PiperRead

English
Downloadv0.4.1-beta

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Two ways to install on Linux, terminal and button or with the interface, for five distributions and Windows; the source tarball, checksums and the four-language PDF manual.

Do you want the interface?

Two ways to install PiperRead on Linux. Pick one: each has its own steps below.

Terminal and button

A keyboard shortcut, the piperread command or the Read Selection button in your menu reads the selection. One package.

About 195 MB to download, 680 MB installed.

Go to the steps →

With the interface

The same, plus a tray icon that starts with your session, keeps the voice loaded, and adds pause, resume and sentence-by-sentence navigation. One archive holds both packages.

About 460 MB to download, 1.4 GB installed.

Go to the steps →

If you are not sure, take the terminal and button: the interface can be added later, in one command. Sizes were measured in a container on Debian 13, dependencies included; the other distributions are in the manual.

What each system has been through: installation, diagnosis and removal were validated in a container on Debian 12 and 13, Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04, Fedora 44, openSUSE Leap 16.0 and Arch Linux. The update from the previous version was validated on Debian 12 and 13, Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04, Fedora 44 and Arch Linux. A container proves installation, diagnosis and removal, not the sound, the clipboard, the menu entry or the display.

Terminal and button

1. Download the package for your distribution. 2. Install it with the command below it.

The installation downloads the Piper engine with pip and needs network access at that moment only. No voice is included.

3. Add a voice, then read

piperread --list-voices
piperread --download-voice
piperread

The first command lists the voices on offer: its first line is the exact command that installs the recommended voice of your language. The second one downloads it after your confirmation, and it then works offline. Then select a text and run piperread.

With the interface

1. Download the all-in-one archive for your distribution: it holds piperread and piperread-gui, and nothing else. 2. Extract it and install both packages with the two lines below it.

Debian 12 / 13, Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04, Linux Mint

piperread-all-in-one-0.4.1-beta-debian.tar.gz

tar -xzf piperread-all-in-one-0.4.1-beta-debian.tar.gz
sudo apt install ./piperread_0.4.1~beta_all.deb ./piperread-gui_0.4.1~beta_all.deb

The installation fetches the engine, then Qt (PySide6, about 245 MB) into private environments, with network access needed at that moment only. No voice is included.

3. Start the interface and add a voice

piperread-gui --play

Run this command, or choose PiperRead in your applications menu; the interface also starts by itself at your next session. With no voice installed, a window called Download a voice opens: choose one and click Download, nothing is downloaded before that click. Then select or copy a text and click the tray icon.

Windows 11

The interface only, as a self-contained folder: unzip it, then double-click piperread-gui.exe. With no voice installed, a window offers to download one; nothing is downloaded before you click. The build is not signed, so SmartScreen may warn at the first launch. An executable built on Windows and tested by hand on Windows 11, without the automated tests the Linux packages get.

Download the Windows folder, about 141 MB →

piperread-gui-windows.zip

User manual

The manual in PDF, in four languages: installing, using, troubleshooting. The same text is available offline as a manual page: man piperread.

Sources and checksums

The source archive of the release and its checksum. The source code and the issue tracker are on GitHub.

Verify the downloads

Put the downloaded files and the SHA256SUMS file in the same folder, then run:

sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS

SHA256SUMS