gyotaku

Ctrl F for your screenshots

gyotaku reads the text in every screenshot on your computer, so you can search your screenshots by any word you remember. Free, open source and fully offline.

Install gyotaku

macOS, Windows and Linux · v0.1.7

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, a woodblock print by Hokusai

Background: The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Hokusai, c. 1831

What it does

Everything below is live and works the way it does in the app, with the same keys.

Finds the words it misread

OCR sometimes reads an I as an l, or an O as a 0. Those screenshots still turn up, after every exact match, marked as a near match.

Try inv0ice

Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake, a woodblock print by Hiroshige
Screenshot of an invoice email
near match
Screenshot of an order confirmation
near match
Background: Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake, Hiroshige, 1857

Bursts fold into one

Six screenshots of the same chat, taken while you scrolled, show as one tile. The rest are one key away.

ctrl e unfolds them

Fine Wind, Clear Morning (Red Fuji), a woodblock print by Hokusai
Screenshot of a group chat, shot 4 of 4
Screenshot of a group chat, shot 3 of 4
Screenshot of a group chat, shot 2 of 4
Screenshot of a group chat, shot 1 of 4
Background: Fine Wind, Clear Morning, Hokusai, c. 1831

Copy just the lines you need

Drag a box over an open screenshot to copy the lines inside it, or click one line to copy only that.

Drag across the booking

The sky of Fine Wind, Clear Morning (Red Fuji), a woodblock print by Hokusai
Screenshot of a hotel booking confirmation
Background: Fine Wind, Clear Morning, Hokusai, c. 1831

  • Filters for where and when

    in:discord, date:yesterday, before:aug. They mix with words, and dim once they're complete.

    • Screenshot of a terminal with a build error
      Discord · today
    • Screenshot of a bank text message
    • Screenshot of an invoice email
    • Screenshot of a boarding pass
    • Screenshot of a budget spreadsheet
    • Screenshot of a shopping list note

  • Clear out a hundred at once

    Search otp, mark every result, move them to the trash. Nothing is deleted, and Ctrl+Z puts them all back.

    otp
    0 marked

  • Copied images count too

    Turn it on and anything you copy, even if it was never saved, lands in Pictures/Clipboard and becomes searchable. Off by default.

    save copied imagesso pictures you only copied are searchable too
    Screenshot of a copied picture
    Clipboard12
    Pictures/Clipboard

    copy it, it gets saved and read

  • Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, and vertical text

    Turn on Devanagari in settings and it reads that too. Vertical Japanese and sideways chart labels read as well.

    स्टेटस
    Screenshot of a Hindi order update and a vertical Japanese label
    found

  • Every shortcut is yours

    Pick a command and press the new keys. Escape cancels, Delete puts the default back, and keys already in use are refused.

    SHORTCUTS

    Press Enter, then the new keys.

What people said

Replies to the launch post on X, which got 1,352 likes and 846 bookmarks.

the screenshots folder was always a database, just badly indexed

Roni RechterRoni Rechter@RechterRoni

A ctrl+f for a folder full of screenshots makes immediate sense. Keeping it offline is a relief when half those images contain private stuff.

Abhishek kothariAbhishek kothari@thenightshipper

ctrl+f for screenshots solves a problem literally everyone has.

SujalSujal@hecodesforme

bro could have charged, but went opensource, this is the real AURA!

Muhammad Kashan AshrafMuhammad Kashan Ashraf@itzKashan2912

Okay this is solving such a niche problem that even coming up with the idea is pure genius

AniketAniket@astriknormal

Ctrl+F is the missing half of “save for later”

Endry MagolasEndry Magolas@EndryMagolas

the offline feature is a must-have for privacy, it's a real win for users

Brian HaduBrian Hadu@BrianHaDu

wow, some real voodoo! instafollow, cherry on top is that it is GPUI

MontyMonty@mont_py

I'd use this to find an old error screenshot by the exception name. Handy little tool.

Zuhayr KhanZuhayr Khan@zuhayr_dev

Absolutely love this and as a person who's super dependant on screenshots for conversation or jira this is very helpful

Devanshi DoshiDevanshi Doshi@techdonCooper

Ctrl+f for a screenshots folder, fully offline and open source, hits a real pain. Local search for buried captures is such a practical build

MitanshMitansh@mitansh_j07

I was just trying to find an old screenshot today. Thanks!

Carlos GranierCarlos Granier@cgranier

just stalked you repo damn you're a cracked dev

AdityaAditya@adityawaslost

gahdamn you beat me to it! wanted to build something like this. great work!

amam@elrbtclr

thanks for the native linux support

AshutoshAshutosh@Ashutosh_Bind15

Exactly the problem I and many would have Thanks for this - will try it out

mutahirmutahir@mutahir

looks like something that will actually help me

Siddhi MaheshwariSiddhi Maheshwari@Siddhimahi

And the launch video stole the show! Def using this

mystic0xmystic0x@_mystic0x

thiss goonaa explode!!

PranavvvPranavvv@pranvv27

Measured, not promised

On a laptop with over 5,000 real screenshots.

per keystroke, across 5,000+ screenshots
1 to 10 ms
from a screenshot saved to searchable
0.77 s
from the shortcut to the window
~120 ms
of memory while waiting in the background
37 MB
of disk per 1,000 screenshots
~30 MB
needed, it renders in software too
No GPU
How these were measured

Install in one line

No admin rights and no developer tools. Run it again any time to update.

$curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xevrion/gyotaku/main/install.sh | sh

x86_64 and arm64, on any distro with glibc 2.35 or newer.

Run it again any time to update. The old window closes and the reader restarts on the new version.

More about gyotaku on Linux

Nothing leaves your computer

Screenshots hold passwords, codes, chats and bank details. gyotaku reads them on your own CPU and keeps the index on your own disk. No account, no telemetry, no update checks.

Everything gyotaku does onlineall time
WhenWhatHow often
setuptext reading modelonce, checksum pinned
setupONNX Runtimeonce, checksum pinned
afteryour screenshotsnever leave
afterusage datanever collected

Questions

Something else? Open an issue.

Is it really free?

Yes. gyotaku is open source under the GPL-3.0, and the core stays free and open source forever, with no account or limits. The code is on GitHub.

Does anything leave my computer?

No. Screenshots are read on your own CPU and the index stays on your disk. The only network access is a one-time download of the text reading model and ONNX Runtime at setup, each checked against a pinned checksum. There's no telemetry and no update check.

How is it different from Microsoft Recall or Rewind?

Those record your screen on their own, all the time. gyotaku never takes a screenshot: it only reads the screenshots you already saved, in the folders you pick, and it's open source, so you can check exactly what it does.

Which systems does it run on?

macOS on Apple Silicon Macs, Windows 10 and 11, and Linux on x86_64 and arm64 with glibc 2.35 or newer (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora, Arch, openSUSE and so on). Intel Macs need a build from source for now.

Does it need a GPU, or slow my computer down?

No GPU needed. Reading runs at idle priority, so it only uses time nothing else wants, and takes under a second per screenshot. Waiting in the background it uses about 37 MB of memory.

How much disk space does it take?

About 30 MB per 1,000 screenshots for the index and thumbnails, plus around 46 MB once for the model and runtime.

Which languages can it read?

English and other Latin-script languages, Chinese and Japanese out of the box, including vertical text. Hindi, Marathi and Nepali can be turned on in settings.

How do I uninstall it?

Run the install command again with --uninstall on macOS or Linux, or remove it from Settings > Apps on Windows. The README has the exact commands.