TextCapture – macOS OCR tool for developers

TL;DR

TL;DR: TextCapture is a $9 macOS app that extracts text from any screen region, QR code, barcode, or handwritten note using a keyboard shortcut. All processing is local — no text ever leaves your machine.

Source and Accuracy Notes

⚠️ This section is MANDATORY. All links must be verified from actual source, not guessed.

• Project page: textcapture.app ← verified live on 2026-08-30
• License: Proprietary (paid app, $9 one-time)
• HN launch: Show HN: I launched a super cheap and simple to use OCR tool for macOS (1 point — low visibility)
• System requirements: macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, Intel and Apple Silicon

What Is TextCapture?

TextCapture is a native macOS utility that captures text from on-screen content using a global keyboard shortcut. Unlike browser-based OCR or cloud-dependent services, all text recognition runs entirely on your local machine — no network requests, no data leaving your device.

The core workflow is a three-step loop: press the capture shortcut, select the screen region, and the recognized text lands in your clipboard ready to paste anywhere.

The HN launch description puts it simply:

“I launched a super cheap and simple to use OCR tool for macOS”

The product page describes it as:

“Text Capture is the best quick capture OCR tool for macOS. Saving you time and effort.”

Setup Workflow

Installation

1. Download the app from textcapture.app/download
2. Open the downloaded .dmg and drag TextCapture into your Applications folder
3. Launch TextCapture and grant Screen Recording permission in System Settings (required for screen access)

Core Keyboard Shortcuts

| Action | Shortcut | |---|---| | Capture text | ⇧ ⌘ 2 | | Scan QR/barcode | ⇧ ⌘ B | | Speak captured text | ⇧ ⌘ S | | Stop speaking | ⇧ ⌘ X | | Toggle line breaks | ⇧ ⌘ L | | Toggle additive clipboard | ⇧ ⌘ A | | Clear additive clipboard | ⇧ ⌘ C |

The additive clipboard mode accumulates captured text across multiple selections — useful when you are pulling from several regions before pasting once.

Customization

The keyboard shortcut is customizable in Settings. The app also supports the macOS system shortcut overlay, shown in the top-right corner when you press ⇧ ⌘ 2.

Features

Text Recognition

• Screen region capture — draw a box around any text on screen
• QR and barcode scanning — ⇧ ⌘ B opens the scanner and converts codes to plain text
• Handwritten note support — accuracy depends on handwriting clarity, but the tool handles it natively
• 18 languages — English (US), French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Cantonese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, Japanese, Russian, Ukrainian, Thai, Vietnamese, Arabic (Saudi Arabia), and Arabic (Najdi)

Local Processing

The product page explicitly states:

“No, text recognition is done locally on your machine, no data is sent to any servers.”

License verification contacts the developer’s server “occasionally” and requires internet access at least once every two weeks to check the license key. Outside of that, the app works fully offline.

Text-to-Speech

⇧ ⌘ S reads back the last captured text using your system voice. Useful if you want to verify the captured text without looking at the screen.

Capture History

A history panel accessible via the menu bar icon lets you review, re-select, and re-paste previous captures within the current session.

Pricing

One-time purchase: $9 (no subscription)

The product page states:

“There’s a 7 days money back guarantee policy. If you don’t like it, just contact us ([email protected]) and we’ll refund your purchase — no questions asked!”

Practical Evaluation Checklist

• macOS 14 Sonoma or newer required (Intel and Apple Silicon both supported)
• Screen Recording permission is mandatory — this is an macOS privacy requirement, not a data collection gate
• $9 one-time includes all future updates
• Keyboard shortcuts work globally, including in full-screen applications
• Additive clipboard mode changes the default behavior — off by default, toggle with ⇧ ⌘ A
• License check is periodic, not continuous — works on flights and isolated networks

Security Notes

Privacy model: Local OCR only. The app accesses the screen via the macOS Screen Recording API, which is gated by a system permission dialog. The developer is a single indie maker (identified by the @aueaaio X handle and contact email [email protected]).

No data collection: The product page explicitly denies any outbound data transmission for OCR processing. The only occasional network contact is a license key verification ping.

FAQ

Q: Do I need an internet connection to use TextCapture? A: No, OCR runs locally. You only need to be online occasionally (roughly every two weeks) to verify your license key. Activation requires an internet connection.

Q: Can it read handwritten notes? A: Yes, with accuracy dependent on handwriting clarity. The developer notes that “the accuracy depends on the clarity of the handwriting.”

Q: Does it work on Intel Macs? A: Yes. The system requirements specify “macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, Intel and Apple Silicon.”

Q: Can I customize the keyboard shortcut? A: Yes. The shortcut is customizable in the app’s settings panel.

Q: Is there a trial version? A: No free trial, but there is a 7-day money-back guarantee. Contact [email protected] for refunds.

Conclusion

TextCapture fills a specific niche: on-demand screen-to-text for macOS without the overhead of a cloud OCR service or a full screenshot annotation workflow. At $9, the price is reasonable for developers who regularly copy text from non-selectable UI elements, PDFs, or images.

The local-only processing model is the main differentiator — if you routinely handle sensitive documents and cannot send them to a remote OCR API, this is a practical tool to have installed.