Pause the video on the frame with the text, then drag across it like ordinary text. That is Live Text, and it arrived for video in macOS Ventura. If the selection cursor never appears in your player, box the frame with ⌥A in LeafyApp instead.
Pause, then select
On macOS Ventura or later, pause the video at a frame where the text is clear. Drag across the text with the pointer, then right-click or Control-click the selection for Translate, Copy and Share. MacRumors' how-to describes exactly that, and says the feature was extended to video in Ventura after arriving in Monterey for pictures.
9to5Mac's walkthrough, from December 2022, adds that a Live Text button appears in the corner of a video only while it is paused. Best results come from the clearest, largest text. Both articles are three years old and they have not been re-tested on every macOS release.
This works on YouTube too, when the video is playing somewhere Live Text reaches. Pause, wait a beat, then try to select.
Where it works and where it does not
The two articles disagree on the details. MacRumors lists Photos, Quick Look and Safari "and other apps that support video". 9to5Mac says it worked in Photos and not in web browsers, and suggests importing the clip into Photos. Apple has changed things since 2022, so treat both as a starting point and just try your player.
Language is a limit as well. MacRumors listed a short set in 2022, including English, German, Spanish, French and Japanese variants. Apple keeps a feature availability page for current languages. If the selection cursor never appears, the cause is not always the player. The Live Text troubleshooting page covers the usual fixes.
When the cursor never appears
This happens. A video player, a lecture recording, a stream in some browser, a frame with stylised lettering. Live Text just does not offer itself, and no amount of pausing changes that.
LeafyApp does not depend on the player offering anything. Pause the video, press ⌥A, and drag a box over the text. macOS text recognition reads that patch of screen and the result appears under the box. It works the same in IINA, VLC, QuickTime, a browser tab on YouTube, and a downloaded file.
It is the on-screen pixels it reads, so text burned into the picture counts: a title card, a slide in a lecture, a subtitle painted onto the frame.
Translate the text in the video
Live Text offers Translate from the same right-click menu, in the languages Apple supports. In LeafyApp the box has a translate shortcut, so you can drag over a line of Korean subtitles and read it in English without leaving the player. Tap one word inside the box and you get what that word means in that sentence, which is usually what you wanted from a dictionary and did not get.
That word is saved with the line, the source and the date. If you watch a lot of video in another language, the saved list is a record of what actually came up. The screen translator page and the sentence mining page cover that side.
What this does not cover
LeafyApp is not a copy tool. It explains and keeps the text rather than putting a paragraph on the clipboard, so for pure copying, TextSniper and TRex are the better fit. TextSniper's site says it captures text from YouTube videos, and TRex's App Store listing says the same.
It will not work on protected streaming video. Netflix and Disney+ frames usually capture as a black rectangle on macOS, so there is nothing to read. A moving frame is also harder than a paused one, so pause first.
The picture is read on your Mac and thrown away. Only the word and its sentence go out so the AI can explain it, with nothing attached that says who you are, and your library stays on the Mac. See the privacy page.
Questions people ask
How do I copy text from a YouTube video on a Mac? Pause on the frame, then try selecting the text with the pointer, which works where macOS Live Text reaches. If the cursor never appears, box the frame with ⌥A in LeafyApp to read it.
Does Live Text work on video on a Mac? Yes, from macOS Ventura, on a paused frame, in apps that support it. MacRumors and 9to5Mac, both from late 2022, list different apps, so test your player.
How do I translate text in a video on a Mac? With Live Text, select the text on a paused frame and choose Translate from the right-click menu. With LeafyApp, box the line with ⌥A and use the translate shortcut.
Can I copy text from Netflix on a Mac? LeafyApp cannot. Protected streaming video usually captures as black on macOS, so there is nothing for text recognition to read.
Pause the frame. Read what is on it.
Free while LeafyApp is in beta. One download, macOS 14 and up.
YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, TextSniper, TRex, Live Text, IINA, VLC and QuickTime are trademarks of their respective owners. LeafyApp is an independent app, not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them, and the names are used here only to describe compatibility and for comparison.