Inside Glyphgrab: Copy the Text That Will Not Select

Glyphgrab is a small Mac utility from 1dot1 that copies text from anywhere on the screen. Not just text that can be selected, but text inside a paused video, a photo, a screenshot someone sent, an error dialog with no copy button, a scanned PDF, or a web page that blocks selection. Drag a rectangle over it and the words are on the clipboard. This teardown walks through the app screen by screen and explains the decisions behind each part.

The problem it solves is an old one. Text on a screen looks like text, but often it is only a picture of text, and the usual answer is to retype it: a tracking number, a Wi-Fi password printed on a router label, a quote from a slide, an error code to search for. Retyping is slow and it introduces mistakes, particularly with long strings of letters and numbers. Glyphgrab replaces that with one shortcut and one drag, and it does the reading on the Mac rather than sending anything away.

Drag over it, and it is copied

The whole app is built around a single gesture. Press Control-Option-T from any app, or click the viewfinder icon in the menu bar and press Grab Text. Every connected display dims, so it is clear that the next drag is a grab and not a normal click. Drag a rectangle over the words and its size in pixels appears underneath it, which helps when the text is small and the edges matter.

Let go, and a moment later a small card drops in at the top of the screen. It shows the word Copied, the first line of what was read, and a count of lines and characters, so there is a quick check that the right thing was captured before pasting it. Then Command-V puts it wherever it is needed.

Backing out is deliberately forgiving. Escape cancels, a right-click cancels, and a click without any drag cancels too. The reasoning is that a grab should never be a commitment: if the rectangle starts in the wrong place, the easiest thing is simply to stop and start again.

Only the rectangle, only when asked

Reading the screen is a sensitive thing for an app to do, so the design keeps the capture as narrow as possible. Only the area inside the rectangle is captured, only at the moment of the grab, and the picture is thrown away as soon as the text has been read. Recognition runs on the Mac itself using the text recognition built into macOS, so there is nothing to upload and no account.

macOS requires the Screen Recording permission for any app that reads the screen, and Glyphgrab asks for it openly rather than working around it. It checks whether the permission is on and never switches it on by itself. If it is off, the panel shows a Grant Screen Recording button, which opens the right page of System Settings so Glyphgrab can be turned on in the list.

Because Glyphgrab is signed and notarized by Apple, the permission carries over to later updates. Coming from an older, unsigned download, macOS may ask one more time; turning Glyphgrab off and on in the list, then reopening the app, sorts it out.

Codes read, links offered

The same drag reads QR codes and barcodes. A QR code on a poster in a photo, a code on a slide, a barcode on a product page: drag over it the same way as text, with no separate mode to switch into.

What happens next depends on what the code holds. If it is a web link, the card shows the address and offers two buttons, Open and Copy. Nothing opens on its own, which matters because a QR code can point anywhere, and seeing the address first is the only real protection against a misleading one. If the code holds anything else, such as a product number, it is copied straight away, since there is nothing to open.

When a rectangle contains both text and a code, the text is copied and the link is still offered on the card, so neither is lost.

Images work too

Not every piece of text is on the screen at the moment it is needed. A receipt photographed earlier, a screenshot saved to the desktop, a scan in a downloads folder: these can be read directly. Click the menu bar icon and press From Image…, or drag an image file from Finder onto the open panel and let go when it says Release to read this image.

The text and any codes in the file are handled exactly as for a screen grab, with the same card and the same history. The important difference is that reading a file never needs Screen Recording, because nothing on the screen is being read. That means Glyphgrab is useful from the first minute, even before the permission has been granted, and the panel says so in the drop area.

Tidy text, as needed

Text recognised from a picture comes with the line breaks of the picture. Sometimes that is exactly right, as with an address or a list. Sometimes it is not, as with a paragraph from a narrow column that should paste as one flowing sentence. So the menu offers a choice under Line Breaks.

Keep Line Breaks copies the lines as they sit on the screen. Join into One Paragraph runs them together and, as a small but useful detail, rejoins words that were split with a hyphen at the end of a line, so six- and teen become sixteen again. Preserve Table Spacing keeps wide gaps as spaces, so the columns of a table or a receipt stay lined up when pasted into a plain text editor.

Language is set to Automatic by default, which works out the language by itself. For very short snippets there is less to go on, and choosing the language directly can help recognition get the letters right.

