How to search the text in your Mac screenshots
On macOS Tahoe 26, Spotlight can search for text in images with Live Text, in select languages, and Photos can search the text in your library's photos. Shotbolt reads every screenshot in its History on your Mac, so you can find one by a word in it.
What macOS does
macOS has three tools for this, and each covers a different place.
- Spotlight. Apple's Mac guide for macOS Tahoe 26 says that with Live Text, Spotlight can search for text in images, in select languages. Press ⌘Space and type a word. To narrow the results to pictures, start with
kind:images. Apple does not list the languages there, so try it on a screenshot of your own. - Photos. Apple says Photos search also finds text within photos. It searches your Photos library, and the macOS screenshot shortcuts save to the desktop, so a screenshot appears there only after you add it.
- Live Text in Preview. With one image open, you can select its text and copy it. That helps once you have found the picture. More in how to copy text from anywhere on a Mac screen.
Steps in Shotbolt
Search inside screenshots works on the captures in History. It is on from the start.
- Take screenshots as usual. Shotbolt reads the text of each new screenshot shortly after you take it, at low priority, so the clipboard, the Quick Access card and the file never wait for it.
- Open the search. Choose Open History… from the Shotbolt icon in the menu bar, then press ⌘F. The Search Captures shortcut opens the window with the field ready. It has no key in the default set, so record one in Settings → Shortcuts.
- Type what you remember. porto booking finds screenshots that hold both words, in any order, on any line. Capitals and accents don't matter. File names, titles and categories count too.
- Open the match. Name matches come first, then Found in text, where each card shows the line with your word highlighted. Press Return to reach the first match, Space to look at it, and Return again to open it.
Screenshots already in History are read in the background, newest first. That work waits while you capture or record, and while your Mac is in Low Power Mode.
Search from Spotlight
To reach your captures from anywhere, turn on Find screenshots in Spotlight in Settings → Intelligence. It is off until you turn it on. Then ⌘Space finds a capture by its title, its app or the words in it, and opening the result shows it in History.
Spotlight gets the words, never the picture. Shotbolt leaves out sensitive data such as email addresses and card numbers, and any word under a cover you drew.
Limits
- History only. A screenshot taken with the macOS tools, or before you installed Shotbolt, is not searched. To add one, open it with Tools → Annotate Image File… and press ⌘S, which puts a new copy in History and your save folder.
- Screenshots only. Recordings, GIFs and step guides are found by name and title, never by the words shown in them.
- Only while History keeps it. History keeps captures for 1 month by default, and a capture's text goes when it leaves. Your saved file stays. Press ⌘D to Keep a capture, or change Keep captures for in Settings → Quick Access and History.
- The picture as you took it. Search reads the screenshot before your marks. A word you typed in a note is not found, and a word under a cover can still match in History on your Mac.
Questions
Does the text leave my Mac?
Shotbolt reads the text with Apple's Vision framework on your Mac and keeps it in a small file next to your history. None of it is uploaded, and search does not need Apple Intelligence.
Can I turn it off?
Yes. Turn off Search text inside screenshots in Settings → Intelligence. That deletes the index and takes your screenshots out of Spotlight. While it is on, Rebuild Index in the same place reads everything again.