How to Copy Text from a Screenshot on Mac
You don't have to retype the words in a screenshot. Capture, wait a couple of seconds, and copy them as they are.
Retyping a sentence out of a screenshot is tedious. It’s worse when the code on a shared screen or a paragraph from a captured web page has to make it across intact — long lines and odd characters turn it into a typo hunt.
Floatie recognizes the text inside a captured shot so you can select and copy it directly (OCR, Pro). Here’s the whole flow.
Copying text out of a capture
- Capture the region holding the text with ⌘⇧2 (command+shift+2). ESC cancels at any point.
- On the floating shot, press ⌘O (command+O) or hit the OCR corner button to lock it for text selection. In the default layout, OCR sits in the bottom-left corner.
- The sentences inside the shot turn into selectable text. Drag across the part you want and it lands on the clipboard.
- Need everything? ⌘⇧C (command+shift+C) copies the full text at once.
- Paste wherever you were headed.
Corner buttons move: Settings → Appearance → Corner Buttons puts any action on any corner. The default order is ghost top-left, edit top-right, text recognition bottom-left, shrink/enlarge bottom-right. If you lean on OCR, give it the corner your cursor reaches first.
Closing the shot right after copying is fine. Anything you close with ⌘W (command+W) or ESC waits in the history rail (⌘⇧H, command+shift+H) for whenever you want it back.
Floatie keeps every capture on your screen as a floating shot. Freeze it and the words inside become text you can select and copy.
Languages and accuracy
Text recognition runs Apple’s Vision engine on-device. It reads Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional). Outside those four, expect misses or lower accuracy.
Turn the network off and recognition still works. The image never leaves your Mac.
How this differs from macOS Live Text
macOS already has Live Text: open an image in Preview, Photos, or Quick Look and you can select the words inside it. Its strength is that there’s no capture step at all — it works on the image you’re already looking at.
Floatie’s recognition works on the shot you captured, floating where you drew it. Because the shot stays put on top of your work, it’s easier to read from the original while you type the text somewhere else.
The 14-day free trial opens text recognition and everything else, so you can try it first.
Ready to float?
Free for 14 days with everything unlocked. Then one one-time purchase — Floatie Pro — for life. Not a subscription.