The last twenty grabs

A grab is often needed twice: pasted once into a message, then again into a form. The panel keeps the last 20 grabs, newest first, with codes marked by a small QR symbol. Click an entry to copy it again; right-click it to copy, open a link, or remove it. Clear in the panel, or Clear History in the menu, removes them all.

Twenty is enough to reach back through a working session without becoming an archive. History is text only, kept in a single file at ~/Library/Application Support/Glyphgrab/history.json, and no images are ever stored. The footer of the panel says as much: kept on this Mac, text only.

Built in black and white

Like the other 1dot1 Mac apps, Glyphgrab is greyscale in light and dark mode. The icon is a capital T inside the corner marks of a viewfinder, and the menu bar glyph repeats it at a smaller size. The panel has two buttons, a drop area and a list, and nothing else, because the point of the app is to be reached for, used for a second and put away.

It is a universal app for Apple silicon and Intel Macs, runs on macOS 13 Ventura or later, needs Screen Recording only for on-screen grabs, and reads everything on the Mac itself.

How to use it, feature by feature

The same instructions are in the short guide inside the download.

Installing it

1. Unzip the download and drag Glyphgrab.app into the Applications folder, then open it. A viewfinder icon with a T appears in the menu bar.
2. Glyphgrab is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a normal double-click.

Allowing Screen Recording

1. Click the menu bar icon. If the permission is off, the panel shows a Grant Screen Recording button.
2. Click it. macOS may show its own prompt, and the Screen Recording page of System Settings opens.
3. Turn on Glyphgrab in that list. If macOS asks to quit and reopen the app, let it.
4. Grabbing from image files never needs this permission, so that part works straight away.

Grabbing text from the screen

1. Press Control-Option-T from any app, or click the menu bar icon and press Grab Text.
2. Every display dims. Drag a rectangle over the text; its size shows underneath.
3. Let go. A small card drops in at the top of the screen with the first line and the word Copied.
4. Paste anywhere with Command-V.
5. To back out, press Escape, right-click, or click without dragging.

QR codes and barcodes

1. Drag over a QR code or barcode the same way as text.
2. If it holds a web link, press Open to open it in the browser, or Copy to put the link on the clipboard. Nothing opens on its own.
3. If it holds anything else, such as a product number, it is copied straight away.
4. If the area has both text and a code, the text is copied and the link is still offered.

Grabbing from an image file

1. Click the menu bar icon and press From Image…, then choose a screenshot, photo or scan.
2. Or drag an image file from Finder onto the open panel and let go when it says Release to read this image.
3. The text and any codes are handled exactly as for a screen grab.

Tidying the text

1. Open the menu with the circled dots in the panel, or right-click the menu bar icon.
2. Under Line Breaks, choose Keep Line Breaks to copy lines as they sit on screen, or Join into One Paragraph to run them together and rejoin hyphenated words.
3. Turn on Preserve Table Spacing to keep columns in a table or receipt lined up in a plain text editor.
4. Leave Language on Automatic, or choose one language to help with short snippets.

History

1. The panel lists the last 20 grabs, newest first. Codes are marked with a small QR symbol.
2. Click an entry to copy it again. Right-click it to copy, open a link, or remove it.
3. Press Clear in the panel, or Clear History in the menu, to remove them all.
4. History is text only, kept at ~/Library/Application Support/Glyphgrab/history.json. No images are stored.

Open at Login

1. Open the menu and turn on Open at Login to have Glyphgrab in the menu bar from the moment the Mac starts.

If something does not happen

1. The screen does not dim and a card says Screen Recording is off: the permission is missing. Click Grant Screen Recording and turn Glyphgrab on in the list.
2. Screen Recording is on but grabs still fail: turn Glyphgrab off and on again in that list, then quit and reopen the app.
3. Control-Option-T does nothing: another app already owns that combination. Use Grab Text in the panel or the right-click menu instead.
4. No text found in that area: drag a slightly larger rectangle, zoom in on very small text first, or try a sharper image.
5. Odd letters in another language: set Language to that language instead of Automatic.
6. A dropped file is refused: it is not an image the Mac can open. Save it as PNG or JPEG first.

Get Glyphgrab

Glyphgrab is available on 1dot1 as a single download, with the guide, a README and the licence inside the zip.

Get It Now