Copy text from pictures on Linux with Textsnatcher
Need to copy some text from an image on your Linux PC? Unsure about how to do it? We can help! Follow along as we go over how you can copy text from pictures on Linux!
Please note that Textsnatcher may only work on desktop environments that use X11. If you are using a desktop environment that relies on the Wayland display server, you may not be able to extract text information from images using Textsnatcher.
Installing Textsnatcher on Linux
Textsnatcher is easy to get going on most Linux operating systems, as it is found on Flathub as a Flatpak. In addition, users can install the app on Arch Linux via the Arch Linux AUR.
To get Textsnatcher working on your Linux PC, you’ll have to open up a terminal window on the desktop. You can open up a terminal window on the Linux desktop by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard. Alternatively, open up a terminal window by searching for “Terminal” in the app menu.
The installation can begin with the terminal window open and ready to use. Using the instructions below, set up Either the Flatpak release of Textsnatcher or the Arch Linux AUR.
Flatpak
Flatpak is the easiest way to get Textsnatcher working on most Linux operating systems. However, before you can set up the program, you’ll have to configure the Flatpak runtime.
To set up the Flatpak runtime on your PC, install the “flatpak” package using your system’s package management tool. If you need help setting up the runtime, follow our configuration guide.
After setting up the Flatpak runtime on your computer, use the flatpak remote-add command to set up the Flathub app store on your Linux system. You’ll need Flathub to install Textsnatcher on Linux.
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
Once the Flathub app store is set up on your Linux system, you’ll be able to install the latest version of the Textsnatcher application. Using the flatpak install command below, set up the newest release of Textsnatcher on your computer.
flatpak install flathub com.github.rajsolai.textsnatcher
Arch Linux AUR
To get the Textsnatcher application set up via the Arch Linux AUR, you must install an AUR helper. Using the pacman -S command, install the “base-devel” and “git” packages on your computer.
sudo pacman -S base-devel git
With the two packages installed, use the git clone command to download the latest release of Trizen from the AUR.
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git
Once the Trizen AUR helper is downloaded, use the CD command to move into the “trizen” folder. Then, run the makepkg command to install the software onto your Arch Linux PC.
cd trizen/
makepkg -sri
With the Trizen AUR helper set up, you can use it to install the latest release of Textsnatcher on your system. Using the trizen -S command, set up Textsnatcher.
trizen -S textsnatcher-git
Copy text from pictures on Linux with Textsnatcher
To copy text from pictures using Textsnatcher, open up the app. You can launch Textsnatcher on Linux by searching for it in the app menu. Once it is open, follow the step-by-step instructions below.
Step 1: With Textsnatcher open, find the “Snatch Now!” button and click on it with the mouse. After selecting this button, Textsnatcher should open up the default screenshot tool for your Linux desktop.
Note: if you use Gnome or a Gnome-based desktop environment, it will launch the Gnome screenshot tool.
Step 2: With the screenshot tool open, find the “Select an area to grab” option and click on it with the mouse. When you select this button, the screenshot tool will allow you to take a screenshot of a selected area on the desktop.
Step 3: After you’ve selected the “select an area to grab” option, your mouse cursor will become a cross icon. Click and drag over the area you wish to extract text from.
Step 4: Once you’ve selected an area on the desktop with the cursor, the screenshot tool will take a picture. It will open up a dialog box that says, “Share this screenshot with TextSnatcher?”
Select the “Share” button to share the screenshot to Textsnatcher so that it can extract the text contents of the image.
Step 5: With the screenshot exported to Textsnatcher, you should see a message that says “Checkout Clipboard.” From here, go to a text editor (or any other text field) and press Ctrl + V hotkey to paste the text.
