Press Ctrl+Shift+S from any app, drag to select a region, and get the text in your clipboard. 6-pass OCR engine with dark background auto-detection. Free for Windows 10 and 11.
Three steps. Under two seconds. Works from any application.
Global hotkey works from any app — browser, PDF viewer, terminal, IDE. The screen dims and a crosshair cursor appears.
Click and drag to select the region containing text. Works on any monitor and any DPI setting, including 4K and mixed-DPI setups.
6 OCR passes run in parallel with different algorithms. The best result is picked automatically and copied to your clipboard. Just Ctrl+V.
Snipping Tool added "Text Actions" OCR in 2024. Here's what SnapOCR does differently.
| Feature | Snipping Tool (Text Actions) | SnapOCR |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (built-in) | Free |
| Privacy | On-device | On-device, 100% offline |
| Capture hotkey | Win+Shift+S (screenshot first, then OCR) | Ctrl+Shift+S (direct to text, no screenshot saved) |
| OCR accuracy | Single pass | 6 parallel passes (upscale, Otsu, contrast, grayscale, aggressive, inverted) |
| Dark backgrounds | Manual — you OCR what you see | Auto-detects dark bg, inverts before OCR |
| Small text | As-captured resolution | Auto-upscales up to 4x before OCR |
| Auto-copy to clipboard | Must click "Copy all text" | Instant — text in clipboard after selection |
| Works from any app | Must open Snipping Tool first | Global hotkey, works from any app |
| Windows 10 support | Windows 11 only | Windows 10 and 11 |
| Multi-language | Yes | All Windows OCR language packs |
| HiDPI / 4K | Yes | Per-Monitor V2 DPI awareness |
| Table extraction | Copy as table | Text only |
| QR code scanning | Yes | No |
| Redact sensitive data | Quick Redact | No |
SnapOCR is better for: accuracy on difficult text, dark mode UIs, small fonts, Windows 10, and speed (text goes straight to clipboard).
Snipping Tool is better for: table extraction, QR codes, and redaction.
Runs upscaling, Otsu thresholding, adaptive contrast, grayscale conversion, aggressive preprocessing, and color inversion in parallel. Picks the highest-quality result using a smart scoring algorithm.
Samples pixel brightness to detect dark backgrounds (white text on dark UI). Automatically inverts the image before OCR processing. No manual adjustment needed.
Small captures are auto-upscaled up to 4x with high-quality bicubic interpolation and sharpening. OCR engines need ~30px font height — this ensures small text is readable.
Ctrl+Shift+S works from any application — browser, PDF viewer, terminal, IDE, game. No need to open the app first. Text goes directly to your clipboard.
Choose OCR language, toggle auto-copy, configure startup behavior. Enter a Pro license key to remove the startup popup. All settings persisted to AppData.
Uses Per-Monitor V2 DPI awareness for pixel-perfect captures on 4K, ultrawide, and mixed-DPI multi-monitor setups. No blurry or misaligned captures.
OCR language, auto-copy, hotkey display, license activation.
Copy error messages from dialog boxes, terminal output, crash dumps, and log windows that don't allow text selection.
Extract code from tutorial screenshots, Stack Overflow images, video frames, and slides. No more retyping.
Copy text from copy-protected PDFs, DRM websites, and applications that disable text selection.
Capture foreign text from websites or apps and paste into a translator. Supports 100+ Windows language packs.
Extract text from screenshot-only messages, Discord images, Twitter/X posts, and social media graphics.
Extract labels, values, and legends from charts, graphs, and dashboards that don't offer data export.
v1.0 · Windows 10/11 · .NET 8 · 4.8 MB MSI installer
Per-user install, no admin rights needed
Open source · No telemetry · Source available for review
Don't need a desktop app? Use these browser-based OCR tools.