microOCR by microAI
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Trace the screen, and the text is yours.

Images, video, PDFs — text you can't select becomes text you can paste. Press ⌘⇧2, drag over it, and it's on your clipboard.

Download for Mac See how it works

Full 2-day trial · macOS 15+ · no card required

コミックファイル編集表示 14:32
Episode 12.pdf
静かな夜だった。風が、路地の看板を鳴らしている。
まだ、間に合うはずだ。
Copied to clipboard Cleaned up
まだ、間に合うはずだ。
⌘⇧2

⌘⇧2 → drag → copied. Two actions, done.

01UNCOPYABLE TEXT

Uncopyable text, gone.

If it's on your screen, you can copy it now. Press the hotkey, drag over it. That's all.

Images Paused video PDFs Slides Error dialogs Live streams
microOCR 2 actions
Press ⌘⇧2 → Drag over it

Recognized text lands straight on your clipboard.

Stock macOS (Live Text via Preview) 5 actions
Take a screenshot → Open in Preview → Wait for recognition → Select the text → Copy

And a screenshot file is left on your desktop.

02VERTICAL JAPANESE

Vertical Japanese, actually.

The legacy engine most OCR apps use can't read vertical text. microOCR reads paperbacks, manga and newspapers.

Legacy engine used by most OCR apps
6 chars

A fragment of one speech bubble.

microOCR vertical-aware engine + cleanup
618 chars

Nearly the whole spread.

Measured: the same manga spread, read by both engines as-is.

From one character per line, back to a sentence.

Vertical OCR tends to break every character onto its own line. microOCR joins them and normalizes spacing — it pastes ready to use.

Raw output
ま
だ
、
間
に
合
⋮
Cleaned
まだ、間に合うはずだ。
03HIGH-ACCURACY MODE

For complex layouts: High-accuracy mode.

Newspapers and magazines can scramble reading order. High-accuracy mode is a second capture you choose from the menu — cloud AI reconstructs the reading order, and nothing else.

Fabrication guard

Cloud output is checked mechanically against character coverage.

If it looks off, it's discarded — you get the on-device result.

Built to never be fluently wrong.

1 2 3

The characters stay on-device. Only the order is fixed.

04THE SMALL WINS

Small, but daily.

QR & barcodes

If your selection contains a code, its contents are copied too.

あA中

Automatic language detection

No manual switching. Mixed Japanese and English? Fine.

まだ、間に合うはずだ。14:32 エラーコード 0x8007000514:27 会議室 B・14:00〜13:55

Text-only history

Only recognized text is kept, locally. Screenshot images are never stored.

Copy again エラーコード 0x80070005 会議室 B・14:00〜

One-click re-copy

Any past result, back on your clipboard from the menu bar.

05PRIVATE BY DESIGN

Normally, it never leaves this Mac.

Regular captures are recognized fully on-device. The screen is touched only at the moment of capture, and there is no telemetry.

Regular capture On-device
This Mac
Selection → Recognition → Clipboard
All recognition happens on this Mac
No screenshot images are stored
No telemetry
High-accuracy mode Only when you choose it
This Mac
not stored
One image of your selection ↗ ↙ Reading order only
Sends one image of the selected area
Never stored on the server
Explicitly chosen from the menu
The only permission is Screen Recording — on macOS, the only way to read text on screen.
06THE DETAILS

The details.

Your hotkey

Default is ⌘⇧2. Change it to anything.

Cleanup

Joins single-character lines, normalizes spacing.

History

Recognized text only, stored locally.

QR & barcodes

Codes in the selection are copied as content.

あA

Auto language detection

No switching. Mixed scripts welcome.

High-accuracy mode

Cloud AI reconstructs reading order in complex layouts.

Menu bar resident

No Dock icon. Quietly waiting.

UI in 14 languages

Japanese, English and 12 more.

07REQUIREMENTS & FAQ

Requirements & FAQ.

OSmacOS 15 or later
PermissionScreen Recording only
Runs inthe menu bar
UI languages14
Trial2 days · all features · no card
How is this different from Live Text?
macOS can read screen text, but it takes five actions — screenshot, open in Preview, wait, select, copy — and leaves a file behind. microOCR is two actions (⌘⇧2, drag) straight to the clipboard, and it reads vertical Japanese properly.
How well does it read vertical text?
Measured on the same manga spread: the legacy engine got 6 characters, microOCR got 618. Paperbacks and newspapers work too, and single-character line breaks are joined automatically.
Are my images sent anywhere?
Not in regular captures — recognition is fully on-device. Only High-accuracy mode sends one image of the selected area to the cloud, and it is never stored.
Does it work offline?
Regular mode works entirely offline. Only High-accuracy mode needs a connection.
Why does it need Screen Recording?
On macOS it is the only official way to read pixels on screen. The screen is accessed only at the moment you capture.

Simple pricing.

Try everything free for 2 days — no card required.

Yearly Recommended
$6 / year

Always the latest version while subscribed. Cancel anytime.

Buy
One-time
$15 once

Pay once, keep it — with a year of updates included.

Buy

Full 2-day trial — every feature, no card. A license key arrives by email and activates several Macs. Checkout is handled by a Merchant of Record, taxes included.

First, two days.

Try every feature, then decide. No card needed.

Download for Mac

Full 2-day trial · macOS 15+ · no card required