Reference
OCR languages: which languages can Textify read?
Textify uses Apple’s text recognition, built into macOS, so the languages it reads depend on your version of macOS: English only on macOS 10.15, 30 languages on macOS 26 Tahoe.
Updated
Short answer: on macOS 26 Tahoe, Textify recognizes 30 languages and variants: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Cantonese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian, Thai, Vietnamese, Arabic, Najdi Arabic, Turkish, Indonesian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk), Malay, Polish, Romanian and Swedish. On macOS 13 Ventura and later, it can also detect the language automatically.
Languages by macOS version
Each new version of macOS has taught Apple’s text recognition new languages, and Textify offers all of them. To see your version, choose Apple menu › About This Mac.
| macOS | Languages added | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 10.15 Catalina | English | 1 |
| 11 Big Sur and 12 Monterey | French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) | 8 |
| 13 Ventura | Cantonese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, Japanese, Russian, Ukrainian, and automatic language detection | 14 |
| 14 Sonoma | Thai, Vietnamese | 16 |
| 15 Sequoia | Arabic, Najdi Arabic | 18 |
| 26 Tahoe | Turkish, Indonesian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Norwegian Nynorsk, Norwegian Bokmål, Malay, Polish, Romanian, Swedish | 30 |
All 30 languages
The codes are the ones macOS uses for each language.
| Language | Code | From macOS |
|---|---|---|
| English | en-US | 10.15 |
| French | fr-FR | 11 |
| Italian | it-IT | 11 |
| German | de-DE | 11 |
| Spanish | es-ES | 11 |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | pt-BR | 11 |
| Chinese, Simplified | zh-Hans | 11 |
| Chinese, Traditional | zh-Hant | 11 |
| Cantonese, Simplified | yue-Hans | 13 |
| Cantonese, Traditional | yue-Hant | 13 |
| Korean | ko-KR | 13 |
| Japanese | ja-JP | 13 |
| Russian | ru-RU | 13 |
| Ukrainian | uk-UA | 13 |
| Thai | th-TH | 14 |
| Vietnamese | vi-VT | 14 |
| Arabic | ar-SA | 15 |
| Najdi Arabic | ars-SA | 15 |
| Turkish | tr-TR | 26 |
| Indonesian | id-ID | 26 |
| Czech | cs-CZ | 26 |
| Danish | da-DK | 26 |
| Dutch | nl-NL | 26 |
| Norwegian | no-NO | 26 |
| Norwegian Nynorsk | nn-NO | 26 |
| Norwegian Bokmål | nb-NO | 26 |
| Malay | ms-MY | 26 |
| Polish | pl-PL | 26 |
| Romanian | ro-RO | 26 |
| Swedish | sv-SE | 26 |
This list comes from the text recognition of macOS 26, checked on a Mac with macOS 26.6. Later versions of macOS may add languages: Textify shows every language your Mac supports in its OCR Language menu.
Automatic language detection
On macOS 13 Ventura and later, choose Automatic under Settings… › OCR Language, and Textify detects the language of each document for you. If a document mixes languages, or the result has odd mistakes, choose its main language yourself: language correction then uses the right dictionary.
When to choose Other
The Other choice at the top of the OCR Language menu turns off language correction. Use it for text that isn’t made of words, such as serial numbers, product codes, bank account numbers or tables of figures, so Textify doesn’t “correct” them into dictionary words.
Languages not supported yet
As of macOS 26, Apple’s text recognition doesn’t read Hebrew, Greek, Hindi and the other scripts of India, Persian or Hungarian, among others. Textify can’t recognize them yet, and will offer them as soon as macOS does.
Languages of the app itself
The menus and windows of Textify are in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil) and Chinese (Simplified), following the language of your Mac. That doesn’t change which languages Textify can recognize.
Questions and answers
Why isn’t Japanese in my OCR Language menu?
Japanese, Korean, Cantonese, Russian and Ukrainian need macOS 13 Ventura or later. On older versions of macOS, the menu only shows the languages that version supports. Updating macOS adds them.
Can Textify recognize Arabic text?
Yes, on macOS 15 Sequoia and later: Textify offers Arabic and Najdi Arabic.
Can Textify recognize Polish, Dutch or Swedish?
Yes, on macOS 26 Tahoe and later, along with Turkish, Indonesian, Czech, Danish, Norwegian, Malay and Romanian.
Does Textify translate the text?
No, Textify recognizes text but doesn’t translate it. Copy the text into a translator, or open the searchable PDF in Preview, select a sentence, Control-click it and choose Translate.
Do I need to download anything for a language?
No. The languages are part of macOS: there is nothing to download or buy, and recognition works offline in every language.
Recognize text in your language
Textify is a free download on the Mac App Store.
macOS 10.15 or later · Apple silicon and Intel