Kapture

A native macOS menu bar app that captures a screen region, shows the screenshot in a window, and extracts text from it on demand with on-device Vision OCR.

Press ⌘⇧S, drag to select an area, and a window opens with your screenshot. Click Get Text to recognize the text — it is copied to your clipboard and shown alongside the image.

No network calls, no API keys — everything runs locally.

Features

• Global hotkey ⌘⇧S works from any app
• Region selection overlay (all screens, Escape cancels)
• Launch at Login toggle in the menu bar
• The screenshot appears in a window (Screenshot / Text tabs) instead of being instantly OCR'd
• Get Text button runs on-device OCR (English, Chinese simplified/traditional, Japanese, Korean) and auto-copies the result to the clipboard
• Save PNG… keeps the screenshot without any OCR
• Open an existing image file (or drag) via the menu bar icon
• Menu bar icon with permission status

Install with Homebrew

brew tap TZGyn/tap
brew trust TZGyn/tap          # Homebrew 6+ requires trusting third-party taps
brew install --cask kapture

Releases are published as zips on GitHub Releases; release.sh packages a new one (./release.sh 1.0.1 && git tag v1.0.1 && git push origin v1.0.1). The cask lives in the TZGyn/homebrew-tap repository — bump the version and sha256 there for each release.

Note: builds are ad-hoc signed (no App Store / Developer ID notarization), so first launch of a new version may trigger a Gatekeeper warning — users can right-click → Open, or the warning goes away when the binary identity matches a previously-granted permission.

Build & run

./build-app.sh          # produces Kapture.app
open Kapture.app        # or drag to /Applications

For development without the bundle:

swift run Kapture       # runs from terminal (will appear in Dock)

First launch

1. Click the menu bar icon → Grant Screen Recording Permission… (required so the app can capture the screen; opening image files works without it).
2. Press ⌘⇧S, drag to select a region, release — the screenshot opens in a window.
3. Click Get Text — the extracted text is copied to your clipboard and shown in the Text tab.

Note: macOS may require re-granting Screen Recording permission after rebuilding the app, since the binary identity changes.

Smoke test

swift run Kapture --test-ocr   # renders text, OCRs it, prints PASS/FAIL

How it works

Concern	Tech
Hotkey	Carbon RegisterEventHotKey (⌘⇧S, global)
Selection	Borderless NSPanel overlay per screen, dim + clear-cut rectangle
Capture	CGWindowListCreateImage (retina-aware)
OCR	Vision VNRecognizeTextRequest (accurate, multi-language)
UI	SwiftUI MenuBarExtra + floating result window (Screenshot/Text tabs)

Layout

Package.swift          SwiftPM manifest (macOS 13+)
build-app.sh           builds a proper .app bundle + ad-hoc codesign
Sources/Kapture/
  App.swift            app entry, menu bar UI, permission helper, OCR smoke test
  HotkeyManager.swift  global ⌘⇧S hotkey
  OverlayView.swift    selection overlay panel + drawing
  CaptureController.swift  selection flow, screen capture, coordinate mapping
  OCRService.swift     Vision text recognition
  ResultWindow.swift   floating result window (screenshot view, Get Text, Save PNG)