TextSniper is an OCR Mac app that can extract text from an image or other media.
Price
You can get a 7-day free trial of TextSniper through Setapp. After trial, you can get unlimited access by buying a $7.99 license (1 Mac) or continuing your Setapp subscription ($9.99/month).
Features
Utilizes a simple user interface to transcribe text on your screen from images, video or video presentations using advanced optical character recognition technology.
Function
Carrying out tasks using TextSniper is really easy via the keyboard shortcut or macOS menu bar. It then requires you to paste the scanned text into a word process or notes app.
Pros
- Free 7-day trial period through Setapp
- Affordable one-time license pricing
- Simple and easy to utilize interface
- Text to speech support
- Additive clipboard is convenient
- Works with English and several foreign languages
Cons
- No internal clipboard or scanning preview
- Licenses are subject to renewal fees for major updates or feature additions
- Accuracy dwindles when scanning content that has a lot of numbers, symbols or emojis
Review Summary
TextSniper is a great Mac app for extracting text from images or other digital documents. It has a simple and easy-to-use interface, and it works with both English and select foreign languages as long as you are running the newest version of macOS.
The only downside with TextSniper is that it can be inaccurate when scanning content that includes lots of numbers, symbols, or emojis. We also wish you had the ability to preview scanned text and didn't have to always paste it in another editing software or notepad before you could see the results.
Overall, TextSniper is a great, cheap OCR software tool for capturing text from any image or media. If you are in the market for such a tool without breaking the bank and are on a Mac, TextSniper is a no-brainer.
A Great Purchase
The Ideal Buyer
The ideal buyer for TextSniper is someone who needs to extract text from images or other digital documents on a regular basis using an optical character recognition application for Mac. They should also be running macOS Big Sur or later in order to take advantage of the app's foreign language support.
Have you ever needed to extract text from an image or other media but didn't have the time or resources to do it manually? If so, then TextSniper might be the app for you. TextSniper is a Mac App that allows you to quickly and easily extract text from any image or media.
In this detailed TextSniper review, we will show you how to use this affordable OCR application and how it can help make your life easier and more efficient when copying reference text from digital documents.
What Does TextSniper Do?
For those who are unaware, TextSniper is an optical character recognition application for Mac users that enables one to easily capture text from an image or other digital media such as YouTube videos. This is a very handy app for students, professionals, or anyone who needs to extract text from an image for whatever reason.
TextSniper is useful for a variety of reasons. For students, extracting text from images can be helpful when taking notes or completing assignments. Professionals can also benefit from TextSniper by being able to quickly extract text from images for work-related purposes.
How Does TextSniper Work?
The TextSniper app works by utilizing advanced OCR technology (optical character recognition) that allows you to highlight the area of the image that contains the text you want. Once you have selected the desired area, TextSniper will automatically capture text and extract it in a clean and easy-to-read plain text format by adding it to your clipboard.
TextSniper Pricing: How Much Does Cost?
While some of you are likely hoping that TextSniper is free to use, it is only temporarily via the 7-day free trial of the Setapp subscription. Once this period ends, you have two ways of continuing your TextSniper usage, but both of these options do require you to pay money for extended access.
One Time Purchase – TextSniper Website
If you are just looking to scoop up TextSniper for the ability to utilize text recognition from a screenshot, image, or YouTube video then you'll be able to achieve this by purchasing the full version of TextSniper.
The various TextSniper license options are priced affordably:
These are one-time payments, so there is no monthly or any subscriptions required. However, major upgrades or additional features down the line may come at an additional cost. Small firmware updates like security or bug fixes will always be free.
It is worth noting that TextSniper is available to buy through the Mac App Store, but for various reasons we recommend buying directly through the publisher to ensure you are getting future updates, the best pricing and full access to all of the software's features.
Setapp subscription service – $9.99/month
If you are a frequent user of Mac apps, then opting for the higher-priced Setapp subscription might be worth your time and money. For those unfamiliar with Setapp, it is a subscription service kind of like Netflix. However, instead of access to video content, you get unlimited usage of dozens of premium Mac applications (including any future updates) for just $9.99 a month.
While TextSniper is included in Setapp's subscription, you'll also gain full access to premium Mac applications like CleanMyMac X, Gemini 2, AdGuard, Disk Drill & more. If you opt to try TextSniper via the free trial, that is done through Setapp and you'll be able to test out TextSniper and all the other premium Mac apps for a week free before needing to spend any money.
