This file allows the user to customize the behavior of RHVoice. It is read-only once at startup. So your changes will take effect only after you restart the application which is using RHVoice.
On Windows, the configuration file is named RHVoice.ini. on other platforms it
is named RHVoice.conf.
The path to the directory where the settings are stored is determined at compile
time. It can be redefined by setting the value of the sysconfdir variable when
you execute scons. By default, the value is $prefix/etc, which, if the
default value of the prefix variable is used, means /usr/local/etc.
The full path to the configuration file is $sysconfdir/RHVoice/RHVoice.conf.
The path is %APPDATA%\RHVoice\RHVoice.ini.
Open the folder where NVDA stores the user settings.
The RHVoice.ini file must be put into the RHVoice-config subfolder.
Depending on your device, the configuration file may be stored either in
internal memory or on an SD card. This will likely be somewhere in a subdirectory of /storage.
The relative file path is
Android/data/com.github.olga_yakovleva.rhvoice.android/files/RHVoice.conf.
RHVoice uses the classic ini format. But as this format is not defined by a formal standard and implementations differ, here are some implementation details users should keep in mind.
- The file must be saved in UTF-8.
- Semicolons are used to indicate comments. Only the whole line can be commented out.
- Periods are used as decimal separators.
- Characters in values may be represented with their numeric codes. The format
is similar to numeric character references in XML, but the initial ampersand
sign is omitted. For example, the English letter A can be written as
#65;. - If an option takes only two boolean values, on or off, you can use the
following keywords to enable the corresponding behavior:
true,yes,onor1, and to disable it, usefalse,no,offor0.
Some of the options allow you to specify that they must be applied only to a specific language or voice. And some of them are only defined for specific languages.
The following format is used:
languages.<language>.<key>=<value>The language can be indicated by:
- Its English name
- its two-letter code defined by ISO 639-1
- its three-letter code defined by ISO 639-3.
Examples:
languages.russian.default_rate=2
languages.eng.default_rate=0.8The following format is used:
voices.<name>.<key>=<value>Example:
voices.elena.enabled=noThe settings in this group determine how RHVoice interprets the values of rate, pitch and volume it receives from client programs.
The value 1 corresponds to the standard behavior of the voices.
For example, NVDA expresses the value of speech rate as a percentage. RHVoice
interprets 50% as the default speech rate (default_rate), and 100% is
interpreted as the maximum speech rate (max_rate).
The following table lists all the options in this group.
| Setting | Description | Default value | Minimum value | Maximum value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
default_rate |
default rate | 1 | min_rate |
max_rate |
min_rate |
minimum rate | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1 |
max_rate |
maximum rate | 2 | 1 | 5 |
default_pitch |
default pitch | 1 | min_pitch |
max_pitch |
min_pitch |
minimum pitch | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1 |
max_pitch |
maximum pitch | 2 | 1 | 2 |
default_volume |
default volume | 1 | min_volume |
max_volume |
min_volume |
minimum volume | 0.25 | 0.25 | 1 |
max_volume |
maximum volume | 2 | 1 | 4 |
These settings can be applied both to all the voices and to individual languages or voices.
Examples:
default_volume=0.8
languages.english.default_rate=1.5
voices.alan.default_pitch=0.9RHVoice can use the Sonic library for changing speech rate. The native algorithm of speech rate modification in RHVoice was improved in version 1.4.0, and this library is not included in the builds provided by the RHVoice project. So the following setting is only supported in custom builds with Sonic enabled.
The min_sonic_rate setting specifies the minimum rate
value starting from which Sonic will be used instead of the built-in algorithm.
By default the built-in algorithm is always used on Android, and on other
platforms Sonic is used to speed up speech, that is the synthesizer behaves as
if the user wrote in the configuration file:
min_sonic_rate=1RHVoice can analyze the input text and change the synthesis language automatically. This functionality is currently implemented only for those languages whose alphabets share no letters. .
A voice profile is just a combination of voices selected by the user. The languages of the voices must differ. The first voice in the group is considered the primary voice and determines the so-called primary language.
Screen readers and other client programs will include the voice profiles in the list of available voices. But on Android voice profiles aren't configured via this configuration file. .
A voice profile is written as a sequence of names of voices separated by the +
character. The voice_profiles setting is used to define the list of voice
profiles. Its value must be a comma-separated list of voice profiles.
Example:
voice_profiles=anna+slt,aleksandr+alanWhen one of the voice profiles is active, RHVoice will try to use the voice which corresponds to the language of the text. The language may be set by the client program or detected automatically. If the language cannot be detected automatically, as is the case when reading individual numbers or names of punctuationmarks, the primary voice will be used, that is the first voice of the profile.
But if numbers or non-alphabetic characters appear in a sentence, and RHVoice
determines that the language of the sentence differs from the primary language,
there are two possibilities: read them with the primary voice or read the whole
sentence with one voice according to the language. By default the first
alternative is chosen, but the user can change this behavior by disabling the
prefer_primary_language setting:
prefer_primary_language=falseThe quality setting allows the user to choose one of the three available
speech quality options. The lower the quality, the better the performance: most
importantly, the less time it will take for the synthesizer to start speaking.
The available modes are described in the following table..
| Value | Sampling rate (kHz) | Optimized response time |
|---|---|---|
max |
24 | no |
standard |
24 | yes |
min |
16 | yes |
The standard quality is used by default, that is the synthesizer behaves as if the user wrote in the configuration file:
quality=standardDespite the title, the settings in this group apply to other non-alphabetic characters as well, even though, strictly speaking, they can't be considered punctuation marks.
The punctuation_mode setting determines whether punctuation marks and other
symbols will be spoken. The following modes are supported:
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
none |
don't read any symbols (default) |
some |
selective reading |
all |
read all symbols |
For example, reading of all punctuation is enabled this way:
punctuation_mode=allThe punctuation_list setting is used to specify which symbols to speak when
the punctuation mode is set to some. For example:
punctuation_list=@$/\The built-in dictionary of punctuation marks and other symbols can't be called comprehensive. But users can define the names of additional symbols in the user dictionary.
The following settings determine whether and how the synthesizer will indicate capital letters when it reads individual characters.
This mode is specified by the indicate_capitals setting. The following values
are supported:
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
no |
disabled (default) |
word |
say "capital" before a letter |
pitch |
change speech pitch |
sound |
play a short sound |
Example:
indicate_capitals=pitchIf capital letters are indicated by a change in pitch, than the
cap_pitch_factor setting specifies how much to change the pitch in this
situation. This setting can be applied both to the synthesizer as a whole and to
individual voices.
The following example specifies a thirty percent increase:
cap_pitch_factor=1.3Stress indication in a text is supported only for Russian and Ukrainian
languages. For example, to tell the synthesizer that the vowel after the +
sign must receive stress, Add the following to the configuration file:
stress_marker=+You can disable some of the languages or voices. It may be useful if you don't use them and don't want your screen reader to show them. The following example disables all the English voices and Aleksandr::
languages.english.enabled=false
voices.aleksandr.enabled=falseThis mode is available only if the language doesn't use the Latin alphabet.
When they read English words, the voices can try to follow the correct English pronunciation as much as possible. Though they can't use the correct English sounds, but the closest sounds in their native language.
To use this mode, you need to install the English language pack. The English voices don't need to be installed.
If the English language pack is installed, the pseudo-English mode is enabled by default. Using Russian as an example, you can disable it this way:
languages.russian.use_pseudo_english=no