TRex For Mac

OCR (Optical character recognition) is great for extracting text that cannot be selected. Whether it's in an image, a PDF file, a web page, or even a video, you can use OCR apps to detect text, which is much faster than typing it all over again.

TRex is a lightweight open-source app that offers probably the best macOS integration of OCR that we've seen so far. It is incredibly easy to use — just grab a screenshot using a customizable hotkey and recognized text will be copied to the clipboard automatically.

Once launched, TRex runs in the menu bar. It's a good idea to set up a global hotkey for capturing text if you use it on a regular basis. After triggering the hotkey, you just have to select an area of the screen where text can be found, and the app will send it to the clipboard instantly.

If you like, you can enable notifications to get a preview of the captured text. Otherwise, the app will just copy it to the clipboard, and you can paste it in any field or text processor without missing a beat.

TRex offers some advanced features as well. It can recognize links in captured text, or even barcodes and QR codes, and open them automatically as the image is processed.

If you want to integrate the software with other apps, you can set up a URL scheme from the app's preferences.

At the moment, TRex can detect text written in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese. The algorithm was quite accurate during our tests, and the fact that it's so unobtrusive makes the app a seamless addition to macOS.

If you're looking for a quick and simple OCR tool, TRex is probably the best choice for macOS users. The app is completely free, but if you want to support the developer, you can purchase it on the App Store.