About DTBMaker
DTBMaker is a set of perl scripts which can be used to produce Daisy Digital Talking Books (DTB). DTBMaker was developed for the Wyoming Medical Center and is free released under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE.
DTBMaker software
DTBmaker version 2.6 is a new version of DTBmaker for MacOSX offers a host of improvements. This single application will produce all three Daisy formats (Daisy 2.02, Daisy/NISO 2002 and Daisy/NISO 2005). This version supports a simple method of making a digital talking book form a collection of audio files, support for pictures in books, and greater support for NIMAS files. It also supports both Cepstral and Apple Speech Manager voices as well as production of books from pre-recorded content.
DTBmaker version 2.6 is fully VoiceOver compliant with VoiceOver help for each control. It does not require any additional software to be installed but does include an installer for the Cepstral Silence voice for the production of books from pre-recorded content. I wish to publicly thank Cepstral for providing us with the Silence voice for use in DTBmaker
DTBmaker Mac version 2.6 | DTBmaker Mac version 2.6 Source Code
Other DTBMaker software
Requirements
Some DTBMaker requires that you have the perl language (Windows users see ActiveState Perl) installed on your computer. Most version of Linux and MacOSX have perl installed by default. You will also need to install the MP3::Info perl module as well. The lame audio encoder is required for the production and tagging of the mp3 files.
If you plan on using the text to speech versions of DTBMaker you will also need to have a licensed voice from Cepstral installed as well. It is possible to produce books with other text-to-speech software. See the comments in the various files.
There are three seperate versions of DTBmaker in each of the packages:
- DTBmaker will produce Daisy version 2.02 books. All Daisy playback devices and software are able to play these books.
- DTBmaker2002 will produce Daisy/NISO 2002 books, most newer Daisy playback devices and software are able to play these books.
- DTBmaker2005 will produce Daisy/NISO 2005 books, this is the latest standard. Most newer Daisy playback devices and software can play these books however some features, in particular navigation to pages, may not work.
- DTBmaker Mac
- A MacOSX Universial Binary applications. This version provides a Cocoa based user interface which is compatible with Apple's VoiceOver screen reader. It includes the Cepstral Silencevoice for the production of pre-recored audio books.
- DTBmaker Linux
- The DTBmaker Perl scripts. This version can be run under Linux or MacOSX it includes the Cepstral Silencevoice for the production of pre-recored audio books.
- DTBmaker Windows
- The DTBmaker Perl script for Windows (Daisy 2.02 only). This version can be run under Window provided you have the Perl language installed, it includes the Cepstral Silencevoice for the production of pre-recored audio books.
- DTBMaker Online
- No need to download the DTBMaker scripts and all the related programs. DTBMaker Online takes your formatted text files and returns Daisy 2.02, Diasy/NISO 2002 or 2005 audio Digital Talking Books.
- Svenska DTBMaker
- A highly experimental Swedish version of DTBMaker takes your formatted Sweish language text files and returns Daisy 2.02 audio Digital Talking Books. It uses the Festival tts system so no SSML support.
- DiskinfoMaker (dimaker)
- A utility script for placing multiple Daisy Digital Talking Books onto a single CD or other media.
Other files
- DaisyInstaller
- A Macintosh utility to aid in the instalation of Daisy digital talking book to various storage devices.
- xls2ssml
- A Macitosh program for converting Microsoft Excel documents into HTML documents that can be opened and read with VoiceOver.
- xls2ssml
- A perl script for converting Microsoft Excel documents into SSML documents that can be made into Daisy digital talking books using dtbmaker or recored using a SSML enabled tts system.
- Sample Books
- A selection of sample books produced with the software.
- Newspaper sample
- A direct link to a newspaper sample showing how Daisy content could be delivered from web servers.
- NCC CSS
- A proposal for a standard css file for ncc.html and .ncx files supporting the ClearviewADA font.
- DTB2iTunes (daisy2iPod)
- A utility script combining all the mp3 files of a Daisy DTB into a single MP3 or iTunes Audiobook file for uploading to an Apple iPod or other MP3 player.
- KNFB2Text
- KNFB2Text is a MacOS X application to convert KNFB Reader text file into standard ASCII text files. It will ask you to locate the KNFB file and then ask you to give the new text file a name. KNFB2Text is fully compatible with VoiceOver the built in screen reader found in MacOS X 10.4 or better.
Using SSML with DTBMaker
One of the advantages of using the Cepstral voices in DTBMaker is that you can use Speech Synthesis Markup Language. This markup permits you to control how the text is spoken.
If you would like to contact the author please email Gregory Kearney
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