When comparing Natural Reader vs Intelligent Speaker, the Slant community recommends Intelligent Speaker for most people. In the question“What is the best text to speech software for Mac and iOS?” Intelligent Speaker is ranked 4th while Natural Reader is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Intelligent Speaker is:
Audio format: AAC inside M4A, compatible with iOS and Android.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Reads many formats
Formats include: Microsoft Word, PDF, eBook (ePUb), text, and RTF files, webpages.
Pro Prices reflect arrogance
It could be a perfect suite of voices if macOS could in extension include them when working on alternative apps or browsing, etc. You could if you preferred go along for the Standard Offering but as set forth before, Natural Reader ought to include macOS users and with recognition other than imposing Google Chrome as the default.
Pro Simple but effective playback controls
You can click on a any sentence and the voice will jump to wherever that sentence is and continue on from there. Forward and back button is for one sentence. Shortcuts are available as well for pause/read, forward/back by one sentence.
Pro Supports sync-ing with private podcast feeds
Audio format: AAC inside M4A, compatible with iOS and Android.
Pro Clean UI
Pro It's a browser extension
Pro Good quality of voice
Pro Can read intranet and texts from desktop
Pro Automatic text detection on page
Just push the button and it will play what you need (but of course, it's not always perfect).
Pro Playback rate control
Normal speed, 1.5x, 2x
Pro Can start listening from context menu
Good for fullscreen mode.
Pro RAM is only used when needed
This extension will not consume system resources when in the background like many other extensions does, because it only runs in the event page and doesn't run in the background.
Cons
Con No Safari Support
Great options although it could be more affordable. It is not as if most average consumer is financially strong enough to afford all? If prices were lower, their premium offers could sell like other very successful great ideas.
Con Free version available, but upgrades are costly
$69.50, $129.50, or $199.50, does not appear to be a lifetime purchase, there seems to be a limit on how many images that can be used with the OCR function within the different tiers.
Con Few hotkeys, not user configurable
The shortcuts/hotkeys that exist are simple and work well, but they are not user configurable which might be a problem for some. The app is more GUI driven, a travesty since accessibility is a big attraction for people seeking software like this.
Con Unstable on MacOS High Sierra
Encountered stability issues on MacOS High Sierra. Changing voices or opening a .docx Word document can cause crashes.