EPUB to Speech

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Convert EPUB e-books into high-quality audiobooks using Azure Text-to-Speech technology.

Features

• 📚 EPUB Support: Compatible with EPUB 2 and EPUB 3 formats
• 🎙️ High-Quality TTS: Uses Azure Cognitive Services Speech for natural voice synthesis
• 🌍 Multi-Language Support: Supports various languages and voices via Azure TTS
• 📱 M4B Output: Generates standard M4B audiobook format with chapter navigation
• 🔧 CLI Interface: Easy-to-use command-line tool with progress tracking

Basic Usage

Convert an EPUB file to audiobook:

epub2speech input.epub output.m4b --voice zh-CN-XiaoxiaoNeural --azure-key YOUR_KEY --azure-region YOUR_REGION

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11 or higher
• FFmpeg (for audio processing)
• Azure Speech Service credentials

Install Dependencies

# Install Python dependencies
pip install poetry
poetry install

# Install FFmpeg
# macOS: brew install ffmpeg
# Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install ffmpeg
# Windows: Download from https://ffmpeg.org/download.html

Azure Speech Service Setup

1. Create an Azure account at https://azure.microsoft.com
2. Create a Speech Service resource in Azure Portal
3. Get your subscription key and region from the Azure dashboard

Quick Start

Environment Variables

Set your Azure credentials as environment variables:

export AZURE_SPEECH_KEY="your-subscription-key"
export AZURE_SPEECH_REGION="your-region"

epub2speech input.epub output.m4b --voice zh-CN-XiaoxiaoNeural

Advanced Options

# Limit to first 5 chapters
epub2speech input.epub output.m4b --voice en-US-AriaNeural --max-chapters 5

# Use custom workspace directory
epub2speech input.epub output.m4b --voice zh-CN-YunxiNeural --workspace /tmp/my-workspace

# Quiet mode (no progress output)
epub2speech input.epub output.m4b --voice ja-JP-NanamiNeural --quiet

Available Voices

For a complete list, see Azure Neural Voices.

How It Works

1. EPUB Parsing: Extracts text content and metadata from EPUB files
2. Chapter Detection: Identifies chapters using EPUB navigation data
3. Text Processing: Cleans and segments text for optimal speech synthesis
4. Audio Generation: Converts text to speech using Azure TTS
5. M4B Creation: Combines audio files with chapter metadata into M4B format

Development

Running Tests

python test.py

Run specific test modules:

python test.py --test test_epub_picker
python test.py --test test_tts

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues or pull requests.

License

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

Acknowledgments

• Azure Cognitive Services for text-to-speech technology
• ebooklib for EPUB parsing
• FFmpeg for audio processing
• spaCy for natural language processing

Support

For issues and questions:

1. Check existing GitHub issues
2. Create a new issue with detailed information
3. Include EPUB file samples if relevant (ensure no copyright restrictions)”，“file_path”: