Productivity Toolkit
Free Mac OCR — Copy Text from Any Image
Screenshot of an error message? Photo of a whiteboard? Notchy turns copied images into selectable text with on-device Apple Vision OCR — free, private, and one tap away in the notch.
One tap, real text
Any image in your clipboard history — screenshots, photos of documents, copied web images — becomes selectable text with a single tap in the Clipboard tab.
Search inside your screenshots
OCR'd words are indexed into clipboard search — type a word you remember and the screenshot that contains it comes back, even weeks later.
Capture built in
One tap in the notch opens the familiar macOS region selector. The shot lands on your clipboard for immediate OCR or paste, and on the shelf as a PNG you can drag anywhere.
On-device, always
Recognition runs locally via Apple's Vision framework. No uploads, no account, no per-page pricing — unlike cloud OCR tools that meter every scan.
Everything Notchy does, for free
- Fluid Dynamic Island animations on the Mac notch
- Command palette (⌃⌥K) — every action one keystroke away
- Knock — double-tap a modifier key to open the notch
- AI usage tracker (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot)
- Detach any tab into a menu-bar popover
- Now Playing music controls (Apple Music & Spotify)
- Time-synced karaoke lyrics under the notch
- Mac clipboard history shelf (password-manager safe)
- Searchable clipboard — filter by text, file name, or OCR'd words
- On-device OCR — copy a screenshot, get its text (Apple Vision)
- Window snapping — drag a window to the notch to tile it
- App Launcher — pin apps to the notch, open with one tap
- Text snippets — TextExpander-style pastes from the ⌘K palette
- One-tap screen capture to clipboard + shelf
- Color eyedropper — sample any pixel, hex auto-copied
- System-wide mic mute for every meeting app at once
- Keystroke HUD for demos & screencasts (secure-input safe)
- Keyboard cleaning lock with countdown island (⌘⎋ unlocks)
- Menu-bar icon hiding — Bartender-style separator & chevron
- Live CPU / memory / network stats flyout
- Open GitHub PR count in the notch (Keychain-stored token)
- iPhone-style call island — Answer/Decline FaceTime on the notch
- Notch Terminal — real VT100/xterm shell in a PTY, its own tab
- Privacy Indicator — pill when any app's camera or mic goes live
- Caps Lock HUD — brief island on every toggle
- Full Charge island with adjustable threshold + low-battery sound
- Alt HUD styles — edge-pinned bar or circular gauge off the notch
- Audio-reactive Now Playing visualizer (real FFT of system audio)
- Custom closed-notch idle animation — drop in your own Lottie JSON
- Drag-and-drop file drop shelf — persists across relaunches
- Zip & unzip files right from the shelf
- Image converter (HEIC, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF) + video → GIF
- Run Apple Shortcuts with one tap
- Screenshots auto-staged on the shelf, ready to drag
- Download finished alerts with Reveal in Finder
- USB drive mount island with one-tap Eject
- Apple Reminders quick capture & due list
- macOS Pomodoro notch timer & stopwatch — streaks + 7-day chart
- Resizable expanded panel (width & height, live preview)
- System HUDs (volume, brightness, battery)
- Audio output switcher (speakers, AirPods, monitor)
- AirPods connection manager & battery
- Magic Mouse, Keyboard & Trackpad battery + low-battery alerts
- Quick notes & Calendar widgets
- Camera Mirror (check your appearance)
- Keep Awake (caffeine toggle)
- Teleprompter (Cuely) for Zoom calls
- Focus-aware alerts & native haptic feedback
- Lock screen widgets & hide-the-notch mode
- 133 languages, fully localized
- Native SwiftUI, tuned for Apple Silicon
Mac OCR — FAQ
How do I extract text from an image with Notchy?
Copy the image (or take a screenshot — Notchy auto-stages those). Open the Clipboard tab, and one tap on the image entry recognizes its text on-device via Apple's Vision framework. The result is selectable, copyable text.
Is Notchy a free TextSniper alternative?
Yes. TextSniper charges ~$10 for screen OCR; Notchy gives you screenshot-and-image OCR completely free — plus a one-tap screen capture that lands the shot on your clipboard ready for OCR.
Does OCR happen on my Mac or in the cloud?
100% on your Mac. Notchy uses Apple's built-in Vision framework — no network requests, no account, no image ever leaves your machine.
Can I search the text inside my screenshots?
Yes. Notchy's clipboard search matches OCR'd words inside images — type a word you remember from a screenshot and the screenshot surfaces, even weeks later.