Calibre and voice over

Support and Help
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1

Hello,

I’m having trouble setting up text-to-speech (TTS) functionality in Calibre for my EPUB and PDF files. Even after installing Piper and downloading several voices (specifically targeting both Spanish and English), Calibre keeps throwing a persistent ‘voice failed’ error.

How can I fix this specific error with the Piper integration, or what other reliable tool or method do you recommend for reading books from my Calibre library aloud?

By the way, I use Ubuntu 24.04 and Calibre 8.11.1 ( Binary install).

Thank you for your time.

2

And are you sure this binary was actually built and linked against the piper version you are using ?

Please note that we can only support actual Ubuntu applications here, coming from the archive or the snap store …

If you have issues with a third party app, you need to ask at the place where you got that app from since we can not predict how it was built or if it is even remotely compatible with your setup …

Your description sounds like both apps you use are third party ones, not from the archive …

3

From some quick research on this subject it appears to me you might be able to get it to work but it is not so simple.

As @ogra pointed out, using packages from outside the official channels means we are less likely to be able to support it especially if something goes wrong.

One alternative to consider is Okular with TTS (works with epubs and PDF):
sudo apt install okular speech-dispatcher espeak-ng

Usage:

  • Open a PDF/EPUB in Okular.
  • Go to Tools → Speak Text.
  • Okular will use speech-dispatcher (and thus espeak-ng/festival).

Since all of these packages are in the official repositories, they are also tested for security and stability and thus also supported.

Hope this helps.

4

I used this command in order to install Calibre:
sudo -v && wget -nv -O- https://download.calibre-ebook.com/linux-installer.sh | sudo sh /dev/stdin
Does Calibre exist in official repositories? By the way, I tried to run some text using TTS. I used the terminal, not Calibre. The TTS wasn’t good. I mean, a robotic voice with a series of glitches. That made me suspect an issue beyond Calibre.
Thanks for your replies, community.

5

Yes, indeed it does …

6

Thanks. I’ll try the official package …

1 Like
7

This error I get using Calibre from repositories and the TTS function:
La traducción directa del texto de error al inglés es:

calibre, version 7.6.0
ERROR: Text-to-Speech unavailable: Could not find the voice dispatcher on your system. Please install it.

I already installed the required packages with:
sudo apt install speech-dispatcher espeak
But the message remains the same.

8 
ogra@styx:~$ apt show calibre | grep Recommends
Recommends: python3-dnspython, python3-ipython, python3-requests-toolbelt, python3-six, qt6-speech-flite-plugin | qt6-speech-speechd-plugin, udisks2
ogra@styx:~$

My guess would be you want one of these qt6-speech- packages (and probably also the speech backend they desire to use) …

9

I installed all you suggested and the same error appears.

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