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Cheese! OCR Fast, Private Screenshot OCR for Mac

Download on the Mac App Store
Cheese! OCR - Select any screen area, get text instantly | Product Hunt #31Day Rank 75Points

Features

Everything you need, nothing you don't.

Instant Screen Capture

Press a hotkey, select an area, and get text instantly. It's that simple.

100% Private

All OCR runs on-device using Apple Vision. No network requests, no data collection.

Multi-language

Recognizes English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text out of the box.

Auto-copy to Clipboard

Recognized text is copied to your clipboard automatically, ready to paste.

Lightweight & Fast

Built with native macOS frameworks. Tiny footprint, blazing-fast recognition.

History Management

Browse and search your past OCR results. Never lose captured text again.

Highlights

A visual tour through what makes Cheese! OCR stand out.

Cheese! OCR hero visual — Fast, Private OCR for Your Mac
Fast, Private OCR for Your Mac
Select any area on screen to extract text instantly
Instant Screen Capture
100% private on-device OCR — no network, no data collection
100% Private, On-Device
Multi-language OCR recognizing English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
Multi-language OCR
Cheese! OCR menu bar app with searchable OCR history
Lives in Your Menu Bar

Built for Real Workflows

The everyday moments Cheese! OCR was made for.

Scanned PDFs & Papers

Writing a paper with a scanned-only reference? Grab the passage you need without retyping a single line.

Code from Video Tutorials

Pause a tutorial, OCR the code on screen, and paste straight into your editor. No more typing from video.

Error Logs in Chat Screenshots

A teammate sends a screenshot of a stack trace. Pull the text out in a second and search it properly.

How It Works

Three steps. Zero friction.

1

Press Hotkey

Trigger a screen capture with your custom keyboard shortcut.

2

Select Area

Click and drag to select the region containing text.

3

Text Copied

Recognized text is instantly copied to your clipboard.

Frequently Asked Questions

The short answers to the most common questions.

Is Cheese! OCR free?
Cheese! OCR is a one-time paid purchase on the Mac App Store. There's no subscription and no in-app purchases — buy once and use it forever, across every Mac signed in with your Apple ID.
Does Cheese! OCR work offline?
Yes. All text recognition runs entirely on-device using Apple's Vision framework. The app has no network entitlements at all, so it literally cannot send data anywhere — even if it wanted to.
What languages does Cheese! OCR recognize?
English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean out of the box. Mixed scripts within the same capture (e.g. English mixed with Chinese) are handled correctly.
How is it different from macOS Live Text?
Live Text only works inside a handful of Apple apps (Preview, Photos, Safari). Cheese! OCR works anywhere on your screen — video players, conference apps, protected PDFs, remote desktops — through a single global keyboard shortcut.
What version of macOS do I need?
Cheese! OCR runs on macOS 13 Ventura and later, on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
Can I change the keyboard shortcut?
Yes. Open the app's settings and record any combination you like. The default shortcut is ⇧⌘E.
Are my screenshots uploaded anywhere?
Never. Screenshots are processed in memory via Apple Vision and are never saved to disk or sent over the network. The app has zero network permissions.