About the screen capturing feature

How can I use the screen capturing feature?

By using the screen capturing feature, you can capture and translate text on screen. This means that the text from the captured area will be extracted, inserted into the source text field of your DeepL for Windows / DeepL for Mac app, and translated into the language of your choice.

This feature is available for all users in the DeepL for Windows / DeepL for Mac app.

For Windows

To take a screenshot and translate it with DeepL, do the following:

1. Click on the screen capture icon in the lower right-hand corner of the source text field
2. The mouse cursor will change to a crosshair symbol
3. Drag the crosshair cursor to select the area of the screen to capture (press ESC to cancel)
4. The text will be extracted and inserted into the source text field
5. The translation will be automatically displayed

Please note that if your screenshot doesn't contain any text, there will be no translation shown.

You also have the option to trigger the screen capture feature via the shortcut Ctrl+F8 (learn how to customize the shortcut here.) To do so, you need to enable the screen capturing shortcut in the settings of your DeepL for Windows app, under Keyboard shortcuts.

Under Files & translation, you can choose up to 3 source languages for this feature. To avoid performance issues, we recommend that you only enable the languages that you use most often.

The feature currently supports Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian (bokmål), Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Ukrainian as source languages.

For Mac

To translate text on screen, please first enable the screen capturing feature in the settings of your DeepL for Mac app (Settings), under General. In the section Capture text on screen, select the option ⇧⌘2.

To use this feature, you must give permission to record your computer's screen when asked. You can also allow DeepL to record your screen at any time later by doing the following:

1. Open System Settings
2. Choose Privacy & Security
3. Under Privacy, click on Screen Recording
4. Activate the toggle switch for DeepL in the list of apps

To take a screenshot and translate it with DeepL, do the following:

1. Press the shortcut ⇧⌘2 (Shift+Cmd+2)
   or
   Click on the screen capture icon in the lower right-hand corner of the source text field
2. The mouse cursor will change to a crosshair symbol
3. Drag the crosshair cursor to select the area of the screen to capture
4. The text will be extracted and inserted into the source text field
5. The translation will be automatically displayed

Alternatively, you can right-click on the DeepL icon in your Dock and select the Capture Text on Screen option. The mouse cursor will change to a crosshair symbol and you can select the text you would like to translate as described above.

Please note that if your screenshot doesn't contain any text, there will be no translation shown.

The feature currently supports Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian as source languages.