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We need a browser extension that treats the rendered page as an image, then runs OCR over it, then converts that to something where text can be selected.

Pros: 1. safer (what you see is what you select), 2. also works with images, 3. all text can be selected





Texts in images are searchable in Safari. Out of the box.

This is roughly what reader mode is, no? Safari ships it out of the box, although it's very hit or miss as far as my experience with it goes. But I like the idea.

I wonder why Apple just doesn’t use Readability.js instead of using a really crude set of heuristic they put into their own Reader Mode.

That's in Android. Long press the bar at the bottom to get the text in any app, and translate too. Just as you describe.

On iOS and Macs, just take a screenshot and then select the automatically OCR'd text. Works flawlessly.



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