# CopySpeak: Open-Source Clipboard TTS App for Windows
CopySpeak is a desktop app built on Tauri v2 that automatically grabs text from the Windows clipboard and reads it aloud using local or cloud TTS engines. The project focuses on a minimal footprint: Rust backend for low resource usage, frontend built with Svelte 5, TypeScript, and Vite for fast development.
Tech stack includes Bun v1.3 as package manager, rodio for audio processing, and shadcn-svelte UI components with Tailwind CSS v4.2. This lets you run the app even on low-end PCs without GPU dependencies in basic mode.
Activation Modes and TTS Engines
The app supports three ways to trigger playback:
- Double copy: text is read 1.5 seconds after the second copy.
- Hotkeys: customizable combos for instant launch.
- Manual input: paste text and hit play.
Five TTS engines available for different scenarios:
- Kitten TTS (default): ONNX model for CPU, 8 built-in voices, optimized for speed.
- Piper TTS: local CLI with >20 EN/US voices, great for offline use.
- Kokoro TTS: local CLI with multiple voices, focus on quality.
- OpenAI TTS: cloud API, 9 voices, high naturalness.
- ElevenLabs TTS: cloud API with custom voice library.
Switch engines in settings without restarting.
Interface and Visualization
HUD overlay is key: floating window shows real-time audio waveform over other apps. Perfect for monitoring generation without losing focus.
Generation history is persistent: supports playback, deletion, and batch processing of records. Save audio to MP3, OGG, or FLAC with output device selection.
Settings for Fine-Tuning
Settings grouped by category:
- General: auto-start with Windows, debug mode with logs.
- Playback: speed 0.25x–4x, pitch 0.5x–2x, volume.
- Text: strip Markdown markup, normalize punctuation.
- Audio: device selection, output format, file saving.
- UI: dark/light theme.
This lets you tweak it for your dev workflow—from quick log reading to listening to docs.
Key Features
- Local engines (Kitten, Piper, Kokoro) work offline with minimal CPU load.
- HUD and hotkeys integrate into any workflow without distractions.
- Open-source code on GitHub lets you customize the stack to your needs.
- Cloud API support for premium voices without losing local features.
- History and audio saving make reusing generated files easy.
— Editorial Team
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