TextPeek — text from anywhere on your screen

How it works

No screenshots into files. No waiting. No leaving the app you're in.

Press

A quiet crosshair appears. The screen stays live — nothing dims, nothing freezes.

Drag

Sweep a rectangle over the text, exactly like a screenshot selection. Esc cancels.

Paste

The recognized text is already on your clipboard. Paste anywhere with ⌘V.

Features

Everything runs on-device with Apple's Vision framework.

Text from unselectable places — videos, scanned PDFs, photos, slides, screencasts
QR & barcodes — decode to text: QR, EAN, Code 128/39, PDF417, Aztec, Data Matrix
Speak the capture — reads recognized text aloud with the system voice
Repeat last area — re-capture the same region as its content changes
Additive clipboard — stack several captures into one pasteable block
History — the last 20 captures, one click to copy again
13 languages — English, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (S/T), Japanese, Korean, Ukrainian
Line-break control — keep the layout, or flow lines into one paragraph
Sensible shortcuts — global keys that need no Accessibility permission
Launch at login — lives quietly in the menu bar

Privacy

No account. No cloud.

TextPeek makes no network requests at all. Every pixel and every character stays on your Mac: recognition is performed by the system Vision framework on-device. There is no telemetry, no analytics, no updates phoning home — settings live in local preferences and nowhere else.

FAQ

The short answers.

Which macOS do I need?

macOS 13 Ventura or newer, on Apple Silicon or Intel.

Why does it ask for Screen Recording permission?

Reading pixels from the screen requires that single macOS permission — the same one every screen tool needs. TextPeek asks once, explains why, and never requests anything else (no Accessibility, no microphone, no camera).

Which languages can it recognize?

Thirteen languages are selectable in Settings; effective support follows your macOS version, because recognition is provided by the operating system itself.

Does it work with two monitors?

Yes — the selection overlay covers every display, and captures are cropped per-display.

Is it really free?

Yes. Free forever, no subscriptions, no in-app purchases.

Where is the app signed?

This build is developer-signed locally. If macOS shows a verification notice the first time, allow it in System Settings › Privacy & Security — or build from source with one command.

How do I remove it?

Quit TextPeek from the menu bar and drag the app to the Trash. That's everything.

Download

Free forever. From OperateQ.

Download TextPeek 1.0

SHA256 · 7e80218c74a91791a9f9e84263dd258dbb78e457079b010584b3b15c62c15052

Prefer building it yourself? Clone the sources and run scripts/build-app.sh — one command builds, signs and assembles the app.