How to Use Text to Speech With Mac OS X Terminal

Use Text to Speect with the Mac OS X Terminal Application

Using the Mac OS X Terminal, you can get your Mac to speak. Any text you input into the Terminal application can be read out loud on your Mac using text-to-speech technology and just one simple command.

Instructions

1. 

   Open Finder and navigate to “Application/Utilities/ Terminal” and double-click the "Terminal" application to launch it.

2. 

   In an open Terminal window, type in the command "say" (without the quotes). Then type in the text you wish to have your Mac convert from text to speech and hit "Enter" on your keyboard. So you can type--again, without the quotes--"say hello" and the computer will say "hello."

3. The "say" command can also be used to have Terminal convert any plain text file into speech using the "-f" command. In an open Terminal window, type in the following command (with a space following the "f"): "say -f " and drag and drop any plain text file onto the open Terminal window, then hit "Enter" on your keyboard. The file will be converted from text to speech and your Mac will speak the file.