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> Are there other solutions out there? yes you can just do cmd+shift+4 to take a screen shot, then open the screenshot in the popup that appears and MacOS will

> Are there other solutions out there? yes you can just do cmd+shift+4 to take a screen shot, then open the screenshot in the popup that appears and MacOS will automatically OCR it (orc button in the bottom right). This is a built in functionality in MacOS

jwells89 2y ago
Works for images in Preview and even in Safari too. Super handy.
- evilduck 2y ago
  Works in Photos.app for searching for text in your photo albums too. macOS OCR behavior extends to most similar things in iOS too.
  - bobnamob 2y ago
    Which makes Photos.app a surprisingly good recipe book.
    - evilduck 2y ago
      Also as a rolodex. I just take pictures of business cards and you can long press to OCR the phone number and dial from that immediately with no need to even create contact entries unless it becomes a repeat relationship, and if you do, you can usually insta-create the contact card in full with just a long press on the image.
- vundercind 2y ago
  The moment I realized this was now a table-stakes feature for a GUI OS, for me, was when I’d been reading and copy-pasting from an image for a couple minutes before realizing it wasn’t a PDF.
- frizlab 2y ago
  You can even search for text in images in Safari. I was dumbfounded the first time I searched for some text in a page and Safari found it in an image on the page.
joshdavham 2y ago
Agreed. But I do wonder if this product provides a better enough UX to be worth it’s current price. In my case, it doesn’t support the languages I use so I’ll be sticking with the default Mac feature.
selcuka 2y ago
Interestingly the macOS one is not very accurate. I took a screenshot of your comment and macOS OCR read the "cmd+shift+4" as "cod+shift+4".
- Wowfunhappy 2y ago
  The thing is, if the linked app is using Apple's Vision API, it will perform the same.
  - selcuka 2y ago
    Good point. From the list of supported languages [1] it looks like it is in fact using the Vision API in fast mode (as accurate mode seems to support more languages). [1] https://www.textcapture.app/#faq https://www.textcapture.app/#faq
- wingerlang 2y ago
  It correctly OCR'd it for me.
- c0wb0yc0d3r 2y ago
  I wonder why that is? Could it mean that Apple trained their ocr tool to favor nontechnical text. Meaning the tool determined that “cod” was more likely than “cmd” Interestingly, iOS corrected “cmd” to “cod” when I first typed it out.
constantlm 2y ago
I've been doing this for a while and find that the OCR performance is fantastic.
blacksmith_tb 2y ago
I have been using this one for quite a while, it works well for me: https://github.com/schappim/macOCR https://github.com/schappim/macOCR (I'd say my number one use is snagging urls out of Zoom presentations, quicker and easier than a screenshot)
gumboshoes 2y ago
I disabled that function because it gives the false illusion that docs and images can be saved with text and then will be indexable and searchable in the Finder and other apps; they are not. When I open a PDF, I need to know that it has native text actually saved in the file. If it doesn't, then I will OCR it so it is for sure indexable and searchable.

jwells89 2y ago

Works for images in Preview and even in Safari too. Super handy.

evilduck 2y ago
Works in Photos.app for searching for text in your photo albums too. macOS OCR behavior extends to most similar things in iOS too.
- bobnamob 2y ago
  Which makes Photos.app a surprisingly good recipe book.
  - evilduck 2y ago
    Also as a rolodex. I just take pictures of business cards and you can long press to OCR the phone number and dial from that immediately with no need to even create contact entries unless it becomes a repeat relationship, and if you do, you can usually insta-create the contact card in full with just a long press on the image.
vundercind 2y ago
The moment I realized this was now a table-stakes feature for a GUI OS, for me, was when I’d been reading and copy-pasting from an image for a couple minutes before realizing it wasn’t a PDF.
frizlab 2y ago
You can even search for text in images in Safari. I was dumbfounded the first time I searched for some text in a page and Safari found it in an image on the page.

joshdavham 2y ago

Agreed. But I do wonder if this product provides a better enough UX to be worth it’s current price. In my case, it doesn’t support the languages I use so I’ll be sticking with the default Mac feature.

selcuka 2y ago

Interestingly the macOS one is not very accurate. I took a screenshot of your comment and macOS OCR read the "cmd+shift+4" as "cod+shift+4".

Wowfunhappy 2y ago
The thing is, if the linked app is using Apple's Vision API, it will perform the same.
- selcuka 2y ago
  Good point. From the list of supported languages [1] it looks like it is in fact using the Vision API in fast mode (as accurate mode seems to support more languages). [1] https://www.textcapture.app/#faq https://www.textcapture.app/#faq
wingerlang 2y ago
It correctly OCR'd it for me.
c0wb0yc0d3r 2y ago
I wonder why that is? Could it mean that Apple trained their ocr tool to favor nontechnical text. Meaning the tool determined that “cod” was more likely than “cmd” Interestingly, iOS corrected “cmd” to “cod” when I first typed it out.

constantlm 2y ago

I've been doing this for a while and find that the OCR performance is fantastic.

blacksmith_tb 2y ago

I have been using this one for quite a while, it works well for me: https://github.com/schappim/macOCR https://github.com/schappim/macOCR (I'd say my number one use is snagging urls out of Zoom presentations, quicker and easier than a screenshot)

gumboshoes 2y ago

I disabled that function because it gives the false illusion that docs and images can be saved with text and then will be indexable and searchable in the Finder and other apps; they are not. When I open a PDF, I need to know that it has native text actually saved in the file. If it doesn't, then I will OCR it so it is for sure indexable and searchable.