OCR on Mac: How to Copy Text From an Image or Screenshot

Open the image in Preview or Photos, select the text with the pointer, then Control-click and choose Copy Text. This is Live Text, built into macOS. If the text is not in a file, such as an app window or a remote desktop session, Tegaro lets you select an area of the screen and puts its text on the clipboard.

OCR means turning the text in a picture into text you can select and paste. macOS does this natively through Live Text, so many people do not need an extra app.

1. Live Text in Preview

Open the image in Preview and drag across the text. If you cannot select it, choose Tools → Text Selection to turn on the Text Selection tool. Control-click the selection and choose Copy Text.

2. Live Text in Photos and Safari

In Photos, open a photo that shows text, point at the text and Control-click the selection to copy, translate or look it up. Safari offers the same for images on web pages. In many apps Live Text can also select text in a video that is paused, on macOS 13 and later.

3. Screenshots

Take the screenshot with Shift + Command + 4, open the saved file in Preview, then follow step 1. It works, though it is two steps and leaves a file you have to delete.

4. The Shortcuts app

The Shortcuts app has an Extract Text from Image action, useful if you want a repeatable shortcut. You build it yourself.

Limits to know

Apple notes that Live Text is not available in all regions or languages, so check the macOS Feature Availability page for yours. Recognition depends on a clear image: small, blurred or low-contrast text produces mistakes, so read the result before you use it.

Where Tegaro fits

Tegaro Screenshots has Text mode for text that is on screen rather than in a file, wherever Live Text does not reach, such as a remote desktop session or an app that draws its own text.

• Press ⌃⌥T, select an area, and its text is on the clipboard.
• It recognises Russian and English, on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded.
• The same mode reads a QR code (and Aztec, Data Matrix and PDF417) in the selected area. Setup codes for one-time passwords and Wi-Fi codes with a password are copied marked private and never saved to Clipboard history.
• If Clipboard history is on, screenshots you take also land in it with their recognised text, so you can find one later by the words in it.

If you need a language other than Russian or English, use Live Text. Screenshots needs macOS Screen Recording access. Everything is open for 14 days; after that, Screenshots is part of Pro.