How to copy text from a screenshot on Mac

Need the text from a design, an error message, or a web page that won’t let you select it? You don’t have to type it out. macOS includes on-device OCR, and the fastest way to reach it is a screenshot tool that reads text the moment you capture.

Use the built-in Mac ways first

In the macOS Screenshot app (Shift-Command-5), take a capture, then open it and select the text to copy. This works for text already saved as an image too — open it in Preview, select, and copy. It’s free and fine for the occasional capture.

Where it falls down: it takes several steps, and it only handles text — not links, not other languages well.

Get it in one step with iShot

With iShot, OCR is part of the capture. You make a region selection and the OCR panel lifts the text for you in one shot — copy it, or open or copy links and deep links directly. It runs on-device, so images never leave your Mac.

• Copy all on-screen text at once, not line by line.
• Decode QR codes and barcodes in the same scan.
• Copy links straight off the pixels — no hunting in bars or menus.

For text that’s already an image (a scan, a saved screenshot), open it in iShot’s editor and select the text to copy from it too.

Why on-device matters

On-device OCR means your screenshots aren’t uploaded to a server to be read. That keeps private content — passwords, purchase receipts, client work — on your machine.

Want to grab text off a long page or translate what you captured instead? See scrolling screenshots and translating text in screenshots.