A lightweight macOS menu bar utility that captures text from anywhere on your screen and keeps a full searchable history - powered by Apple's Vision framework with no external dependencies.
This was made for my personal use, and made public in case somebody else finds those deature useful
- Quick Screen Capture - Select any area on screen with a drag gesture and crosshair cursor
- Instant OCR - Text extraction powered by Apple's Vision framework, using the newest recognition revision available on your Mac
- Small-Text Upscaling - Tight selections of small text are automatically upscaled before recognition, dramatically improving accuracy on the cases Vision would otherwise miss
- Automatic Language Detection - Recognizes text even when it isn't in your selected language
- Multi-Display Support - Works seamlessly across multiple monitors with Retina scaling
- Auto-Copy to Clipboard - Extracted text is automatically copied for immediate use
- Multi-Language OCR - Supports 11 languages: English (US/UK), German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified/Traditional), Japanese, Korean
- OCR Accuracy Modes - Choose between fast and accurate recognition
- Line-Aware Text Ordering - Intelligent ordering that respects document layout
- Language Correction Toggle - Optional natural-language correction (off by default, since it can alter code, URLs, and IDs)
- Automatic Clipboard History - Every copy on your Mac (text, images, files) is saved automatically, including OCR captures - no separate history to manage
- Quick Picker - Searchable popover opened with a global hotkey; navigate with arrow keys and paste any of the top 9 items with
⌘1–⌘9 - Source App Tracking - Each entry records which app it was copied from, shown with the app's icon
- Copy or Copy & Paste - Choose whether picking an item just copies it or also pastes it straight into the app you came from
- Images & Files - Optionally capture images and file references from the clipboard, not just text
- Password Manager Aware - Entries marked "concealed" by apps like password managers are never stored
- Configurable History Limit - Keep 50, 100, 200, or 500 items
- Clear History - Wipe all clipboard history in one click
- Paper Matte - Lays a translucent paper texture over every display, so highlights diffuse and contrast softens
- Three Textures - Matte, Parchment and Vellum, each with its own wash and grain
- Adjustable Strength - Slide from a barely-there veil to a heavy matte
- Invisible to Capture - Never appears in screenshots, screen recordings or MiniMe's own captures
- Keep Sessions Awake - Periodically drifts the cursor to random points in a 600×600 area to prevent idle timeouts and screen locks
- Configurable Interval - Set the minimum and maximum seconds between moves
- Natural Movement - Smooth, eased glides rather than instant jumps, so it registers as real activity
- Prevent Sleep - Keep your Mac awake for a set duration: 10 min, 30 min, 1 hr, 2 hrs, 4 hrs, 8 hrs, or indefinitely. Disable any time from the menu bar
- Per-Tool On/Off Switches - Turn Capture, Clipboard, Paper, Move Mouse, and Prevent Sleep on or off individually; disabled tools disappear from the menu bar and lose their hotkey
- Auto-Update Check - Silently checks for new GitHub releases once per day; shows a notification in Settings → About when an update is available
- Launch at Login - Optional startup on system boot
- Customizable Shortcuts - Configure global hotkeys for every tool
- Native macOS Experience - Built with SwiftUI and AppKit, no external dependencies
| Requirement | Minimum |
|---|---|
| macOS | 13.0 (Ventura) or later |
| Permissions | Screen Recording, Accessibility |
| Architecture | Apple Silicon & Intel |
Download the latest release from the Releases page.
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/marduc812/kimeno.git
cd kimeno
# Build release version
xcodebuild -project MiniMe.xcodeproj -scheme MiniMe -configuration Release- Launch MiniMe - the app appears in your menu bar
- Capture Text - Press the capture shortcut (default:
⌘⇧2) or click "Capture" from the menu - Select Area - Click and drag to select the screen region containing text
- Done - Text is extracted and copied to your clipboard automatically
Click Paper in the menu bar or press its shortcut (default: ⌘⇧P) to lay the matte over every display. Pick the texture and strength in Settings → Paper.
Click Prevent Sleep in the menu bar and choose a duration. A "Turn Off Prevent Sleep" button appears in the menu while active. The assertion is released automatically when the duration ends or the app quits.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Capture | ⌘⇧2 |
| Clipboard picker | ⌥C |
| Paper on / off | ⌘⇧P |
| Start / Stop Move Mouse | ⌘⇧M |
| Settings | ⌘, |
| Quit | ⌘Q |
Shortcuts can be fully customized in Settings → Shortcuts.
- Launch at login
- Show/hide menu bar icon
- Per-tool on/off switches (Capture, Clipboard, Paper, Move Mouse, Prevent Sleep)
- Play sound on capture
- Recognition language
- OCR accuracy (fast / accurate)
- Line-aware text ordering
- Language correction (off by default)
- Texture (Matte / Parchment / Vellum)
- Strength
- Minimum and maximum seconds between moves
- History limit (50 / 100 / 200 / 500 items)
- Copy-only vs. copy & paste on selection
- Capture images and files
- Ignore password-manager (concealed) clipboard content
- Customize global hotkeys for Capture, Clipboard, Paper, and Move Mouse
- Current version
- Check for updates (compares against latest GitHub release)
- Link to GitHub repository
| Permission | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Screen Recording | Capture screen content for OCR |
| Accessibility | Move the mouse pointer, and paste clipboard entries into the app you came from |
On first launch, macOS will prompt you to grant these permissions. You can also enable them manually:
- System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording → enable MiniMe
- System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → enable MiniMe
MiniMe/
├── App/ # App entry point & menu bar
├── Managers/ # State & business logic
│ ├── SettingsManager.swift
│ ├── HotkeyManager.swift
│ ├── CaptureHistoryStore.swift
│ ├── TextPreviewManager.swift
│ └── UpdateManager.swift
├── Services/ # Workers
│ ├── ScreenCaptureManager.swift
│ ├── OCREngine.swift # Vision text recognition (testable, standalone)
│ ├── OCRImageProcessor.swift # Pre-OCR upscaling for small text
│ └── PasteService.swift
├── Models/ # Data models
├── Clipboard/ # Clipboard monitor, store & picker
├── Paper/ # Paper matte overlay windows
├── Selection/ # Full-screen selection overlay
├── Settings/ # Settings UI (tabbed)
├── Onboarding/ # First-launch setup deck
├── UI/ # Shared UI components
└── Extensions/ # Swift extensions
# Unit tests
xcodebuild -project MiniMe.xcodeproj -scheme MiniMe test
# UI tests
xcodebuild -project MiniMe.xcodeproj -scheme MiniMe -destination 'platform=macOS' testOCR quality is guarded by a fixture-based test that runs the engine against real images
and asserts on the recovered text. To grow coverage, drop a PNG into
MiniMeTests/Fixtures/ and add an entry to MiniMeTests/Fixtures/ocr-fixtures.json:
{
"fixtures": [
{ "image": "my_screenshot.png", "mustContain": ["expected", "text"] }
]
}Every fixture is checked on each test run, so accuracy improvements are protected against regressions over time.