Member Avatar for nathan rashid

hi!!.. my name is nathan
i am trying to davelop voice to text java application i am required to use javax.speech package and i cant find it on my java packages. if any body knows where i can dowmload it please help!!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by raj.mscking

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javax.speech.* comes from the Java Speech API (JSAPI). It is not part of the JDK, so you need two things: the JSAPI API jar (often named jsapi.jar) and an engine that actually does the work. As said, Oracle gives you the spec; you still need an implementation. For text-to-speech, FreeTTS is a straightforward JSAPI 1.0 engine. It enables javax.speech.synthesis, but it does not provide speech recognition, which matches what observed.

Once both jars are on your classpath, this minimal example should speak:

import javax.speech.Central;
import javax.speech.synthesis.*;
import java.util.Locale;

public class Demo {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    // Make sure the FreeTTS engine is discoverable at runtime
    Central.registerEngineCentral("com.sun.speech.freetts.jsapi.FreeTTSEngineCentral");

    Synthesizer s = Central.createSynthesizer(new SynthesizerModeDesc(Locale.US));
    s.allocate();
    s.resume();
    s.speakPlainText("Hello from JSAPI.", null);
    s.waitEngineState(Synthesizer.QUEUE_EMPTY);
    s.deallocate();
  }
}

Troubleshooting tips:

  • NoClassDefFoundError: javax/speech -> the JSAPI API jar is missing.
  • Central.createSynthesizer returns null -> the engine jar is not on the runtime classpath or the engine was not registered.
  • On JDK 9+ run on the classpath (not the module path) so legacy service discovery works.

For speech-to-text, is right that maintained JSAPI recognition engines are hard to find. In 2025 most Java projects use a non-JSAPI library instead, such as Vosk for offline/on-device STT (Vosk) or CMU Sphinx directly rather than through JSAPI (Sphinx4). These provide current acoustic models and active Java bindings; the tradeoff is coding to their APIs instead of javax.speech.*.

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Member Avatar for stultuske

This should lead you to the right place in no time

Member Avatar for apkrieg

I can't find it using Google or the jarfinder site. I also can't find any documentation on it. I'm not sure it really exists (or is maintained). You would probably have better luck using Androids libraries and using Android for your application. You could probably use some dirty hacks to use the Android API on a normal JVM to access the TTS and STT.

Member Avatar for llaspina

The snarky comment listed as the first reply wasn't justified. This jar was not that easy to find. Looking through maven I tracked it down:
http://search.maven.org/#search%7Cga%7C1%7Cfc%3Ajavax.speech

From the above link you can download freets-1.2.2.jar, and the docs are here:
http://freetts.sourceforge.net/javadoc/index.html

Looking through the jar, I did find a few classes in the javax.speech package. These are no documented in the source forge docs, but they are included in the download. (You can also download javadocs from the maven central repository.

Member Avatar for raj.mscking

Hi!
It is a jar file you may download from any jar finder site..,

Member Avatar for stultuske

llaspina : not easy to find ???? if this is not easy to find, maybe you're not using an efficient search method.

if you want to find the right stuff, go to the source.
I only entered (into google, of course) 'oracle download jsapi'
and within a matter of seconds, I got to this page:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/jsapifaq-135248.html#implementation

freets (which is actually freetts) is but one implementation, there are several one can choose between. Sun (now Oracle) may have provided the api, without providing an implementation, but they are nice enough to provide information about known implementations.

Member Avatar for llaspina

stultuske: Thanks for filling in the missing acronym: jsapi.
That was really my issue with the LetMeGoogleThatForYou answer. A google search and the jar finder didn't quickly lead me to the required library. I haven't played with the Java Speech API, but it looks interesting and the Oracle link you posted shows just how long this has been around.

Member Avatar for stultuske

it's indeed been around long. not really the most up to date, but then again, it's just an api. the implementations might be more up to date.

as to your remark about the 'let me google that' link, the fifth result returned is this link, which leads quickly enough to the one I posted earlier:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/overview/jsapifaq-135248.html

Member Avatar for raj.mscking

Hi!

Agree the terms and condition, then try to download from this site Click Here

Have A Happy Day..,

Member Avatar for stultuske

Raj.Mscking: you obviously did not read the previous posts, nor have you checked what it is you recommend for download.
there, you can only download the api, not an implementation.

Member Avatar for raj.mscking

Oh!

I am Sorry Mr.Stultuske..,

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