Readly

Press a hotkey, drag a region, get the text — fully on-device.

Source

Details

Role
Author
Started
August 2026
Language
Swift
Platform
macOS
Licence
MIT

Overview

Readly is a native macOS menu bar utility for the specific problem of text you can see but cannot select: a screenshot, a video frame, a modal dialog, a scanned PDF, a UI label.

Press the hotkey, the screen dims and the cursor becomes a crosshair, drag a rectangle, and the text inside it lands on your clipboard. A brief HUD confirms it. There are no windows to manage and no files left behind.

Capture goes through ScreenCaptureKit and recognition through Apple's Vision framework, both on-device. Readly makes no network requests and keeps no history, which means the text it reads never leaves the machine — the property that matters most when the thing on screen is a password reset code or a client document.

Highlights

  • Global rebindable hotkey (⇧⌘2 by default), drag-to-select any screen region
  • OCR runs on-device via Apple's Vision framework
  • Screen capture via ScreenCaptureKit
  • Zero network requests and no stored history
  • Works on non-selectable text: images, video frames, dialogs, scanned PDFs
  • Requires macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon with Screen Recording permission

Built with

  • Swift 6
  • Vision
  • ScreenCaptureKit
  • macOS

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