TRex overview

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.

Instructions:

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

What's new in version 2.0.0

New Features

Table Detection

Vision-based detection: Uses macOS 26+ document recognition for table extraction.
LLM fallback: Falls back to AI-based table detection on older systems.
Multiple formats: Export tables as Markdown, CSV, or plain text.
Menu bar toggle: Quick access to table detection settings.

LLM Integration

AI-powered OCR: Use OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, or Apple Intelligence for vision-based text recognition.
Smart post-processing: Automatically format, correct, or transform captured text with LLM.
Separate provider configuration: Choose different providers for OCR vs post-processing.
On-device processing: Apple Intelligence runs locally with no API calls (macOS 15.1+).
Network-aware fallback: Automatically falls back to built-in OCR when offline.

Multi-Region Capture

Batch selection: Select multiple screen regions in a single capture session.
Combined results: OCR results from all regions are merged together.
Optional LLM processing: Post-process combined text with AI.
Up to 50 regions: Capture complex layouts in one go.

Watch Mode

Continuous monitoring: Monitor a screen region and automatically capture when content changes.
Interactive region selection: Draw regions with a visual overlay.
Floating control panel: Start, pause, and reselect regions on the fly.
Multiple output modes: Append to clipboard, write to file, or stream notifications.
Smart detection: SHA256-based change detection with configurable polling interval.
URL scheme support: Trigger watch mode via trex://watch.

Capture History

Persistent history: All OCR captures saved with thumbnails.
Quick access: Last 5 captures available in menu bar submenu.
History window: Browse all captures via trex://showHistory.
Configurable storage: Set max entries (1–10,000).
One-click copy: Quickly copy any previous capture to clipboard.

Bug Fixes

CLI Improvements

Fixed CLI not exiting after stdin EOF (#61).
Added back Intel Support.
Improved temp file handling with UUID-based paths.

Language Recognition

Added Turkish (tr-TR) to Vision OCR fallback language sets (#62).
Fixed language code normalization to handle underscore format (#65).

UI Fixes

Fixed Quick Setup content overflow with scrollable language grid (#63).
Added confirmation dialog when hiding menu bar icon with recovery instructions (#60).

TRex for Mac