TextSniper
TextSniper is a macOS menu bar utility that captures text from any area of your screen and copies it as editable text to the clipboard.
What is TextSniper?
TextSniper is a native macOS utility for extracting text from images, videos, PDFs, presentations, and other on-screen content that cannot be selected normally. It helps Mac users quickly turn visible text into editable clipboard text without retyping it by hand. The app works from the menu bar and can be triggered with a keyboard shortcut, making it convenient for everyday workflows such as copying text from screenshots, online videos, scanned documents, and presentation slides. TextSniper also includes text-to-speech for reading captured text aloud and can read QR codes and barcodes from the screen. It is built for Mac users who want a fast OCR helper that stays out of the way until needed.
Key features
- Capture text from any selected area of the screen and copy it to the clipboard.
- Start text capture from the menu bar or with a customizable keyboard shortcut.
- Extract text from images, PDFs, videos, presentations, and screenshots.
- Read captured text aloud with built-in text-to-speech.
- Recognize QR codes and barcodes shown on screen.
- Stay accessible as a lightweight menu bar utility without cluttering the Dock.
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Safety overview
Status: Mostly safe
TextSniper's screen capture function requires macOS Screen Recording permission, which is consistent with its purpose of reading text from your screen. According to the product's privacy information, screenshots and captured text are not stored locally by the app for this feature and are not sent to outside servers during capture, while license validation is checked online. As with any screen-reading tool, avoid capturing sensitive information unless you trust the app and your current clipboard contents are safe to paste elsewhere.
Recommendation: Keep TextSniper if you regularly copy text from images, videos, PDFs, or other non-selectable screen content on your Mac. If you no longer use OCR capture or text-to-speech in your workflow, you can remove it with little impact beyond losing those quick capture shortcuts and menu bar tools.
Common paths
/Applications/TextSniper.app
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