Explain ThisImage to text for your Mac

ALL LOCAL AIRuns on your Mac. Nothing goes to the cloud.

Image to text that explains itself.

Drag over any text on your Mac. Copy it, get an error explained, turn a table into a spreadsheet, or translate it. On your Mac, with no account.

Download on the Mac App StoreFree for 30 captures, then $12.99 once
The Explain This panel: Region, Selection and Clipboard buttons and a Snap bar
Price

Try it free for 30 captures.Then $12.99, once.

  • Every feature included.
  • A capture is one shortcut press. Explaining, extracting, translating or asking about it costs nothing extra.
  • No subscription. Family Sharing is on.
Download on the Mac App Store

For macOS 26 or later. Explain and Ask need Apple Intelligence (Apple silicon); Copy, Extract and Translate work on every Mac that runs macOS 26.

How it works

Drag it. Read it. Get it.

  1. 1

    Press ⇧⌘E

    Or ⌥⌘E to read the text you have selected, or start from your clipboard.

  2. 2

    Drag over the text

    Anything on screen, on any display: an error dialog, a photo, a video, a screen share.

  3. 3

    Pick what you need

    Copy, Explain, Extract or Translate, or ask a question. Escape clears the result, and nothing is kept unless you pin it.

See it work

On the left, what's on your screen. On the right, what you get.

Explain This explaining a Finder error: what it means, the likely cause and steps to try
Explain: Drag over an error and get what it means, the likely cause and what to try.Click the image to see it full size.
Explain This reading a server log: the failed connection, its root cause and the evidence lines
Logs: For terminal and log output: what failed, the root cause, and the exact lines that show it.Click the image to see it full size.
Explain This turning a screenshot table into rows and columns
Extract: A table in a screenshot becomes CSV, Markdown or cells you paste into Numbers, Excel or Sheets.Click the image to see it full size.
Explain This translating an English paragraph on screen into Spanish
Translate: More than 20 languages, with Apple's on-device translation.Click the image to see it full size.
What it does

Five ways to use what you capture

Copy

The text, even from images, videos, dialogs and screen shares.

Explain

For a chat or a document: a plain-English version and any to-dos. For an error: what it means and what to try.

Extract

Tables become CSV, Markdown or spreadsheet cells.

Translate

More than 20 languages, on your Mac.

Ask

Type a question about the text you captured.

A capture is one shortcut press. Explaining, extracting, translating or asking about it costs nothing extra.

Privacy

On this Mac

No accountNo serverNo network accessEscape clears it
  • Apple's Vision framework reads the text on your Mac. Screen images stay in memory only while they are read and shown, and are never written to disk.
  • Explanations and answers come from Apple's on-device AI model, and translation from Apple's on-device Translation framework. No cloud AI, no API keys.
  • The app has no network access at all, so it can't send anything. On the App Store: Data Not Collected.

Read the privacy policy

Requirements

What you need

macOS and Apple Intelligence

macOS 26 or later.

Explain and Ask need a Mac with Apple Intelligence turned on (Apple silicon). Copy, Extract and Translate work on every Mac that runs macOS 26.

Languages

Translation covers more than 20 languages. Each language downloads once, then works offline.

Questions? Setup fixes, purchases and how to reach us are on the support page.

Explain This is a HOW TO // AI app, sold on the Mac App Store as "Image to Text: Explain This" by Blue Ocean Water Inc.

Explain This support
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