TRex 🦖

TRex captures any text right into your Clipboard with magic of OCR.

But what is OCR anyway? Imagine you have a PDF file or a Web page where you can't select the text, image with text on it, or even a YouTube video. Forget retyping it manually; with TRex, you can extract text from anywhere, and it is as easy as taking a screenshot.

TRex lives in the menu bar and available right where you need it the most:

To use TRex:

1. Invoke "Capture" either through the menu bar or with a global configurable shortcut
2. Select an area of the screen you want to extract text from, just like taking a screenshot
3. There is no third step - extracted text is in your clipboard

Demo:

Please note, text editing application on the right is not part of TRex, this is Tot. TRex is designed to be invisible and doesn't have any UI beyond the menu bar app and preferences.

Use cases

TRex can help you to copy text from:

• A PDF with non-selectable text
• A screenshot
• YouTube video
• Zoom call screen sharing
• ... and more!

If you can see it on your screen - TRex can copy it.

How to get TRex

App Store

Buy TRex from the App Store

GitHub

Download from GitHub Releases

Homebrew

Install from Homebrew

brew install --cask trex

Runs on macOS Big Sur (11.0) and up.

Features

Every feature in TRex works offline, no internet is needed.

• Text recognition (OCR)
• Read QR Codes and barcodes
• Handy macOS menu bar app, with option to hide it
• Configurable global shortcuts
• Configurable recognition language
• Custom words list
• CLI tool /Applications/TRex.app/Contents/MacOS/cli/trex
• Automation actions
  • Run a Shortcut from Shortcuts.app
  • Open URLs found in QR codes
  • Detect and open URLs found in captured text
  • Trigger a user defined URL scheme (for integration with other apps)
• URL scheme support
  • trex://capture trigger capture from screen
  • trex://captureclipboard trigger capture from clipboard
  • trex://captureautomation trigger screen capture and run automation
  • trex://captureclipboardautomation trigger capture from clipboard and run automation
  • trex://shortcut?name= set Shortcut assigned to "Run Shortcut" automation action
  • trex://showPreferences open app preferences

Integrations

Alfred

Download official workflow

Raycast

Download the TRex repository as a ZIP, then:

1. Unzip the download.
2. Open Raycast Settings → Script Commands.
3. Click Add Script Directory and select Resources/Raycast/TRex Commands from the unzipped folder.
4. Search Raycast for “Capture Text” to run or assign shortcuts to the TRex commands.

You can also browse the command files or read Raycast's Script Commands guide.

Acknowledgements

Portions of this software utilize the following copyrighted material, the use of which is hereby acknowledged:

• LaunchAtLogin - Copyright (c) Sindre Sorhus sindresorhus@gmail.com (sindresorhus.com)
• KeyboardShortcuts - Copyright (c) Sindre Sorhus sindresorhus@gmail.com (sindresorhus.com)

More Apps

If you enjoy TRex you may like these as well:

• SwiftBar - Powerful macOS menu bar customization tool
• Esse - Swiss army knife of text transformation for iOS and macOS