TextMan For Mac

Web developers sometimes make it difficult to copy text from a page, and there are various types of media where text might be visible but not selectable. To extract it quickly, without having to type it all up, you’ll need an OCR tool.

TextMan is just such a tool. It allows you to grab a screenshot of an area of your desktop, and it automatically detects and extracts any text found within. It’s designed to be quick and simple to use, all with keyboard shortcuts.

Once the app is up and running, just press ⌘⇧2 to start a screen capture. The shortcut can be customized. After selecting an area, if any text is detected, it will be captured and sent to the clipboard. You can then paste it anywhere you like.

When grabbing a new snapshot, the existing text in the clipboard will be replaced, but you can still access the previous capture from the menu bar. Past clippings are stored for one minute by default, but you can increase this period or keep them indefinitely.

When text is detected and copied to the clipboard, you can configure the app to also display it on your desktop briefly, as a notification in the bottom-right corner of your screen.

From here, you also have the option to play the text aloud, which is an easy way to tell if it was extracted correctly.

The main thing TextMan has going for it is its intuitive design. If you’ve ever captured a screenshot in macOS, you can use this app.

Text extraction is very accurate, which is to be expected given advancements in OCR technology. When pasting, the text’s formatting is reproduced as well, including line breaks. It might be helpful to have an option to remove line breaks, as text may need to be formatted manually in order to remove them.

Overall, TextMan is suitable for anyone who needs a simple, easy-to-use text extraction tool. It has no learning curve to speak of, and it provides accurate results instantly.