TRex Logo

TRex ?

TRex makes OCR easy and accessible on a Mac.

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:

TRex

To use TRex:

  1. Invoke “Capture Text” 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:

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

GitHub

Download from GitHub Releases

Homebrew

or Install with Homebrew

brew install melonamin/formulae/trex

App Store

or if you want to support us buy it from the App Store

Runs on macOS Big Sur (11.0) and up.

…or build it from source

  • Clone or download a copy of this repository
  • Open TRex/TRex.xcodeproj
  • Press play

Features

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

  • Text recognition (OCR)
  • Read QR Code and barcodes
  • Handy macOS menu bar app, with option to hide it
  • Configurable global shortcuts
  • Configurable recognition language
  • Automation actions
    • 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
    • trex://showPreferences open app preferences

Acknowledgements

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

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

GitHub

https://github.com/amebalabs/TRex