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Text Extractor - GNOME Shell Extension

A OCR text extraction tool for GNOME Shell that captures text from screen selections and copies it to the clipboard. Similar to PowerToys Text Extractor for Windows.

Features

  • 🖼️ Screen Area Selection: Select any area of your screen to extract text from
  • 📋 Clipboard Integration: Automatically copies extracted text to clipboard
  • 🌐 Multi-language Support: Supports English and Tamil (தமிழ்) languages
  • ⚡ Fast & Reliable: Uses Tesseract OCR engine for accurate text recognition

Screenshots

img.png

Requirements

System Dependencies

The extension requires the following packages to be installed:

  • tesseract-ocr: OCR engine for text extraction
  • gnome-screenshot: Screenshot utility for capturing screen areas

Optional Dependencies

  • tesseract-ocr-tam: Tamil language pack (only if you need Tamil text recognition)

Installation

Method 1: Automatic Installation (Recommended)

  1. Download the extension:

    git clone https://github.com/imshaaz21/text-extractor-gnome.git
cd text-extractor-gnome

  2. Install dependencies automatically:

    chmod +x scripts/install-dependencies.sh
scripts/install-dependencies.sh

    This script will detect your Linux distribution and install the required packages.

  3. Install the extension:

    # Copy to extensions directory
glib-compile-schemas extension/schemas
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/text-extractor@imshaaz21.github.com
cp -r extension/* ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/text-extractor@imshaaz21.github.com/

# Restart GNOME Shell
# Press Alt+F2, type 'r', and press Enter
# Or log out and log back in

  4. Enable the extension:

    • Open GNOME Extensions app
    • Find "Text Extractor" and toggle it on
    • Or use command line: gnome-extensions enable text-extractor@imshaaz21.github.com

Method 2: Manual Installation

Ubuntu/Debian:

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install tesseract-ocr gnome-screenshot
  sudo apt install tesseract-ocr-tam # Optional for Tamil support

Fedora:

  sudo dnf install tesseract gnome-screenshot
  sudo dnf install tesseract-langpack-tam # Optional for Tamil support

Then follow steps 3-4 from Method 1.

Uninstallation

To remove the extension, run the following command:

  rm -rf ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/text-extractor@imshaaz21.github.com
  gnome-extensions disable text-extractor@imshaaz21.github.com

Usage

  1. Quick Access: Click the Text Extractor icon in the top panel
  2. Extract Text: Select "Extract Text from Screen" from the menu
  3. Select Area: Use your mouse to select the area containing text
  4. Get Results: The extracted text will be automatically copied to your clipboard

Menu Options

  • Extract Text from Screen: Start the text extraction process
  • Language: Shows currently selected OCR language
  • Check Dependencies: Verify all required packages are installed
  • Preferences: Configure language and display settings

Configuration

Language Settings

  • Open the extension preferences to change the OCR language
  • Currently supports:
    • English (eng)
    • Tamil (தமிழ்) (tam)

Display Settings

  • Toggle the panel indicator visibility

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.