Screenshot Text
PDF to textScreenshot Text

Grab text from a PDF

If you can select the text, just copy it. If you cannot, a scanned, locked, or protected PDF, screenshot it instead. One shortcut, drag over the text, and it is on your clipboard, clean and paste-able. No uploading, no converting, all on your Mac.

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Requires macOS 13+ on an Apple Silicon Mac · no account needed

Get the text out in three steps

No new windows, no uploads, no file conversions. As easy as copy and paste.

Press ⌘⇧7

Open the PDF and trigger Screenshot Text, even when the text is locked.

Drag over the text

Box the part you need: a paragraph, a table, a whole page.

Paste it anywhere

Clean text on your clipboard, ready for your notes or doc.

Can't select it? Screenshot it.

Lift a paragraph straight out of a locked PDF and into your notes.

Step 1

Screenshot text from a locked PDF

The PDF won't let you select the text? Press ⌘⇧7 and grab it anyway.

The study found that participants
who took short breaks every 90 minutes
reported 23% higher focus and fewer
errors than those who pushed straight through.
PDF
Lockedannual-report.pdf
Step 2

Paste it straight into your notes

Now it's on your clipboard. Press ⌘V to paste into Notes, an email, anywhere.

The study found that participants who took short breaks every 90 minutes reported 23% higher focus and fewer errors than those who pushed straight through.

Related guides

Grabbing text from PDFs

Everything you need to know.

Yes. A scanned PDF is really an image, so the text is not selectable. Screenshot Text reads it with on-device OCR and gives you editable text you can paste.

If you can open and view the PDF, you can screenshot it. Screenshot Text reads what is on screen, so locked, secured, or copy-protected PDFs are no obstacle once they are open.

No. There is no website to upload to and no file to convert. Recognition runs on-device with Apple's Vision framework, so the PDF never leaves your Mac.

Turn on the AI cleanup and a local model restores indentation and structure, so tables and code come out readable rather than as one flat run of text.

Yes, free for 5 captures a day with AI cleanup included. A one-time $49 Lifetime makes it unlimited. No subscription.

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Stop retyping what's already on your screen.

Grab any text in one keystroke. Free to try, $49 to own for life, and it all runs on your Mac.

Download freeBuy lifetime

macOS 13+ on Apple Silicon · no account needed