Finally built a free macOS app to solve a problem that kept bugging me
A few months ago, I was watching a tutorial and needed to copy a line of code from the video.
Except… I couldn’t. No way to select it. My only option was to pause, squint, and retype it manually.
That got me thinking: why isn’t there a simple way to just grab text from anywhere on screen?
Fast forward to today, I ended up building Ghost Text, a free macOS app that lets you copy text from places where you normally can't like screenshots, videos, or scanned PDFs. Basically, anywhere text is “stuck” as an image, Ghost Text makes it selectable.
I’d love for you to give it a try and let me know what you think design, UX, features I should add, anything.
If you find it useful, your support would mean a lot 🙏
Ghost Text
“That’s a clean little utility. Did you build it just for yourself first, or did you always plan to share it?”
Congrats on shipping Ghost Text!
A few concrete ideas that might help with adoption and learning:
1) Above-the-fold clarity
Spell out the exact pain + constraint: “Works in any app? Plain text only? Keeps formatting? System-wide shortcut?”
A 15–20s GIF of the before/after would answer 80% of questions.
2) First-run & onboarding
On macOS a lot of friction is from permissions. Consider a tiny checklist on first launch:
• grant Accessibility / pasteboard permissions
• set a global shortcut
• try a 10-sec “hello world” task
3) Keyboard-first details
Menu bar + global shortcut + “Paste without formatting” toggle are killer for power users.
If you support templates/snippets, show 1 example (e.g., date stamps, removing UTM).
4) Trust & privacy
One line about local-only processing (if true) and what’s collected. Add a “Send feedback” item in the menu.
5) Instrumentation
Track: first_launch, permission_granted, shortcut_set, first_successful_action, daily_active, crash.
It’ll show you exactly where new users drop.
6) Distribution ideas
Post a short GIF + one-liner to r/MacApps, r/mac, r/Productivity, and “Show HN”.
Also list on AlternativeTo & MacUpdate; consider Setapp later if you add a Pro tier.
7) Monetization (if ever)
Keep a generous free tier; add Pro for advanced templates, iCloud sync, multi-snippets, regex/transform rules.
If you share the core use case you’re optimizing for, happy to suggest a tighter headline.
Nice work shipping a tidy Mac utility!
Congratulations on your launch!
Hey, this sounds super relatable! That frustration of not being able to copy code from a tutorial is real. It's awesome that you turned that annoyance into building Ghost Text. I bet many developers will find this tool incredibly useful for those tricky situations. Great idea!
Congratulations on the launch!
thanks buddy
Congrats with the launch 🎉 Are you planning to monetize it?
no