# ianzhao/textshot

Python tool for grabbing text via screenshot

Repository: https://github.com/ianzhao/textshot
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/textshot
Language: Python
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: python, python3, python-3, script, python-script, screenshot, ocr, ocr-recognition, tesseract, tesseract-ocr
Last push: 2024-12-20T02:40:21+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2295, "days_push": 621, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1774, forks 254 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:34.351998+00:00)

## What it is
TextShot is a Python command-line tool that lets you draw a rectangle over any screen region and copies the recognized text to your clipboard using Tesseract OCR. It supports multiple languages and continuous capture at a set interval, and can be bound to a global hotkey.

## Use cases
- copy text from a screenshot to clipboard
- extract text from part of the screen with ocr
- grab non-selectable text from images or videos
- run ocr on a screen region via a hotkey
- continuously ocr a screen area every few hundred milliseconds
- ocr text in multiple languages like english and french

## When to choose
- you want quick, ad-hoc screen-region OCR with clipboard output
- you need multi-language OCR via Tesseract language packs
- you want a lightweight cross-platform tool bindable to a global hotkey

## When to avoid
- you need high-accuracy OCR on complex documents or scanned PDFs
- you want a GUI application rather than a command-line workflow
- you cannot install Tesseract as a system dependency

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: ocr, cli, image-processing
- domain: computer-vision, developer-tools
- platform: windows, python, cli
- tags: screenshot-ocr, tesseract, clipboard, screen-capture, hotkey, command-line, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- ianzhao/textshot (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:34.351998+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:25:23.536083+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ianzhao/textshot (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:34.351998+00:00, sha 18b9caf77e55)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.