What is Letra?
Letra is a Mac menu bar OCR app for people who regularly need text they can see but cannot select. Press Command Shift 2, drag over a region in a video, PDF, screen share, screenshot, or other app, and Apple Vision reads it locally and places the result on your clipboard. It runs on macOS Sonoma 14 or later and also reads QR codes, clipboard images, PNG, JPEG, and PDF files.
Why Letra works
Text trapped inside a paused video, screen share, scanned PDF, or chat screenshot turns a simple copy into manual retyping. Letra reads only the region you drag over and puts the result directly on your clipboard, so visible text becomes pasteable in one shortcut instead of being retyped by hand.
Letra features
- Screen text capture. Press Command Shift 2 and drag over any visible region. Letra reads the pixels with Apple Vision and copies the recognized text automatically.
- Local recognition. Captures stay on the Mac and recognition works with WiFi off. Letra does not require an account.
- QR codes and links. Letra decodes QR codes and barcodes, detects URLs, and can open QR links automatically when that setting is enabled.
- Clipboard and file OCR. It can read an image already on the clipboard or open PNG, JPEG, and PDF files without requiring a separate upload workflow.
- Searchable capture history. Past captures stay on the Mac and can be searched or filtered by text, links, and QR codes.
- Shortcut automation. URL commands can start a capture, read a clipboard image, or open settings, which lets Raycast, Alfred, and Shortcuts trigger Letra.
Who Letra is for
- Mac users who regularly copy text from videos, screenshots, PDFs, or apps where normal text selection does not work.
- Developers who receive error messages or code inside screenshots and want to paste the exact text into search or an editor.
- People on Zoom, Meet, or Teams calls who need to grab a URL, value, or note shown on somebody else's shared screen.
- Students and course viewers who want to copy code or text from paused video lessons without typing it manually.
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