Extract Text From Your Mac Anywhere
How many times have you tried to copy some text and for whatever reason it was not able to be copied? Trying to copy non-selectable text can be a real bear and honestly, it can be a pain when you really need to select/copy/paste information from one source to another. TextSniper is a unique Mac app that allows its users to capture and extract any text from any source on the screen.
DETAILS
TextSniper is ‘text recognition simplified.’ The app, which is exclusive to computers running macOS, makes it possible for users to extract text from images and other digital documents within seconds. The app requires macOS Catalina or Big Sur and it makes it possible to instantly capture non-selectable text from any source including YouTube videos, PDFs, images, online courses, screencasts, presentations, webpages, video tutorials, photos, and more. The process is as easy as taking a screenshot using the built-in snipping tool for Mac.
Main Features
- On-device OCR technology. No internet connection is needed.
- Instant text recognition. No need to upload files into the application. OCR document or file on the fly.
- High accuracy and performance processing any documents.
- Recognizes even tiny text on images with low quality or dense background.
- Customizable. Custom keyboard shortcuts to extract text with various options.
- You can have TextSniper speak the recognition in multiple languages. Running macOS Catalina – only English language is supported.
- Use your iPad or iPhone device camera to quickly capture text from a photo or scanned document.
- Fully compatible with macOS Big Sur and optimized for Apple’s M1 chips.
USER EXPERIENCE
Using TextSniper is very easy. You simply download the application and then enter the designated keyboard shortcut (CMD + Shift + 2 by default) to bring up the crosshairs of the screen snipping tool. This is different than a standard screen snip. Instead of creating an image that saves to your desktop, the screen snipping tool grabs the text from the portion of the screen that is selected and copies it to the clipboard. At this point, you can press CMD + V to paste the copied text into your document or wherever you intend to use the text.
One of the features I really like about TextSniper is that it’s virtually invisible until you need it. The app is always present as a keyboard shortcut or in the menu bar, but doesn’t clutter up the dock with an extra app icon. TextSniper also works super quick. I was shocked at how quickly the selected text was processed and copied to the clipboard. I thought it would take a lot more processing time than it did, but it’s nearly instantaneous. As a bonus, TextSniper can also read text from images using the Mac Text-to-Speech feature. I’ve used this a time or two and it’s a powerful piece of technology.
Because we publish press releases on MacSources, we actually run into non-selectable text quite frequently. We also sometimes need to copy/paste details about products directly from product developers’ websites and they don’t provide selectable text. Apple’s website is notorious for this. TextSniper makes it possible to get that valuable information with just a few clicks and key presses. It is incredibly easy to use and it works.
CONCLUSION
TextSniper is something I feel every Mac user should have. It makes capturing text – no matter how it’s displayed – possible. There is a free trial version that can be downloaded directly from textsniper.app. When you purchase a license, it’s good for one Mac unless you select the multi-use license, which is available from the TextSniper website. The license is available as a one-time purchase for $6.99 (one license) or $9.99 (three licenses).
For more details, visit Text Sniper, Facebook, and Twitter.
