Lift text off your screen — tables and all
Press a hotkey, drag a box, and the text is on your clipboard. TextLift keeps real structure: tables become Markdown, CSV or a proper Excel file, entirely on your Mac.
macOS 13 or later · Apple Silicon (M-series)
Live preview — no screen recording is ever saved.
A look inside
Why you'll like it
On-device OCR
Apple's Vision framework recognizes text right on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded.
Reads handwriting too
Apple's Vision engine recognizes handwriting on-device — a strong first draft you can edit, with no phone scanner or cloud.
Tables stay tables
Detects rows and columns and exports clean Markdown, CSV or a real .xlsx workbook.
Documents & PDFs
Open or drag in images and PDFs; digital PDFs use their exact text layer for zero misreads.
QR & barcodes
Any QR code or barcode in the capture is decoded alongside the text.
Capture history
Recent captures are kept locally and privately — searchable, pinnable, and easy to clear.
Your hotkey, your languages
Set a custom hotkey and choose from verified recognition languages.
TextLift vs the alternatives
The things free tools can't do — without a subscription.
| TextLift | Apple Live Text | TextSniper | Adobe Acrobat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Handwriting (on-device) | draft | cloud | ||
| Tables → Excel / CSV | ||||
| Batch: folders & PDFs | ||||
| Export to Word & Excel | ||||
| Offline · no account | ||||
| Price | €12.99 | Free | ~€12 | €239/yr |
Honest about what it does — and doesn't
TextLift is built to be fast, private and genuinely useful. Here's the straight story.
Printed text & PDFs: flawless
Digital PDFs use their exact text layer, and printed pages, screenshots and slides come out spot-on.
Handwriting: a strong draft
Messy handwriting is read well, but not perfectly — so every result is fully editable before you use it.
Straight into Word & Excel
Notes export to Word (.docx), tables to Excel (.xlsx) — they open right away, formatting intact. No cloud, ever.
Verified recognition languages
English, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Arabic — with more available.
Screen Recording
Screen Recording
Only so TextLift can read the pixels of the region you select. Never used for anything else.
Text recognition runs on your device. TextLift never sends captured images or text off your Mac — there is no analytics, no telemetry, and no account.
TextLift
14-day free trial · one-time purchase
- macOS 13 or later · Apple Silicon (M-series)
- Payments handled by Lemon Squeezy (merchant of record). VAT included at checkout.
Legal documents
The fine print, in plain language.