, lightweight, supporting voice variants (Male, Female, Whisper, Croak), pitch, and speed adjustments.
  • Cloud Engine (Gemini TTS): High-fidelity, natural-sounding neural voices (Kore, Puck, Fenrir, Charon, Aoede) using the Google GenAI SDK.
• Cancel/Stop Playback: Instantly stop speech playback mid-sentence with a dedicated STOP button.
• Export to WAV: Save generated speech directly to a .wav audio file (works with both local and cloud engines) without playing it aloud.
• Live Text Stats: Dynamic display of character and word counts as you type.
• Modern UI: Styled with a custom Charcoal/Slate dark theme and includes scrollbar support for text editing.
• Graceful Fallbacks: The app starts and runs offline using eSpeak even if the Gemini SDK or API key is not configured.

Prerequisites

• Linux operating system (tested on Debian/Ubuntu/Raspberry Pi OS).
• Python 3.
• espeak engine.
• tkinter (Python's standard GUI library).

Setup & API Key (Optional for Cloud Features)

To use the realistic Gemini Cloud TTS voices:

1. Obtain an API Key from Google AI Studio.
2. Save it in a .env file in the application directory or your user home directory:

   GEMINI_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

Installation

Option 1: Debian Package (Pi/Ubuntu/Debian)

Download the latest .deb file and install it:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ./quickspeechpi_1.2.1_all.deb

Option 2: Standalone Release Zip

1. Download QuickSpeechPi-linux.zip from the Releases page.
2. Extract the zip file.
3. Ensure system dependencies are installed:

   sudo apt install espeak python3-tk

4. Run the QuickSpeechPi executable.

Building From Source

1. Clone this repository.
2. Run the setup script to install dependencies:

   chmod +x setup.sh
   ./setup.sh

3. Set up the Python virtual environment and install GenAI packages:

   python3 -m venv venv
   ./venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run the app:

   ./venv/bin/python tts_gui.py

License

MIT License