Show HN: I launched a super cheap and simple to use OCR tool for macOS

> 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

selcuka · a year 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 · a year ago

The thing is, if the linked app is using Apple's Vision API, it will perform the same.

c0wb0yc0d3r · a year 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.

wingerlang · a year ago

It correctly OCR'd it for me.

gumboshoes · a year 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.

blacksmith_tb · a year ago

I have been using this one for quite a while, it works well for me:

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)

joshdavham · a year 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.

constantlm · a year ago

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

jwells89 · a year ago

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

frizlab · a year 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.

evilduck · a year 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.

vundercind · a year 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.

jedbrooke · a year ago

scratchyone · a year ago

This looks wonderful! Just a small heads up, you have a meta tag listing @marc_louvion as the creator (assuming this landing page is built on one of his templates?). I figure you may want to update that so it has your info instead.

  <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@marc_louvion">

auden_pierce · a year ago

Thanks!

wodenokoto · a year ago

If you have installed Microsofts Power Toys on Windows [1], you can win+shift+T and select any area on screen and windows will OCR it and store it on your clipboard.

It's not SOTA AI powered OCR, but works great for copying a link on a streamed tech talk or text from an application / website that tries to make text not-selectable.

[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/

scosman · a year ago

What makes it better than screenshot and Preview? The built in OCR is pretty great on MacOS.

Aaron2222 · a year ago

If it's something you'd have to screenshot to use OCR on (i.e. it doesn't just let you directly select the text), this (and the other options) is a bit faster than having to take a screenshot then select the text from it (you select the region like when taking a screenshot and the text is OCRed and copied to the pasteboard in one go).

I use EasyDict, which also does translations with multiple services. Open source. https://github.com/tisfeng/Easydict

jitl · a year ago

The system does this automatically on macOS and iOS in screenshots and stuff.

dmitrygr · a year ago

This is built into the OS itself. I don’t get it. What am I missing? I can select text in any image or screenshot seamlessly and very accurately, for $0.00 up front and $0.00 per month.

eviks · a year ago

Native OS is limited to a few apps, so not seamless?

Screenshots auto-do OCR and you can screenshot anything.

eevmanu · a year ago

Any decent alternative for Linux or Ubuntu-based OS? Thanks.

danpla · a year ago

Try dpScreenOCR:

https://danpla.github.io/dpscreenocr/