Win Dictation Dev# Win Dictation — Voice to Text for Windows  A push-to-talk speech-to-text utility for Windows. Press a hotkey, speak, and your words land in whatever app you were just using — fully offline, powered by Whisper. ## Quick Download **[Download Latest Release (WinDictation.zip)](release/WinDictation.zip)** Extract the ZIP file and run `win-dictation.exe`. The release includes all required DLLs and a Whisper model. For new releases, run `.\src\package.ps1` after building, then attach `dist\WinDictation.zip` to a [Gitea Release](https://docs.gitea.com/usage/packages/overview) on your instance. --- ## Documentation - **[User Manual](win-dictation-user-manual.html)** — How to use every feature - **[Architecture & Engineering Review](win-dictation-architecture-engineering-review.html)** — Deep dive into the codebase for developers --- ## Features ### Performance - **Physical-core threading**: Uses one thread per physical core for efficient batch transcription - **CPU-only**: Optimised for ordinary laptops — no GPU required - **Self-calibrating progress**: Learns transcription speed per model and machine, delivering a smooth countdown ### User Interface - **Single-surface rendering**: No inter-window seams or hairlines — the entire UI is one painted surface - **Dark theme**: Calm, elevated card design with hover/press feedback - **Per-monitor DPI awareness**: Looks sharp at any display scale - **System tray**: Minimise to tray, global hotkey to record ### Audio Processing - **Push-to-talk**: Press Ctrl+Shift+Space, speak, press again to transcribe - **Multiple microphones**: Select from all available input devices - **16 kHz sample rate**: Optimised for Whisper - **Silence trimming**: Leading and trailing silence is trimmed before transcription ## Quick Start 1. Launch `win-dictation.exe` 2. Click into wherever you want text, then press `Ctrl+Shift+Space` 3. Speak, then press `Ctrl+Shift+Space` again 4. Your words appear in the app you were using Full instructions in the [User Manual](win-dictation-user-manual.html). ### Controls - **Record/Stop**: Click the pill or press `Ctrl+Shift+Space` - **Hide window**: `Ctrl+Shift+H` - **Pin**: Keep window always-on-top - **Copy / Paste / Clear**: Text actions below the transcript - **Model / Mic / History**: Select from popup menus ## Building from Source ### Prerequisites - **Windows 10/11** - **CMake** 3.5+ - **Visual Studio 2022** with C++ workload - **SDL2** (included in deps/) ### Build Steps ```powershell cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" ^ -DSDL2_DIR="deps/SDL2-2.28.5/cmake" cmake --build build --config Release ``` The executable will be at `build\bin\Release\win-dictation.exe`. ## Technical Details ### Architecture ``` Hotkey → SDL Capture → Stop → Batch whisper_full → Text → Auto-paste ``` 1. **SDL audio capture**: 16 kHz mono recording into memory. CPU stays near idle while recording. 2. **Stop-and-transcribe**: One `whisper_full` call processes the full clip at once. 3. **Progress estimation**: Decayed online least-squares model per machine/model, fused with whisper's chunk progress into a strictly monotonic countdown. 4. **Text output**: Inserted at cursor with smart spacing, copied to clipboard, and optionally auto-pasted into the window you came from. ### Models Place `.bin` files in `models/` next to the executable, or download them from the Settings screen in-app: | Model | Size | Best for | |-------|------|----------| | tiny.en | ~75 MB | Fastest — everyday dictation | | tiny.en-q8_0 | ~42 MB | Same speed, smaller file | | base.en-q5_1 | ~59 MB | Good accuracy bump for little cost | | base.en | ~142 MB | More accurate; still reasonable on two cores | | small.en-q5_1 | ~182 MB | Accurate, but slower | | small.en | ~466 MB | Most accurate — and slowest | ## Project Structure ``` win-dictation/ ├── src/ # Application source │ ├── main.cpp # Window, painting, interaction, settings, clipboard, popups │ ├── transcriber.* # SDL capture, Whisper preload/inference, progress callbacks │ ├── timing.h # Learned timing model + live progress estimator │ ├── history.h # Session text files, index, pruning │ ├── downloader.h # WinHTTP model downloader (background thread) │ ├── stats.h # Lifetime usage totals + derived figures │ ├── settings.h # INI persistence │ ├── text_util.h # Transcript concatenation helpers │ ├── logging.h # Timestamped file log │ └── tests/ # Unit tests (test-core.exe) ├── whisper/ # Whisper.cpp library ├── ggml/ # GGML tensor library ├── models/ # Whisper model files ├── history/ # Saved dictation sessions ├── release/ # Pre-built package └── CMakeLists.txt # Build configuration ``` ## License [GNU General Public License v3.0](LICENSE) This project is licensed under GPLv3. It incorporates [whisper.cpp](https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp) (MIT), [ggml](https://github.com/ggerganov/ggml) (MIT), and [SDL2](https://www.libsdl.org/) (zlib). ## Resources - [User Manual](win-dictation-user-manual.html) - [Architecture & Engineering Review](win-dictation-architecture-engineering-review.html) - [Whisper.cpp](https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp) - [Model Downloads](https://huggingface.co/ggerganov/whisper.cpp)