Introduction to producing DAISY
The DAISY Standard allows the producer full flexibility regarding the mix of text and audio they include in their DAISY materials.
There are three basic types of DAISY books:
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Audio with navigation
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Audio and full text with navigation
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Text with navigation
The type of DAISY book that offers the richest content and best user experience is audio and full text with navigation.
However, as a producer you may wish to consider the following points to help you decide which type of DAISY book you should produce:
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Type of information you are conveying - is the material likely to be referred to again (such as a book) or is it ephemeral?
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Likely readership for the information - who will be reading the material?
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Timeliness of the information - how quickly does the information have to be made available?
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Availability of resources - if you are producing real audio, do you have narrators available to record the material?
Synthetic speech vs. natural speech
Synthetic voices are becoming more and more human sounding and for some types of DAISY material, you may wish to consider producing the audio part of the DAISY book as synthetic speech.
Some DAISY producers are already producing some material in synthetic audio for the following reasons:
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Quicker turnaround times - being able to produce and distribute materials more quickly.
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Cost efficiencies - being able to produce more material without having to invest in additional narrators.
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Boosting stock - being able to give readers more choice in what they read.
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Re-directing resources - being able to produce ephemeral material or standard information in synthetic audio frees up skilled narrators to concentrate on more challenging audio recordings.
DAISY production tools
There are a number of different DAISY production tools available - ranging from very simple-to-use systems to full editing suites and production tools. Most suppliers offer free demonstration versions, to enable you to assess the suitability of the software before you commit to purchasing or implementing it.
All of the tools developed by the DAISY Consortium are open source - so available free to anyone, but there are also commercial alternatives.
Some of the most popular DAISY production software:
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Sigtuna DAR 3
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Dolphin Publisher
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MyStudio PC
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Dolphin Converter
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LpStudio Pro
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Obi
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Dolphin Producer
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Plextalk Recording Software Pro
DAISY validation tools
DAISY validation tools check for conformance to the DAISY standard and that the DAISY output will play correctly in DAISY playback equipment. It is recommended that any DAISY books that are produced are validated to ensure that the content you are creating is valid and can be read by the range of DAISY playback equipment available. By validating your content you are also ensuring that what you are creating is future-proof, so when the DAISY standard is developed further your content can still be accessed.
Microsoft Save-as-DAISY plug-in for Word
A recent collaborative project between the DAISY Consortium and Microsoft has culminated in the release of a Save-as-DAISY plug-in for Microsoft Word, which enables the user to translate a styled Word document into a synthetic audio and full text DAISY book. A similar plug-in is also available for Open Office.