Pourtype
A small macOS menu-bar utility for two chores:
- ⌘⇧V — type the clipboard. Some fields and dialogs block paste. Pourtype types the clipboard into the focused field as real keystrokes. While it types, every display is frosted except the target field and your keyboard and mouse are held, so a stray click or key cannot move the focus; if another app or window comes to the front, typing stops. Esc stops it at once.
- ⌘⇧C — grab text. Drag a box anywhere on screen; the text inside (Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese) is recognised on your Mac with Apple's Vision framework and copied.
- History. Every grab and every typed text is kept in a local, searchable history: copy it again or type it again.
Everything runs locally. The app makes no network requests and collects no data.
Status: in App Review for the Mac App Store (US$2.99, one-time); not on sale yet. Meanwhile you can build it from source (below).
Website: https://shuaige121.github.io/pourtype/ · Privacy policy: docs/privacy.html
The shortcuts can be changed in Settings. The app is in English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Japanese.
Guides: website won't let you paste on a Mac · type the clipboard as keystrokes · copy text from an image, video or screen · 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · 日本語
While it types
| Key | Effect |
|---|
| Esc | stop now, give the keyboard and mouse back |
| hold ↑ / ↓ | faster / slower (3–150 characters per second) |
| hold ← / → | steadier / more random rhythm |
Type at my own pace (Settings, off by default): type a short passage once under Learn my typing, and Pourtype times each character the way you type: how long you hold keys and the gaps between them, by kind of key. Only summary numbers are saved, on this Mac; the text you typed and the raw timings are not. With it on, ↑ / ↓ speed your own pace up or down and ← / → make it steadier or more varied. Only the timing changes: the characters typed are the same.
The card shows the app and window being typed into, the text streaming past, progress and time left. On other displays a small card points to the one being typed on. Typing stops by itself if another app comes to the front or the displays change. Newlines go in as Shift+Return so chat boxes do not send early; tabs become spaces.
In a password field macOS turns on Secure Input, which hides the keyboard from every app; there the keyboard cannot be held, so Pourtype types without the veil. The keys still go only to the app it started in, typing stops if another app or window comes to the front, and Esc or ⌃⌥⌘. stops it.
Permissions
- Accessibility — to type, and to hold the keyboard and mouse while typing (an event tap that is on only during a run; Esc, a crash or a hang all give input back).
- Screen Recording — only for the box you draw with ⌘⇧C.
Build
Deployment target macOS 14; so far built with Xcode 27 and tested on macOS 27 only.
brew install xcodegen # the project file is generated from project.yml
scripts/build.sh # -> build/Pourtype.app, signed with your Apple Development identity
Configurations: Debug, Release (direct download, hardened runtime), AppStore (sandboxed, APPSTORE compile flag). Unit tests: xcodebuild -scheme Pourtype test.
Automation hooks: open -g pourtype://grab, pourtype://history, pourtype://status. pourtype://type and pourtype://type-slow type the clipboard, so they are refused unless Settings › General › Let links type the clipboard is on (defaults write com.leonardchow.pourtype automation.typeFromLinks -bool true; scripts/live_session.py sets it for its run).
How it works
Sources/TypeOver — the typing engine (one CGEvent per grapheme cluster, Unicode string payload, so input methods are bypassed), the HID-level event tap that holds input, and the veil: one window per display with a frosted NSVisualEffectView cut out around the field and a WKWebView HUD (Resources/hud.html).Sources/Grab — the region picker, ScreenCaptureKit capture and Vision text recognition.Sources/History — a JSON index plus PNG thumbnails under Application Support.Sources/Habits — "Type at my own pace": the Learn my typing recorder (keys in its own box only), the fit (lognormal per key class and key-pair geometry, long pauses), and TypingProfile.json in Application Support beside the history.
License
Source-available under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0: free for personal use and for
noncommercial organisations (study, research, hobby projects, charities, schools, public institutions); any
commercial use is not permitted. This is not an OSI open-source licence.
The ready-to-use build on the Mac App Store is how the project is paid for.
源码公开，采用 PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 许可：个人使用不限，非营利组织（学习、研究、个人项目、慈善、学校、公共机构）也可使用；禁止任何商业用途。注意这不是 OSI 定义的开源许可。
Contributions: see CONTRIBUTING.md.
