OCR powered screen-capture tool to capture information instead of images.

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Content: Quickstart | Python package | Usage | Contribute | Credits

• On-screen recognition of selected text
• Multi platform support for Linux, Windows, MacOS
• Multi monitor support, incl. HDPI displays
• "Magically" parsing the text (optional, on by default)
• Show notifications (optional)
• Stay in system tray (optional)
• Check for updates (optional, off by default)

❱❱ Download & run a pre-build package for Linux, MacOS or Windows ❰❰

If you experience issues please look at the FAQs or open an issue.

(On MacOS, allow the unsigned application on first start: "System Preferences" → "Security & Privacy" → "General" → "Open anyway". You might also need to allow NormCap to take screenshots.)

As an alternative to a pre-build package you can install the NormCap Python package:

# Install dependencies (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt install tesseract-ocr tesseract-ocr-eng \
                 libtesseract-dev libleptonica-dev \
                 python3-dev

## Install dependencies (Arch)
sudo pacman -S tesseract tesseract-data-eng leptonica

## Install dependencies (Fedora)
sudo dnf install tesseract tesseract-devel \
                 libleptonica-devel python3-devel

# Install normcap
pip install normcap

# Run
./normcap

# Install dependencies
brew install tesseract tesseract-lang

# Install normcap
pip install normcap

# Run
./normcap

1. Install "Tesseract 4.1", e.g. by using the installer provided by UB Mannheim.

2. Set the environment variable TESSDATA_PREFIX to Tesseract's data folder, e.g.:

setx TESSDATA_PREFIX "C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tessdata"

3. Install tesserocr using the Windows specific wheel and NormCap afterwards:

# Install tesserocr package
pip install https://github.com/simonflueckiger/tesserocr-windows_build/releases/download/tesserocr-v2.4.0-tesseract-4.0.0/tesserocr-2.4.0-cp37-cp37m-win_amd64.whl

# Install normcap
pip install normcap

# Run
normcap

• Select a region on screen with your mouse to perform text recognition

• Press <esc> key to abort a capture and quit the application.

"Magics" are like add-ons providing automated functionality to intelligently detect and format the captured input.

First, every "magic" calculates a "score" to determine the likelihood of being responsible for this type of text. Second, the "magic" which achieved the highest "score" takes the necessary actions to "transform" the input text according to its type.

Currently implemented Magics:

See XKCD:

Prerequisites are Python >=3.7.1, Poetry, Tesseract (incl. language data).

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/dynobo/normcap.git

# Change into project directory
cd normcap

# Create virtual env and install dependencies
poetry install

# Register pre-commit hook
poetry run pre-commit install

# Run NormCap in virtual env
poetry run python -m normcap

This project uses the following non-standard libraries:

• pyside2 - bindings for Qt UI Framework
• pytesseract - wrapper for tesseract's API
• jeepney - DBUS client

Packaging is done with:

• briefcase - converting Python projects into standalone apps

And it depends on external software

• tesseract - OCR engine

Thanks to the maintainers of those nice libraries!