normcap

OCR powered screen-capture tool to capture information instead of images

Description

Basic usage: - Launch `normcap` - Select a region on the screen - Retrieve recognized text in clipboard

Programming language: Python

License: GNU General Public License v3.0 or later

Tags: OCR     Utilities     Multimedia     Graphics     Capture     Screen Capture    

Latest version: v0.3.15

README

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NormCap

OCR powered screen-capture tool to capture information instead of images.

Links: Repo | PyPi | Releases | Changelog | FAQs

Quickstart

Install a prebuilt release:

• Windows: NormCap-0.3.15-x86_64-Windows.msi
• Linux: NormCap-0.3.15-x86_64.AppImage
• macOS: NormCap-0.3.15-x86_64-macOS.dmg \ (On macOS, allow the unsigned application on first start: "System Preferences" → "Security & Privacy" → "General" → "Open anyway". You might also need to allow NormCap to take screenshots. Background: #135)

Install from repositories:

• Arch / Manjaro: Install the normcap package from AUR.
• FlatPak (Linux): Install com.github.dynobo.normcap from FlatHub.

If you experience issues please look at the FAQs or open an issue.

Python package

As an alternative to a prebuilt package you can install the NormCap Python package for Python >=3.9:

On Linux

# Install dependencies (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt install build-essential tesseract-ocr tesseract-ocr-eng libtesseract-dev libleptonica-dev wl-clipboard

## Install dependencies (Arch)
sudo pacman -S tesseract tesseract-data-eng wl-clipboard

## Install dependencies (Fedora)
sudo dnf install tesseract wl-clipboard

## Install dependencies (openSUSE)
sudo zypper install python3-devel tesseract-ocr tesseract-ocr-devel wl-clipboard

# Install normcap
pip install normcap

# Run
./normcap

On macOS

# Install dependencies
brew install tesseract tesseract-lang

# Install normcap
pip install normcap

# Run
./normcap

On Windows

1. Install Tesseract 5 by using the installer provided by UB Mannheim.

2. Adjust environment variables:

• Create an environment variable TESSDATA_PREFIX and set it to Tesseract's data folder, e.g.:

  setx TESSDATA_PREFIX "C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tessdata"

• Append Tesseract's location to the environment variable Path, e.g.:

  setx Path "%Path%;C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR"

• Make sure to close and reopen your current terminal window to apply the new variables. Test it by running:

  tesseract --list-langs

3. Install and run NormCap:

# Install normcap
pip install normcap

# Run
normcap

Why "NormCap"?

See XKCD:

Development

Prerequisites for setting up a development environment are: Python >=3.9, Poetry>=1.2.0b2 and Tesseract (incl. language data).

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/dynobo/normcap.git

# Change into project directory
cd normcap

# Create virtual env and install dependencies
poetry install

# Register pre-commit hook
poetry run pre-commit install

# Run NormCap in virtual env
poetry run python -m normcap

Credits

This project uses the following non-standard libraries:

• pyside6 - bindings for Qt UI Framework
• pytesseract - wrapper for tesseract's API
• jeepney - DBUS client

And it depends on external software:

• tesseract - OCR engine
• wl-clipboard - Wayland clipboard utilities

Packaging is done with:

• briefcase - converting Python projects into standalone apps

Thanks to the maintainers of those nice tools!

Similar open source tools

If NormCap doesn't fit your needs, try those alternatives (no particular order):

• TextSnatcher (Linux)
• GreenShot (Linux, macOS)
• TextShot (Windows)
• gImageReader (Linux, Windows)
• Capture2Text (Windows)
• Frog (Linux)
• Textinator (macOS)

Certification