TextGrab

Ekrandaki her metni aninda yakala. Screen OCR for macOS.

Demo • Features • Installation • Usage • Building • License

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Demo

https://github.com/reputasyon/TextGrab/releases/download/v0.1.0/TextGrab-Promo.mp4

Press Control + Option + T, select a region, text is copied to your clipboard. That's it.

Features

• Instant OCR — Select any region on screen, get the text in your clipboard
• Global Hotkey — Works from any app with ⌃⌥T (customizable)
• Multi-Language — Turkish, English, German, French recognition
• Apple Vision — Uses Apple's native Vision framework for high accuracy
• Multi-Monitor — Works across all connected displays
• Retina Support — Captures at native resolution for best OCR results
• Lightweight — Menu bar app, no dock icon, ~860 lines of Swift
• Privacy First — Everything runs locally, no data leaves your Mac

Installation

Download

Download the latest release from Releases.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/abdullahcadirci/TextGrab.git
cd TextGrab
swift build -c release

The binary will be at .build/release/TextGrab.

Usage

1. Launch TextGrab — it appears as a magnifier icon in the menu bar
2. Press ⌃⌥T (Control + Option + T) or click the menu bar icon
3. Drag to select the region containing text
4. Text is automatically copied to your clipboard
5. Paste anywhere with ⌘V

First Launch

macOS will ask for Screen Recording permission on first use. Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen Recording and enable TextGrab.

Change Shortcut

Click the menu bar icon > Ayarlar... to open the settings window. Click the shortcut field and press your desired key combination.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
⌃⌥T	Capture text from screen (default, customizable)
Escape	Cancel selection
⌘Q	Quit

How It Works

Hotkey → Screen Overlay → Region Selection → ScreenCaptureKit → Vision OCR → Clipboard

1. Global hotkey registered via Carbon API
2. Transparent overlay window covers all screens
3. User drags to select a region
4. ScreenCaptureKit captures the selected area at native resolution
5. Vision framework performs text recognition
6. Recognized text is copied to the system clipboard
7. Toast notification confirms the result

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
UI	SwiftUI (MenuBarExtra)
Screen Capture	ScreenCaptureKit
OCR	Apple Vision (VNRecognizeTextRequest)
Global Hotkey	Carbon (RegisterEventHotKey)
Preferences	UserDefaults
Build	Swift Package Manager

Project Structure

TextGrab/
├── Package.swift
├── Sources/
│   ├── TextGrabApp.swift          # App entry + menu bar
│   ├── CaptureCoordinator.swift   # Orchestrates capture flow
│   ├── HotkeyManager.swift        # Carbon global hotkey
│   ├── SelectionOverlay.swift     # Region selection UI
│   ├── OCREngine.swift            # Vision framework OCR
│   ├── PreferencesManager.swift   # Shortcut preferences
│   ├── SettingsView.swift         # Settings window
│   └── ToastWindow.swift          # Toast notifications
└── video/                         # Promo video (Remotion)

Building

Requirements:

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
• Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)

# Debug build
swift build

# Release build
swift build -c release

# Run directly
swift run TextGrab

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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Built with Swift and Vision framework.
Made by Abdullah Cadirci