Pluck text off
your screen

Press ⌃⇧T, drag a box over any text on your screen, and paste it anywhere. Even in videos, scanned PDFs, images and apps that won’t let you select text.

Download for Mac
  • macOS 14 Sonoma or later
  • Apple silicon and Intel
  • Works offline

How it works

  1. Press ⌃⇧T
  2. Drag a box over the text
  3. Paste it anywhere
Watch it copy from:

Copy the slide of a paused lecture video into Notes.

Features

Check it before you paste

After a capture, a small message shows how many words were copied. Press Edit to see the text, fix a word, copy it again or hear it read aloud. Prefer to always see the text first? Turn that on in Settings.

TextPluck

Quarterly revenue grew 12% to $4.2 million, led by the new annual plan in Canada and the UK.

Try it: edit the text, then press Copy or Speak.

Clean text, ready to paste

Line breaks stay where they were on screen. Words split across two lines can be joined back together. Quotes, dashes and accents come through as they are, and code keeps its indentation.

Split words are joined

Please send the infor-
mation by Friday.
Please send the information
by Friday.

Quotes and dashes are kept

“It’s ready — ship it,”
she said.
“It’s ready — ship it,”
she said.

Code keeps its indentation

if (ready) { ship(); } if (ready) { ship(); }

Find it again later

Your last 50 captures are kept as text on your Mac, never as images. Search them, copy one again, or turn history off.

History
  • Invoice INV-2026-0412, due 30 NovemberToday, 09:41
  • Error 0x8007045D: the request could not be performedToday, 08:15
  • Password: blue-harbour-2026Yesterday
  • Photosynthesis, in two stagesYesterday
  • Meeting moved to Thursday, 3 pm, room BMonday
  • git rebase --onto main feature-a feature-bMonday

Try it: type “invoice” or “git”.

QR codes and barcodes, too

Choose Read QR / Barcode from the menu bar, or give it its own shortcut, and drag over the code. What’s inside is copied. If it’s a link, open it straight from the message.

Copied QR / barcode contenthttps://textpluck.app
Open Link

Reads 28 languages

TextPluck finds the language by itself, or you choose your languages in Settings. The app itself is also translated into all 28.

  • English
  • French
  • Italian
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese
  • Chinese
  • Cantonese
  • Korean
  • Japanese
  • Russian
  • Ukrainian
  • Thai
  • Vietnamese
  • ArabicmacOS 15+
  • Turkish*
  • Indonesian*
  • Czech*
  • Danish*
  • Dutch*
  • Norwegian*
  • Malay*
  • Polish*
  • Romanian*
  • Swedish*
  • FinnishmacOS 27+
  • HindimacOS 27+
  • MarathimacOS 27+

* Needs a newer version of macOS. The languages come from Apple Vision, and Settings shows the ones your Mac can read. Chinese includes simplified and traditional characters.

Stays on your Mac

TextPluck has no internet access at all. Apple Vision reads the text on your Mac, and the picture of your selection is gone the moment the text is ready.

Text recognition
Apple Vision, on your Mac
Internet access
None. The app is sandboxed with no network permission.
Screenshots
Kept in memory during the capture, never saved to disk
History
Text only, on your Mac. You can turn it off.
Account
Not needed
Analytics and tracking
None

Coming soon

Mac App Store

TextPluck is coming to the Mac App Store, with automatic updates. Until then, download it here.

Questions

Can’t find your answer? Write to us.

How do I start a capture?

Press ⌃⇧T (Control, Shift, T), or click the TextPluck icon in the menu bar and choose Capture Text. Drag a box over the text. Press Esc to cancel. You can change the shortcut in Settings.

Why does it ask for Screen Recording permission?

macOS asks for it before any app can read what is on your screen. TextPluck only looks at the box you draw, only when you draw it, and never saves the picture. The first-launch window takes you to the right place in System Settings and tells you when it is done.

Which languages can it read?

28 languages, from English and Chinese to Arabic and Hindi: see the full list. Some need a newer version of macOS, and Settings shows the ones your Mac can read. The app’s own menus and windows are translated into the same 28 languages.

Does it work on videos, PDFs and remote desktops?

Yes. If you can see it on screen, you can capture it: paused videos, scanned PDFs, photos, slides, screen shares, remote desktop windows and app buttons. For video, pause on a sharp frame first.

Does it work with more than one display?

Yes. The capture overlay covers every screen, so you can draw your box on whichever one you are looking at.

I can’t see the icon in the menu bar.

On newer versions of macOS, menu bar icons can be hidden. Open System Settings › Menu Bar and allow TextPluck. The shortcut works even while the icon is hidden.

What do I need?

A Mac with macOS 14 Sonoma or later, with Apple silicon or an Intel processor.

Stop retyping what’s already on your screen

Download for Mac

For macOS 14 Sonoma or later.