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mkiol/dsnote

Linux desktop and Sailfish OS app for note taking, reading and translating with offline speech-to-text, text-to-speech and machine translation.

Open-source alternative to:Dragon NaturallySpeakingGoogle Translate

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What is it?

Speech Note lets you take, read and translate notes in many languages. Speech recognition, speech synthesis and machine translation all run locally on your computer without a network connection, so text and audio are not sent to the internet.

The app wraps several open-source engines behind one interface. Speech to text can use Whisper (whisper.cpp), Vosk, Coqui STT, Faster Whisper and april-asr. Text to speech supports engines such as Piper, espeak-ng, RHVoice, Kokoro, Coqui TTS and F5-TTS, and translation uses Bergamot. Models are not bundled; they are downloaded from a built-in model browser.

Besides dictation and reading aloud, it can insert recognized text into the active window, export subtitles in SRT format, and synthesize speech from subtitle timestamps. A command-line interface can start listening or reading from scripts and desktop shortcuts.

Key features

  • 01Offline speech to text using multiple engines, including Whisper and Vosk.
  • 02Text to speech with many voices from engines such as Piper and espeak-ng.
  • 03Offline machine translation powered by Bergamot.
  • 04Inserts dictated text into the focused window on X11, or via ydotool on Wayland.
  • 05Exports speech recognition to SRT subtitles and reads subtitles aloud in sync with timestamps.
  • 06Command-line options and global keyboard shortcuts for starting listening or reading.

Use cases

  • Dictating notes or documents by voice on a Linux desktop without sending audio to the cloud.
  • Using voice typing in any application through global shortcuts.
  • Creating subtitle files from recorded audio.
  • Generating voice-over audio from subtitle files.
  • Listening to text aloud or saving it as an MP3 file.

Quick start

  1. 1

    Install Speech Note from Flathub using the badge link in the README

  2. 2

    Download the speech and translation models you need from the app's built-in model browser

Things to know

  • Targets Linux desktop and Sailfish OS only.
  • Model checkpoints are not included and must be downloaded separately inside the app.

Topics

#speech-recognition#text-to-speech#machine-translation#offline#linux-desktop#whisper#privacy#asr#flatpak-applications#nmt

FAQ

What is dsnote?
Linux desktop and Sailfish OS app for note taking, reading and translating with offline speech-to-text, text-to-speech and machine translation. Speech Note lets you take, read and translate notes in many languages. Speech recognition, speech synthesis and machine translation all run locally on your computer without a network connection, so text and audio are not sent to the internet.
Is dsnote free to use? What license does it have?
dsnote is open source under the MPL-2.0 license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is dsnote still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to dsnote was on Oct 12, 2026.
What can I use dsnote for?
Dictating notes or documents by voice on a Linux desktop without sending audio to the cloud. Using voice typing in any application through global shortcuts. Creating subtitle files from recorded audio. Generating voice-over audio from subtitle files. Listening to text aloud or saving it as an MP3 file.
How do I install dsnote?
Install Speech Note from Flathub using the badge link in the README Download the speech and translation models you need from the app's built-in model browser
Where can I get dsnote?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/mkiol/dsnote

Summary generated by AI from the project's README. GitHub stats refresh daily.

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