As we know it, macOS's VoiceOver is a great tool, but not all applications can be simply read by it. Some software is not made up of standard macOS UI elements, so VoiceOver can't read any text from it. Therefore I made this app using OCR to identify texts on the screen and point your mouse to it.
The experience
This app can take a screenshot of the whole screen or the top window, and send it to the OCR service you choose. It will generate a text grid from the server reply so you can use the keyboard to navigate between items. When you found something you need, simply use a hotkey to click or right-click on it.
Download
And here are some codes you can use to get a one-month free trial. If you find this app is useful, please consider posting it to the App Directory.
It's still on an early stage of development, if you have any questions, you can send me an email through the "contact developer" button in the about panel.
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Why I made this app
One day, a user from my other app sent me an email writing about the app's accessibility. After some talk, he said as a visually-impaired person and music maker, there are so many apps he can't use with voiceover. He asked me if I can make an app using OCR to recognize the text from these apps. He had already asked many other developers about that, and no one was able to help him. Because develop a Mac app is just so tricky, and it might be very difficult to make an app like this to go through the AppStore review. After some try, I think this might be possible, so I made this app.
Limitation
This app can only read English and Chinese for now. Text in other languages will be read as English. I'm trying to solve this.
Comments
I'm not a mac user so can't use the app but well done!
I don't know how good this app will be but I'm really happy you've given it your best shot.
This is awesome
I play some video games and was able to read the menus for the first time with this/ This is great thank you. I redeemed a code but will be buying.
VOCR
How similar is this to VOCR?
Reply to Devin Prater
I have never used VOCR before, but after checking out the readme, I think my app might be more easy to use. You can just try my app, find out which one you prefer. 😊
Reply to Joe
I'm very happy my app is useful for you, I will continue to make it better.
Very important
Great job. I am a PC user, but I can absolutely see how this would be helpful. the PC needs something like this. I mean NVDA uses the Windows 10 OCR, and when it works it's very responsive. Problem is it doesn't always work, and except for the JAWS screen reader (which is slow as heck in comparison) I know of no other options. It's good the Mac has this option now. I really wish we had something like this for the iPhone. Again, there are options to share an image etc with one of the many OCR apps, but if there were a way to OCR what's on the screen without leaving that app, that would be amazing. I too play a lot of games and also use a lot of audio editing software, and while I CAN read on the big screen, it's way easier for me to hear it, especially when we're talking big blocks or lists of text.
You did a great job, my fellow
Hi,I saw your app recommendation on sspai.com's Weibo before,I'm really happy to see your app here again today.Your app is doing great.I'm proud that there is excellent developer like you among my compatriots.Fighting!
Actually, I believe someone…
Actually, I believe someone already did this, I cant' remember thename but I did hear about this from someone last year if I recall.
will this app come to iPhone?
will this come to iPhones?