Notable Features
Unlike a lot of the Mac apps that we cover on TheTechReviewer, TextSniper's feature set is pretty basic and toned down, but what it does, it does well.
Optical Character Recognition
TextSniper is a Mac App that can be used to help capture text from an image or other media. This other media can including a PDF, online course, screencast, webpage, YouTube video, photo, presentation or more.
QR code and barcode reader
QR codes and barcodes can be easily captured, extracted, and converted to text using this app. I don't come across these too often while browsing the web, but this can be handy if you find yourself regularly running into this.
Text to Speech
TextSniper can help your Mac audibly read text from an image whenever you need it. It's a convenient tool for language learners or anyone who has difficulty reading on a screen.
The text-to-speech function might also be beneficial for people with dyslexia, as it provides them with the ability to read words more easily instead of spelling them out letter by letter.
Subtle Operation, Yet There When You Need It
The program is also readily available with a customizable keyboard shortcut (hotkey), doesn't take up space in the dock, and is simple to access via the menu bar (via the TextSniper icon).
Lightning Fast Performance
Text within the selection area is automatically identified and transcribed by TextSniper in seconds utilizing sophisticated OCR technology.
Which languages does TextSniper Support?
If using macOS Catalina, you'll only gain access to TextSniper for English text which is a bummer for some users.
However, if you are using the newer versions of macOS Big Sur or Monterey, TextSniper will have no problem recognizing text written in English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Traditional and Simplified Chinese.
It is worth noting that certain Latin alphabet languages which utilize accented characters may run into issues with recognition and text such as computer coding may run into issues as well due to the high amount of symbols that aren't directly translatable for this app.
Will TextSniper Work on My Mac Computer?
If you own a modern Mac computer, chances are that TextSniper will be supported on your machine. TextSniper is compatible with all Macs running macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later. It works with both Intel and M1 models and also offers extended language support.
Performance & Functionality
I've been testing TextSniper on and off for the last few months and I have found the software works extremely well for the price. I will admit that I don't have the need for an OCR software as much as some other users might, but I find it particularly useful for grabbing technical specifications from product pages or announcement videos as they are often embedded in images or video.
While TextSniper works well in most cases, it does have some trouble with recognized text that includes numbers (works but with not a lot of accuracy), symbols or emojis. It's not to say it won't capture the text within content that includes this, it just will omit these unfamiliar characters as blanks. It also will sometimes add in line breaks where there shouldn't be any according to the copied text, but this is easy enough to edit quickly.
Something that is worth noting that TextSniper can work without an active internet connection. This is a huge plus for many who are nomads, working while traveling or at a location where there isn't any public Wi-Fi available nearby.
One of the things that I really like about TextSniper is how easy it is to actually utilize the software. The process is streamlined and only requires you to hit the hotkey (or select Capture Text from the macOS menu bar), highlight the screen area that you wish to capture the text from and then paste the text to wherever you'd like such as notes, word processor, etc.
With such a simple user interface and operation, I do kind of wish there was something in the interface where you could immediately see the processed text and not have to always manually paste it into a separate application. This would save some time ensuring the copied text output is accurate before proceeding and also a way to look back on recent usage should you need to grab some recently scanned text.
While it doesn't entirely solve this, the additive clipboard option is convenient if you are trying to transcribe text from multiple slides or images as you can quickly capture text between different areas and it will add them all in order in your clipboard allowing you to paste and see all of them at once in your target document.
Real World Examples of TextSniper in Action
The following are examples of TextSniper in real world use cases vary by difficulty. I have not edited any of these, I am merely posting what it outputs via my clipboard into the Apple Notes and sharing the results:
Review Verdict
TextSniper is a reliable and easy-to-use Mac App that can be used to help capture text from an image or other media. With its simple and accessible user interface, TextSniper makes it easy for anyone to quickly extract text from images without any fuss.
While the app may not have a ton of features, what it does have works well and is handy for those who need it. The lightning fast performance of TextSniper's OCR technology is impressive, making quick work transcribing text within seconds.
Overall, we recommend TextSniper for anyone looking for an efficient way to grab text from images, YouTube videos or any other digital visual resource from their Mac.
