Tool
Apr 2026
RustyLens
Lightweight open-source OCR tool for the Linux desktop — extract text from images with bounding-box overlays, similar to Google Lens.
About the Project
A lightweight, open-source OCR desktop application for Linux that uses Tesseract under the hood. Open an image or capture a screenshot via the XDG Portal and RustyLens extracts text with bounding-box word overlays, drag-to-select copying, and support for 100+ languages. Ships as a native binary, AppImage, or Flatpak.
Technologies Used
RustGTK4libadwaitaTesseractCairoFlatpakAppImageXDG Portal
Key Features
- OCR text extraction supporting 100+ languages with auto-detection of all installed Tesseract language packs
- Bounding-box overlay rendered via Cairo — click or drag across highlighted words to select and copy with Ctrl+C
- Screenshot mode via XDG Desktop Portal (`rustylens --capture`) for immediate in-context OCR
- Language selector dropdown with human-readable names; 'Auto (all)' uses every installed pack simultaneously
- Cross-distro installer (Arch, Ubuntu, Fedora) with native binary, AppImage, and Flatpak distribution formats