Explanation of the Ondoku character counting method! What about punctuation? English? Chinese? How are they counted?

In Ondoku, when reading text as audio, the number of characters available for reading is measured by the number of characters.

• It is not the number of downloads,
• Or measuring by the duration in minutes of how long the read characters lasted, etc.

It is not those.

The remaining number of characters available for reading is determined by counting "How many characters were read?"

• Non-member: 1,000 characters/month
• Free member: 5,000 characters/month
• Basic Plan: 200,000 characters/month
• Value Plan: 450,000 characters/month
• Premium Plan: 1,000,000 characters/month

These are the available character counts for reading.

Since the number of characters that can be read in one month is fixed for Ondoku, knowing how the characters are counted is very important, isn't it?

Therefore, in this article, we will explain:

1. Are punctuation marks counted?
2. How are alphabets like English counted?
3. How is Chinese counted?
4. Are SSML tags counted?

and so on.

Counting characters in the Ondoku text box

Counting characters by eye is very difficult.

If you count character by character manually, your eyes might slip, or you might lose track of how far you've counted.

But it's okay.

Even when you want to accurately count the number of characters used in Ondoku, you can easily count them.

When you enter text into the Ondoku text box, "Number of characters: ○○ characters" will be displayed at the bottom right.

This is the number of characters counted by Ondoku when you press the "Read" button.
(If you are using SSML tags, it may not match this character count exactly.)

There is a high possibility of an error if you try to read a large number of characters at once.

Therefore, for the number of characters to be read at one time, we recommend:

• Regular reading: less than 5,000 characters
• SSML reading: less than 3,000 characters

Frequently Asked Questions about Ondoku character counting

Q1. Do you count punctuation marks?

→A. Yes, we do.

If you use Ondoku to read text that does not contain punctuation marks, it will read it all at once without any pauses or breaths.

Reading long sentences without punctuation tends to result in audio that is difficult to hear.

When you read with punctuation marks, the intonation changes, such as adding a slight pause at "、" or raising or lowering the end of the sentence at "。".

In this way, punctuation marks are important symbols for reading audio.

Therefore, the punctuation marks "、" and "。" are each counted as "1 character".

Q2. How are alphabets like English counted?

→A. Each alphabet letter is counted as one character.

So, how are English character counts determined?

In English-speaking countries, characters are often counted by word count.

For example, in the case of the sentence:
This is a pen.
it would be counted as 4 words in English-speaking countries.

For this reason, it is often thought that Ondoku uses the same method, but Ondoku's character counting method is different.

Ondoku's method for counting English text is to count each alphabet letter and space as one character.

In the case of the previous sentence:
This is a pen.
it would be 14 characters.

In Japanese, it is:
これはペンです。
which is 8 characters, so English text tends to have a higher character count.

In the case of alphabets such as English, the amount of characters used increases more than in Japanese, so we recommend using a plan with a larger number of characters.

Q3. How is Chinese counted?

→A. One character is counted as one character.

Conversely, for Chinese, the number of characters consumed tends to decrease.

This is because many Chinese words convey meaning with fewer characters.

For example, "This is a pen" is said in Chinese as:
这是一支笔。

In the case of 这是一支笔。 the character count is 6 characters.

Since sentences are formed with fewer characters than in Japanese, when reading Chinese with Ondoku, the character count tends to be lower than in other languages, even for sentences with the same meaning.

Q4. Are SSML tags counted?

→A. Some frequently used tags are not counted. However, some are.

If you want to create your own preferred questions or incorporate sentence delimiters or splitting functions, you can use tags called SSML.

What is Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML)? How to use it in text-to-speech software and a list of main codes. | Text-to-speech software Ondoku

SSML stands for Speech Synthesis Markup Language. By writing SSML code, you can further control Ondoku's speech. We will introduce in detail how to use SSML and the codes in Ondoku.

There are many types of SSML tags.

and are the most used tags.

I don't want to use SSML because the character count gets long.

Rest assured, you who thought so!

Only for these two tags, the characters are not counted.

However, if there is even a single character error such as an extra space in the tag, the tag will not be recognized correctly. In that case, the characters will be counted.

Understand the counting method and use it wisely

Character counting is really important when using Ondoku.

By understanding character counting and using it effectively, you can use Ondoku more efficiently.

Also, the character count for Ondoku is updated after one month.

By also keeping track of the update timing, you can use Ondoku without waste.

Please refer to this article as well.

Timing of Ondoku character count updates and how to check remaining characters | Text-to-speech software Ondoku

Ondoku has a fixed number of characters available each month. Do you know when the update occurs? Also, do you know where to check the remaining number of characters?

Ondoku is proud to be the best text-to-speech software for you.

We look forward to your continued support!

■ AI voice synthesis software "Ondoku"

"Ondoku" is an online text-to-speech tool that can be used with no initial costs.

• Supports approximately 50 languages, including Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, and German
• Available from both PC and smartphone
• Suitable for business, education, entertainment, etc.
• No installation required, can be used immediately from your browser
• Supports reading from images

To use it, simply enter text or upload a file on the site. A natural-sounding audio file will be generated within seconds. You can use voice synthesis up to 5,000 characters for free, so please give it a try.

Text-to-speech software "Ondoku" can read out 5000 characters every month with AI voice for free. You can easily download MP3s and commercial use is also possible. If you sign up for free, you can convert up to 5,000 characters per month for free from text to speech. Try Ondoku now.

HP: ondoku3.com
Email: ondoku3.com@gmail.com