Utilities · Grab Text from Screen

Copy text from anywhere on your Mac screen

Drag over anything on screen — a video, a photo, a locked PDF — and copy the text in it.

Runs on your MacScreen Recording permission

Get OneMacTools — $29 More Utilities tools

Three steps. That's it.

1
Click the button
Start from the app, the menu bar icon or a Shortcuts keyboard shortcut.
2
Choose the options
Set what you need in the options panel, such as hide onemactools while selecting. Your choices are remembered for next time.
3
Get the result
The result lands in a new dated folder in Downloads › OneMacTools. Your originals are never changed.

What Grab Text from Screen does

Click Capture, drag over the part of the screen that has the text, and it's on your clipboard. Text recognition runs on your Mac with Apple's Vision framework, so it works on paused videos, images, slides, and apps that won't let you select text.

Asks for Screen Recording permission the first time you use it.

Options

Hide OneMacTools while selectingKeep or join line breaksAlso save as a text file

Great for

Copy a booking code from a screenshot
Grab a quote from a paused video
Copy text from a slide in a video call

Questions about Grab Text from Screen

Does Grab Text from Screen upload my files?

No. Grab Text from Screen runs entirely on your Mac, so your files never leave it and it works offline.

Will Grab Text from Screen change my original files?

No. Results are saved as new files in a dated folder in Downloads › OneMacTools, and your originals are left exactly as they were unless you turn on an option that says otherwise.

What does Grab Text from Screen need?

Just a Mac with macOS 26 or later. There's nothing else to install.