Free NaturalReader is a free text-to-speech program offered by NaturalSoft. As far as its features are concerned, you'll probably find this program a bit lacking.
The interface of NaturalReader is a bit tricky to navigate, and is unnecessarily confusing. The one feature that caught my eye was an built-in mp3 converter, so you can listen to your text, such as an audio book, on the go. Much to my dismay, however, I soon discovered that this was of course only available in the paid version. NaturalSoft also offers a Personal Version and a Professional Version, which cost $50 and $100 respectively. The Free version of the program seems like a teaser to get you to buy the full edition.
The actual reading of text is relatively good. Almost all speech is understandable, and you'd be hard pressed to find a much more understandable free tts program.
All things considered, you'd be better off keeping to the software bundled with Windows computers, Narrator. It has a simpler interface and does not give you the annoying message "This function is only available in paid versions" every five seconds.
Pros
- Usually understandable
- Free
Cons
- Useful features are not included
- Hard to use
Excellent software. It can read large volumes even when eyes are tired of looking at the computer screen.
Poorly written and buggy product, support is close to non-existent The intended use was to convert text to mp3 files. The software constantly crashing that requires restarts. Every now and then I get lucky and get a document converted, but there is no consistency. Most of the features that attracted me over competition were either missing, not working or not performing as they were supposed to. I contacted the support with a list of my issues and was told that i can either get a refund or wait for the next version that will address all of my issues. I made a mistake and agreed to wait for the next version. I waited and waited, but no new version was provided. My emails were ignored, all of them. And only after 6 month when their free upgrade to a new version period ends they responded to me stating that they are no longer able to give me a new version and it was too late for me to file a dispute with a credit card for a refund. After paying over $200 US I ended up with worthless, very expensive junk. While exchanging a quiet a bit of emails with Rebecca, probably fake name, who is the only one who ever responds their emails, I understood that this is a few people company that only cares about money. They do not care about their customers, reputation, product, nothing at all; just how much they can sell their worthless software. They will use every trick in a book if you try to request a refund or get a new version. They lie, cheat, trick....Quality - this is not the main focus of the developers. Interface looks so old, feels like it was written in 90s. Software constantly crashing, features are overly exaggerated or not working. The full package is also the most expensive among similar offers from other companies. If you would like to get disappointed, frustrated, waste ton of money and time and get nothing out of it; this is the company to go with. Support, for the luck of better word is a joke. It is there just to answer a simple question and to lie and trick you if you want your money back or question non-working feature for which you paid money for. After giving up, I tried TextALoud from NextUp.com. The difference is day and night. No issues what so ever. I had no reason to contact support, but i did it anyways just to see how it works. This company is real and the product is superior comparing to natural reader. I made a mistake and i'm sharing my experiences so others can learn from it. I'm just an unhappy customer of natural readers and not associated nor affiliated with neither of the companies discussed here.
Used for a year now, very good, very useful.