Piper TTS Desktop

A fully offline, privacy-first Text-to-Speech desktop app built on the Piper TTS engine. No internet connection required after setup — all synthesis runs locally.

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Features

• 100% Offline — No cloud, no API keys, no data leaves your machine
• Multiple Voices — Switch between any downloaded Piper voice model (en_US, en_GB, Spanish, German, French, Hindi, and more)
• Speed Control — Adjustable playback speed from 0.5× to 2.0×
• Position Marking — Mark any line and resume playback or jump back to it anytime
• Export to WAV — Save speech as a WAV audio file
• Dark / Light Mode — Toggle between themes
• Font Size Control — Resize text in the editor (8pt – 24pt)
• Keyboard Shortcuts — Full keyboard support for hands-free use
• Desktop Integration — Installs as an app menu entry on Linux desktops

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Requirements

• Linux (Ubuntu / Debian-based recommended)
• Python 3.8+
• aplay (from alsa-utils)
• tkinter (usually bundled with Python)
• At least one Piper voice model (.onnx + .onnx.json) — the installer downloads one automatically

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Installation

git clone https://github.com/DeerajS2004/piper-tts-desktop.git
cd piper-tts-desktop

chmod +x scripts/install.sh
./scripts/install.sh

The installer will:

• Check and install dependencies (aplay, tkinter, pip)
• Create a Python virtual environment
• Install piper-tts via pip
• Download the default voice (en_US-lessac-medium, ~42 MB)
• Create a desktop app menu entry
• Add a piper-tts command to ~/.local/bin

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Usage

From the app menu: Search for "Piper TTS"

From terminal:

piper-tts
# or directly:
~/.local/share/piper-tts/app/launcher.sh

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Adding More Voices

Download any voice from the Piper voice samples page. You need two files per voice:

<voice-name>.onnx
<voice-name>.onnx.json

Place both in ~/.local/share/piper-tts/voices/ and restart the app. The new voice will appear in the dropdown automatically.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Enter	Speak from beginning
Ctrl+Shift+Enter	Speak from marked position
Space	Pause / Resume (while playing)
Escape	Stop playback
Ctrl+M	Mark current cursor position
Ctrl+J	Jump to marked position
Ctrl+E	Export audio as WAV
Ctrl+T	Toggle dark / light mode
Ctrl++ / Ctrl+-	Increase / decrease font size
Ctrl+0	Reset font size
Ctrl+A	Select all text
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y	Undo / Redo

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Uninstall

~/.local/share/piper-tts/uninstall.sh

You'll be asked whether to keep or delete the downloaded voice files.

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Project Structure

piper-tts-desktop/
├── app/
│   ├── piper_gui.py       # Main application
│   ├── piper-icon.png     # App icon
│   └── test_app.py        # Diagnostic/test script
├── scripts/
│   ├── install.sh         # Main installer
│   └── launcher.sh        # App launcher
├── .gitignore
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

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License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.