Copying the text from a Snap capture with Read

Snap by Zaweba is for capturing what's on screen, and Read by Zaweba is for reading text out of pictures. The two meet at one button. In Snap, Copy text sends the capture to Read, which reads it and puts the words on your clipboard, ready to paste. Hold Shift as you press it and Read opens instead, so you can check the text before using it.

That turns a screenshot from a picture of words into the words themselves, in one step, without saving a file or opening another app.

How the button works

Behind the button, Snap runs Read's command line with the --grab-text option on the capture. Read reads the picture, copies the text and shows a notice, then exits. There's nothing to set up beyond having both apps installed.

Holding Shift adds the review step. Read opens with the capture and its text side by side, so you can correct anything before you copy or save. When Read uses its Tesseract engine, words it isn't sure of are shaded amber in both the picture and the text.

When this is the right tool

Screens are full of text you can see but can't select: an error message in a dialog box, words baked into an image, a frame from a video, a locked document, a label in a program's window. Snap captures any of it, and Copy text makes it usable.

Typical jobs include copying an error code to search for it, lifting an address or reference number from a picture, quoting a line from a video or slide, or collecting text from a program that won't let you copy.

Snap or Read's own grab?

Read has its own screen text grab too. Press its hotkey (Win+Shift+T by default) and drag round any text on screen; the text is copied. That's the quicker route when you only want the words and have no use for the picture.

Snap's Copy text is better when you want the capture as well. Perhaps you're saving a screenshot for a report and also need the text from it, or you've already taken the capture and only then realised you need the words. You don't need to grab the screen a second time.

Getting clean text from a capture

Screen text is small compared with a printed page. Read's grab enlarges a screen area before reading it, to make up for that. For the best result from a Snap capture, capture at a comfortable zoom, include only the text you need, and avoid busy backgrounds behind the words.

Decorative fonts, very small text and handwriting are unreliable for any text recognition, and Read's Help tab says so plainly. If the text matters, hold Shift and check it.

Other places the text can go

Once Read has opened the capture for review, everything in Read is available. Save it as plain text, as a .docx, or as a searchable PDF; open the result in Write by Zaweba to work on it further. Because both apps run entirely on your PC, the capture and its text never leave it, which matters when the screen shows something private.