FreezeText is a free macOS utility for capturing text from anywhere on your screen. Press a single keyboard shortcut to freeze the display, select an area, and instantly recognize text using Apple's Vision framework. All processing happens locally on your Mac — no data is sent to the cloud.
Use Cases
Scanned documents — extract text from PDFs without a text layer
Images and screenshots — copy text from photos, diagrams, or screenshots
Video content — freeze a frame and capture visible text
Hover elements — capture tooltips, popups, and menus that disappear on click
Any application — works system-wide with any app on your Mac