Cereproc Heather now available for ClaroPDF

Posted by Craig Mill on the 25th June, 2015

A question we are often asked at CALL is “can you get the Scottish voices on the iPad?”

Unfortunately, the answer has been a resounding ‘No’. While the Scottish voices are available for Android devices via Google Play, i.e. Cereproc Heather and Stuart (including many other voices such as Kirsty Scottish, Jack UK English, Sue Midlands English and Dodo Glasgow) the iPad has lacked a quality Scottish voice.

Saying that the Scottish Fiona and Scottish Rhona voices are available via an In-App purchase (£1.49 each) for the Claro apps, e.g. ClaroSpeak and ClaroPDF. 

ClaroPDF is a fully featured app for reading documents and books, particularly books downloaded from the Books for All database. The app allows you to customise background colours and includes word / sentence highlighting to support visual tracking. 

There are also options to invert colours, Autoscroll and add annotations such as record audio, add images, notes, and a nifty pen tool for writing comments. You can also add video, either from the iPad's camera or from the Library, providing a multimedia dynamic to the app. 

However, a more recent development to ClaroPDF is the addition of a new voice – Cereproc Heather! Listening to Heather read books aloud on the iPad sounds great – and is extremely good quality, all for free!

Heather isn’t currently available in other Claro apps (at least it wasn’t available for ClaroSpeak or ClaroCom at the time of writing) but hopefully Claro will introduce Heather (and hopefully Cereproc Stuart) shortly.  

To install Heather for use on ClaroPDF follow the steps below:

1. If you don’t already have ClaroPDF you will need to download it from the App Store (£2.99): 

2. Open ClaroPDF and tap or select the Cog icon. When the drop-down menu appears select 'Store'.

3. Under Voices tap or select ‘Add-on Voices’. 

4.Scroll down until you see Heather. 

5. Tap Heather to download the voice. 

6. After the voice has downloaded go back to the Settings / Store icon and select ''Settings'. Finally, under ‘Voice name’ set Heather as the default voice. Remember to set the Speaking rate and there are also other options, i.e. ‘Speak on Tap’ under ‘More’.

Although there still isn’t a universal Scottish voice that works across the iPad, Scottish Heather for ClaroPDF is one step closer. 

Enjoy!