I Built My First macOS App: TSnap – Instant OCR & Text Translation Anywhere

Bùi Ngọc Lâm — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 04:20:46 +0000

Hi everyone 👋
I want to share my first macOS application called TSnap, a small menu bar tool I built to solve a problem I personally run into every day: translating text quickly without breaking focus.

The problem

When working or reading on macOS, I often need to translate:

A piece of text inside an app

Text inside screenshots, images, or PDFs

The usual workflow was:

Select text or take a screenshot

Open a translation app or website

Paste the content

Switch back to what I was doing

It’s a small friction, but it happens many times a day.

So I decided to build a tool that works directly from anywhere on macOS.

Introducing TSnap

TSnap is a lightweight macOS menu bar app that lets you translate text instantly using keyboard shortcuts.

It supports:

Translating selected text in any app

Performing OCR on screenshots and translating the extracted text

Working system-wide without switching applications

The goal is to keep everything fast, simple, and unobtrusive.

🌐 Website: https://www.tsnap.tech/

💻 Source code: https://github.com/buingoclam147/snap-translate

Key features

Instant translation via shortcut
Select text in any app and translate it immediately.

OCR from screenshots
Capture text from images or PDFs and translate it directly.

System-wide support
Works across apps, not limited to browsers.

Menu bar design
Always available, minimal UI, low resource usage.

Privacy-focused
No accounts, no tracking. Data stays on your machine whenever possible.

Open source
The entire project is public, and anyone can inspect, fork, or customize it.

Why it’s not on the Mac App Store (yet)

This is a small but honest reason 😅
I haven’t enrolled in the Apple Developer Program, so TSnap is currently distributed outside the App Store.

For now, I’m sharing builds directly and making the project open source so people can use it freely or customize it for their own needs.

Build in public

This is my first macOS app, and it’s still rough around the edges.
I decided to share it early to:

Get real-world feedback

Learn from the community

Improve both the product and my macOS development skills

What I’d love feedback on

UX and keyboard shortcut flow

OCR accuracy and performance

Any features you think would improve daily workflows

macOS best practices I might be missing

If you’re interested, feel free to try it out, review the code, or suggest improvements.

Thanks for reading 🙏

I Built My First macOS App: Translate Text Instantly from Screenshots

Bùi Ngọc Lâm — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 11:31:31 +0000

Hi everyone 👋
I want to share a small project I’ve been working on recently — my first macOS app, built completely in public.

The app is called TSnap, and it solves a problem I personally hit almost every day.

The Problem

As developers, we often deal with text that cannot be selected:

UI text inside apps

Screenshots

Images

PDFs

When I want to translate that text, the usual flow is:

Take a screenshot

Open a browser

Upload the image

Copy the text

Translate

It breaks focus and feels way too slow for something so common.

The Idea

What if translation worked directly on macOS, everywhere?

Select text → translate instantly

Screenshot → OCR → translate

No browser

No account

No extra steps

That idea became TSnap.

What TSnap Can Do

TSnap is a free macOS menu bar app that lets you:

🔤 Translate selected text instantly using a keyboard shortcut

📸 OCR & translate text from screenshots

⚡ Works in any app, anywhere on macOS

🆓 Completely free to use

It’s designed to stay lightweight and out of your way.

Why It’s Open Source

This is my first macOS product, so it’s definitely not perfect yet.

That’s why I decided to:

Make it open source

Let anyone inspect the code

Allow people to fork & customize it freely

Security and privacy matter, especially for apps that deal with screenshots and text.
You can always verify everything in the source code.

👉 GitHub repository:
https://github.com/buingoclam147/snap-translate

About Distribution (and the $99 problem 😅)

Right now, TSnap is not on the Mac App Store.

The honest reason:
I haven’t paid the $99 Apple Developer Program fee yet.

So instead:

I provide a direct build (.app / .dmg)

Anyone can download and use it freely

👉 Website & download:
https://www.tsnap.tech/

Built in Public

TSnap is very much a build in public project.

I’m sharing:

The product

The source code

The limitations

And the learning process

Feedback, suggestions, and contributions are more than welcome.

What’s Next

Some things I want to improve:

OCR accuracy

Better shortcut customization

UI polish

More language support

And hopefully, one day:

A proper App Store release 🤞

Final Thoughts

TSnap won’t change the world —
but if it saves you a few seconds dozens of times a day, it has done its job.

If you’re on macOS and often need to translate text from screenshots or UI elements, feel free to try it out.

Thanks for reading, and happy building 🚀

🔗 Links

🌐 Website: https://www.tsnap.tech/

💻 GitHub: https://github.com/buingoclam147/snap-translate

Forem: Bùi Ngọc Lâm

I Built My First macOS App: TSnap – Instant OCR & Text Translation Anywhere

I Built My First macOS App: Translate Text Instantly from Screenshots

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