PDF to Speech Converter

A Python script that converts PDF files to speech (MP3) using Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API, effectively creating audiobooks from text documents.

Table of Contents

1. PDF to Speech Converter
2. Features
3. Installation
   • Prerequisites
   • Steps
   • Setup Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API
4. User Guide
5. Project Structure
6. Configuration
7. Example
8. Future Enhancements
9. Contributing
   • Fork the repository
10. License
11. Acknowledgements

Features

• Extract text from PDF files
• Convert text to natural-sounding speech
• Output as MP3 audio files
• Handle large PDFs by splitting text into manageable chunks
• Customizable voice options (language, gender)

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.7+
• Google Cloud account (free tier available)
• VS Code (recommended) or any Python IDE

Steps

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/garschke/pdf-to-speech.git
cd pdf-to-speech

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

python -m venv venv           # Windows
.\venv\Scripts\activate       # Windows

python3 -m venv .venv         # Mac/Linux
source .venv/bin/activate     # Mac/Linux

3. Install dependencies:

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Setup Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create a new project
3. Enable the Text-to-Speech API
4. Create a service account and download the JSON key file
5. Save the key file in the project folder as google_credentials.json

User Guide

Run the script with:

python pdf_to_speech.py     # Windows
python3 pdf_to_speech.py    # Mac/Linux

When prompted:

1. Enter the path to your PDF file
2. Enter the desired output MP3 filename (default: output.mp3)

The script will:

1. Extract text from the PDF
2. Convert the text to speech using Google's API
3. Save the audio as an MP3 file

Project Structure

pdf-to-speech/
├── pdf_to_speech.py        # Main conversion script
├── google_credentials.json # Google Cloud credentials
├── requirements.txt        # Dependencies
├── .gitignore              # Files to ignore in version control
├── static/
│   └── image/              # Images (pdf to text audiobook logo)
├── modules/
│   └── logger.py           # Logging module
├── input/
│   └── test.pdf            # Example PDF file (used if no filepath provided)
├── output/
│   └── output.mp3          # MP3 output (default output filepath if none provided)
└── README.md               # This file

Configuration

You can modify these aspects in the code:

• Voice parameters (language, gender, specific voice model)
  • see https://cloud.google.com/text-to-speech/docs/list-voices-and-types#list_of_all_supported_languages
• Audio format (currently MP3)
  • see https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/docs/encoding#audio-encodings
• Text chunk size (default 4950 characters per API request)
  • Note: Although Google has 5000 byte limit for API, going above the 4950 default might throw errors

Example

Without DEBUG logging

python3 pdf_to_speech.py
Enter path to PDF file (default: input/test.pdf):
Enter the output MP3 file name (default: output/output.mp3):
| Processing chunk 1/1...
| Audio content written to file 'output/output.mp3'

With DEBUG logging

python3 pdf_to_speech.py
| Starting PDF to Speech conversion app
Enter path to PDF file (default: input/test.pdf): 
| No PDF file path provided so default input/test.pdf used
| Valid PDF file found!
| File 'input/test.pdf' exists and is a PDF file.
Enter the output MP3 file name (default: output/output.mp3): 
| Output file name: output/output.mp3
| Starting conversion...
| Extracting text from input/test.pdf...
| 
Extraxted text:


PDF to Speech :PDF to speech dot PY ,  is a Python script that converts PDF files to speech in the form of MP3 files, using the Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API, effectively creating audiobooks from text documents.


| Text length: 212 characters, 37 words
| Converting text to Speech...
| Splitting text into chuncks of 4950 charaters
| Processing chunk 1/1...
| Chunk length: 212 characters, 37 words
| Chunk 1 processed.
| All chnunks processed.
| Total audio length: 133248 bytes
| Writing audio content to file 'output/output.mp3'...
| Audio content written to file 'output/output.mp3'
| PDF to Speech conversion app finished

Future Enhancements

1. 🔲 - Progress Tracking: Add a progress bar for large PDFs
2. 🔲 - SSML Support: Implement Speech Synthesis Markup Language for better pronunciation
3. 🔲 - GUI: Create a simple Flask web interface or Tkinter desktop app
4. 🔲 - Configuration: Allow users to select different voices and languages

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request for any improvements.

Fork the repository

1. Create your feature branch: git checkout -b feature/NewFeature
2. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add new feature'
3. Push to the branch: git push origin feature/NewFeature
4. Open a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API
• PyPDF2 library for PDF text extraction
• Python community for excellent tooling