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Add to SafariWhen comparing Capti Voice vs Read Aloud, the Slant community recommends Capti Voice for most people. In the question“What is the best text to speech software for Mac and iOS?” Capti Voice is ranked 1st while Read Aloud is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Capti Voice is:
You can use it on any internet enabled device. Desktop Mac and Windows versions uses your default browser and java to drive a webapp. On linux you'll have to straight up use the website or run a virtual machine. On the Mac and Windows the "desktop app" is more than just a shortcut to the website. Disconnect your wifi and close your default browser (set to clear cookies, offline data, active logins, cache, site preferences, browsing and download history). Upon launching the application again, the default web browser should open, the document should still be there and the webapp should still function. Everything needed is stored locally somewhere.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Semi-Desktop and Webapp versions make it pretty much crossplatform
You can use it on any internet enabled device. Desktop Mac and Windows versions uses your default browser and java to drive a webapp. On linux you'll have to straight up use the website or run a virtual machine. On the Mac and Windows the "desktop app" is more than just a shortcut to the website.
Disconnect your wifi and close your default browser (set to clear cookies, offline data, active logins, cache, site preferences, browsing and download history). Upon launching the application again, the default web browser should open, the document should still be there and the webapp should still function. Everything needed is stored locally somewhere.
Pro Supports many formats
Supported formats include: Adobe PDF (.pdf), Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx), Plain and Rich text (.txt, .rtf), EPUB books (.epub), OpenDocument (.odt, .odp), DAISY books (.zip).
Pro Offers a one week premium plan trial
This is enough time to know whether the upgrade or product on the whole make sense for the user.
Pro Has shortcuts to get around easier
Here's the link to shortcuts on the FAQ webpage.
Pro Limited free account available
For feature differences and limitations of the free version visit captivoice.com
Pro Intelligent dictionary lookup
You can look up translations and definitions of words and phrases. Capti will automatically take into account the part of speech of a word and its use in the sentence to generate the most correct translation and definition.
Pro Very useful in schools
Capti is very easy to use in a school setting: there's a special organization account features for managing students, sharing content with students, monitoring student activity, etc.
Pro Offers very high quality voices on all platforms, including online
When using Capti on iOS, Windows or Mac you can download very high quality voices.
Pro Simple but effective playback controls
Pressing the addon icon in the extension bar will read aloud everything on the page, unless you have some text selected, in that case it will only read what is selected. Pressing the arrow icons on the extension will advance or back track one paragraph worth of reading material.
The extension also employs editable shortcut combinations which can be triggered in Chrome or Globally.
Pro Voice options are impressive
For a free product, the voice options are quite good with a number of premium options from Google and Amazon.
Cons
Con Inconvenient to use
Says it is free, then takes you to the iTunes page to pay, Capti does recognize accounts set up through iTunes, to change voices you pay, to open a pdf to read you have to buy coins to use.
Con Very disappointing
Advertising say great things, reality is much different.
Con Does not automatically sync
Capti Narrator does not automatically sync additions from local files to playlists on the hybrid desktop/webapp client, only if you add them to a cloud storage.
Con Free account somewhat limited
10 MB per document/ ebook
No images
No access to view the original layout for PDFs
No annotation features
Searching limited to current document, not globally
Only one playlist allowed
No access to translation features
No access to a word/vocabulary game
Con Desktop Version for the Mac Depends on Web Browser
Only available as fully native apps for iOS and Windows. The client on the Mac uses your default web browser and java to function.
Con Can't move documents freely between different playlists
On iPhone and iPad, users have to delete and re-add documents if they wish to transfer an item from one playlist to another playlist.
Con No Linux desktop version
Website or running a virtual machine will have to do for readers on Linux distros.
Con Subscription service
$1.99 / month or 9.99 / 6 months.
Con Mac version routinely fails to start
Users on the Mac frequently have to bring up the Activity Monitor, quit Capti View, and open it again to get it to load.
Con Extension / Add-on limited to browser
Its function is limited to reading whatever text is selected or readable in your web browser.
