At first glance, the recently updated and curiously named Kleptomania is the textual answer to SnagIt and other screen capture programs. Yet the more text I attempt to translate with this interpreter, the more it appears that Kleptomania has more of a compulsion to overstate its own abilities than "steal" text embedded in the screen. Not that the attempt isn't worthy. I, too, have wished that a screen capture could isolate the text from the JPEG or BMP image as easily as my eye does. As Kleptomania's developers explain, computers interpret screen images as pixels, not as meaningful text, and therefore reproduce screen captures as images. Kleptomania's technology aims to "read" the text, comparing contrasting shapes to 234 fonts in its character library. The application installs a Taskbar icon, but you can launch Kleptomania from a menu of hot key combinations also. You know it's activated when the cursor resembles one-half of a cropping frame. You use that to click and drag your selection. It's encouraging that Kleptomania tallies the characters and words, and offers multiple formats for saving and pasting selections. Too often, though, it fell short. Kleptomania doesn\'t pinch all text equally. I tested the software on almost every type of text produced on the screen--lists, text blocks, single words, logos, buttons--in Web browsers, IM clients, and system files. Some text-capture scenarios worked well--lists copied the best of all--though more often than not my interpretations were missing characters, were partially complete, or in some cases, were an unintelligible jumble of characters. While there's no need to use Kleptomania for any text that a cursor will highlight, it offers a good starting point for anyone who repeatedly needs to reproduce text that's not cursor-responsive, especially if the text comes from a straightforward source or the user doesn't mind filling in sometimes sizable gaps. Google+ for iOS catches up to Android with Instant Upload there. Kleptomania's generous 40-day trial makes it worthwhile that you should compare results with your own needs. But when time's up, you'll have to buy it or let the program go.
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