NormCap

OCR powered screen-capture tool to capture information instead of images. For Linux, macOS and Windows.

Links: Source Code | Documentation | FAQs | Releases | Changelog

Installation

Choose one of the options for a prebuilt release. If you encounter an issue please take a look at the FAQs or report it.

Windows

NormCap-0.6.0-x86_64-Windows.msi (Installer)
NormCap-0.6.0-x86_64-Windows.zip (Portable)

Linux

It's recommended to install NormCap from Flathub:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install flathub com.github.dynobo.normcap

Alternative options:

NormCap-0.6.0-x86_64.AppImage - ⚠️ deprecated (Requires fuse)
normcap @ AUR (Arch/Manjaro)

macOS

Note: You must allow the unsigned application on first start: "System Preferences" → "Security & Privacy" → "General" → "Open anyway". You also need to allow NormCap to take screenshots. (#135)

NormCap-0.6.0-x86_64-macOS.dmg (Installer for x86/64)
NormCap-0.6.0-arm64-macOS.dmg (Installer for M1)

Use Python package

As an alternative to the prebuilt packages above, you can install the NormCap Python package for Python >=3.9, but it requires more setup:

On Linux

# Install dependencies (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt install build-essential tesseract-ocr tesseract-ocr-eng libtesseract-dev libleptonica-dev wl-clipboard

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

## Install dependencies (Fedora)
sudo dnf install tesseract wl-clipboard

## Install dependencies (openSUSE)
sudo zypper install python3-devel tesseract-ocr tesseract-ocr-devel wl-clipboard

# Install normcap
pip install normcap

# Run
./normcap

On macOS

# Install dependencies
brew install tesseract tesseract-lang

# Install normcap
pip install normcap

# Run
./normcap

On Windows

1. Install Tesseract 5 by using the installer provided by UB Mannheim.

2. Identify the path to the Tesseract base folder. It should contain a /tessdata subfolder and the tesseract.exe binary. Depending on whether you installed Tesseract system-wide or in userspace, the base folder should be:

C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Programs\Tesseract-OCR

3. Adjust environment variables:

Create an environment variable TESSDATA_PREFIX and set it to your Tesseract base folder, e.g.: "System Properties" → Tab "Advanced" → "Environment Variables …" → "New …" → Variable: TESSDATA_PREFIX, Value: "C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR"
Append Tesseract's base folder to the environment variable PATH, e.g.: "System Properties" → Tab "Advanced" → "Environment Variables …" → Section "User variables" → Select PATH → "Edit …" → Add a new entry "C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR"
To test your setup, open a new cmd-terminal and run:
```
tesseract --list-langs
```

4. Install and run NormCap:

# Install normcap
pip install normcap

# Run
normcap

Development

Prerequisites for setting up a development environment: Python >=3.9, uv, and Tesseract >=5.0 (including language data).

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

# Change into project directory
cd normcap

# Create virtual env and install dependencies
uv sync

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

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

Contribute to UI translations

Please use Weblate to complement or correct text for existing languages as well as for adding new languages.

(If you prefer not to use Weblate, you can also do it manually, but be aware that this is more cumbersome.)

Credits

This project uses the following non-standard libraries:

pyside6 - bindings for Qt UI Framework

And it depends on external software:

tesseract - OCR engine
zxing-cpp - QR & barcode detection
wl-clipboard - Wayland clipboard utilities
xclip - CLI to the X11 clipboard

Packaging is done with:

briefcase - converting Python projects into standalone apps

Thanks to the maintainers of those nice tools!

Similar open source tools

If NormCap doesn't fit your needs, try these alternatives (no particular order):

TextSnatcher (Linux)
GreenShot (Windows, macOS)
TextShot (Windows)
gImageReader (Linux, Windows)
Capture2Text (Windows)
Frog (Linux)
Textinator (macOS)
Text-Grab (Windows)
dpScreenOCR (Linux, Windows)
PowerToys Text Extractor (Windows)

Why "NormCap"?

See XKCD:

Certification

WOMM

Contributors

Made with contrib.rocks

Release files for normcap 0.6.0

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for normcap 0.6.0
File	Size	Uploaded
normcap-0.6.0.tar.gz	5.7 MB	Aug 31, 2025	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for normcap 0.6.0
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
normcap-0.6.0-py3-none-any.whl 3.9 MB Aug 31, 2025	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 9.7 MB

Release files / normcap-0.6.0.tar.gz

Download URL	normcap-0.6.0.tar.gz
Size	5.7 MB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`851dd22f0430b06255777bbd1232861a03bd85abfae3708f92124a8a5ad2cf9f`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`ce74eee5d3ec97f8d46fa7c48ac303aeca006ba2cebd95d0a01e45f62beeec41`
Upload date	Aug 31, 2025
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	Yes
Uploaded via	`twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.12.8`

Provenance

Provenance describes where a file came from. On PyPI, provenance is shared via attestations, which provide a verifiable record of the build or publishing details. View details, limitations and caveats.

Identity

Publishing platform: GitHub Actions
Publishing repository: github.com/dynobo/normcap
Publishing commit: github.com/dynobo/normcap/tree/ab46b1d534a417e49887a6fa9ce66b4a6629beb3

Workflow

Publishing configuration: github.com/dynobo/normcap/blob/ab46b1d534a417e49887a6fa9ce66b4a6629beb3/.github/workflows/cicd.yaml
Publishing logs: github.com/dynobo/normcap/actions/runs/17360491364/attempts/1

Artifact

Subject: normcap-0.6.0.tar.gz
SHA-256 checksum: 851dd22f0430b06255777bbd1232861a03bd85abfae3708f92124a8a5ad2cf9f Verifying attestations

Release files / normcap-0.6.0-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	normcap-0.6.0-py3-none-any.whl
Size	3.9 MB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`6c3e82b538dab1554bb4c8a92d92177b90b828e303eb94dab5f0ff6bd47160b3`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`858ec14eac02ed01a07100d29997e4187024bbb6b95d3c2201d15839881b798d`
Upload date	Aug 31, 2025
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	Yes
Uploaded via	`twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.12.8`

Provenance

Identity

Publishing platform: GitHub Actions
Publishing repository: github.com/dynobo/normcap
Publishing commit: github.com/dynobo/normcap/tree/ab46b1d534a417e49887a6fa9ce66b4a6629beb3

Workflow

Publishing configuration: github.com/dynobo/normcap/blob/ab46b1d534a417e49887a6fa9ce66b4a6629beb3/.github/workflows/cicd.yaml
Publishing logs: github.com/dynobo/normcap/actions/runs/17360491364/attempts/1

Artifact

Subject: normcap-0.6.0-py3-none-any.whl
SHA-256 checksum: 6c3e82b538dab1554bb4c8a92d92177b90b828e303eb94dab5f0ff6bd47160b3 Verifying attestations