Skip to content
Store
AZBuy(opens in a new tab)

Copy text from anywhere on your Windows screen

Text inside a screenshot, a paused video, a scanned PDF or an error dialog cannot be selected. With LiftDrop you press a shortcut, drag a box over it, and the text is on your clipboard, ready to paste. Recognition runs on your PC with the OCR engine built into Windows.

Buy on Gumroad(opens in a new tab)$5

Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit. Works offline.

LiftDrop: Copy Text From Anywhere on Your Screen, OCR for Windows

What LiftDrop does

  • Pictures and screenshots

    Grab text from screenshots and from photos of documents.

  • Videos

    Pause on the frame and grab the subtitle or the slide.

  • PDFs and scans

    Copy from scanned pages where the text cannot be selected.

  • Error messages

    Copy the code from an error dialog and search for it.

  • Pages that block copying

    Web pages and apps that do not let you select their text.

  • QR codes

    Drag over a QR code and its link or text is copied.

  • Line breaks your way

    Keep line breaks and paragraphs, or join everything into one line. Words split with a hyphen at a line end are put back together.

Who it is for

  • Students and researchers copying quotes from scanned PDFs and slides
  • Support and IT staff who need the exact text of an error message
  • Anyone who retypes text from screenshots, videos or images

Details

Platform
Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit
Version
1.0
Download
112 MB installer
Shortcut
Win+Shift+T or Ctrl+Alt+T, or your own
Updates
Free for all 1.x versions
Price
$5, paid once

How it works

  1. 1

    Press Win+Shift+T. When another app already uses it, LiftDrop takes Ctrl+Alt+T instead, and you can set your own.

  2. 2

    The screen holds still under a light shade. Drag a box over the text. Esc or a right-click cancels.

  3. 3

    The text is copied, a short note shows what was copied, and the app you were in gets the keyboard back so you can paste.

Questions

Is this like PowerToys Text Extractor?

Same idea, and both use the OCR built into Windows. Text Extractor is free and comes inside Microsoft PowerToys, a suite of utilities. LiftDrop is one small app for this job, with QR codes, a one-line option and a note that shows what was copied.

Which languages can it read?

The ones Windows text recognition has on your PC, such as English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Chinese or Japanese. Pick the one that matches the text in Settings for the best result. Windows has no recognition for some languages, Azerbaijani for example; their special letters then come out as the closest plain ones.

Is my screen uploaded anywhere?

No. Text recognition runs on your PC. Nothing is saved: the picture of your screen stays in memory only while you choose, and the log never holds the text. There is no account and no analytics.

Is the text always exact?

Clear screen text usually comes out exactly as written. Very small, blurry or decorated text can come out with mistakes, so check names and numbers before you rely on them.

Is this a subscription?

No. You pay once and keep it. Use it on all of your own computers, and every 1.x update is free.

Windows shows a blue warning when I install it.

LiftDrop comes from an independent developer and is not code-signed yet, so the first time you run the installer Windows may say "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway.

Get LiftDrop

Copy Text From Anywhere on Your Screen, OCR for Windows

Need help after you buy? Reply to your receipt email and describe what happened. We will help you get it running.

Buy on Gumroad(opens in a new tab)All products

More from the store

All products