Tiny GNOME/Wayland helper to read selected text aloud with better TTS
I made a small GNOME/Wayland utility that reads selected terminal or desktop text aloud using edge-tts and mpv:
https://github.com/davidf9999/read-selection-tts
It is not a screen reader. It is meant for the narrow case where you want better voice quality than spd-say/eSpeak, without switching into a full Orca
workflow or being limited to browser read-aloud extensions.
Basic workflow:
- select text with the mouse
- press Ctrl+Alt+R to read
- Ctrl+Alt+S to pause
- Ctrl+Alt+C to continue
- optional stop shortcut
- scripts/agents can use: printf 'hello\n' | read-selection-tts --stdin
Caveats:
- uses Microsoft Edge TTS via edge-tts, so selected text is sent to an online service
- currently uses Wayland primary selection, not clipboard mode
- tested on Ubuntu GNOME Wayland
I built it for my own use, but I’m curious whether others find this workflow useful.