For text extraction: on my MacBook, I can take a screenshot of some text with a keyboard shortcut (Cmd+Shift+4, then drag the selector with the mouse), unobtrusively clip the targeted part of the screen, select all (Cmd+A), and copy to clipboard (Cmd+C).
On my iPad, it theoretically works the same, but the workflow differs when I take the screenshot. The screen gets filled entirely by the new screenshot interface instead of keeping to a small window that keeps other windows in view (like on MacOS), and often, text selection just doesn’t work on the iPad until I crop the screenshot further to just the text (versus working reliably on MacOS). So, it’s fiddly and takes a lot of time.
On the MacBook, I could even install free third-party software to skip a couple steps (Cmd+A, Cmd+C) and immediately save any text in the selection to my clipboard.
And that is the core of the issue for me. For the actual person using the device to get something done, many of the tasks I detailed are not possible to complete on the iPad as it is today, due to limitations on what I can install.
I would be happy if I could at least dual boot to another OS or run a virtual machine (even if touch becomes disabled) so I can install more software tools, as the hardware capability is there for the iPad. On Linux, at least I can run a Windows virtual machine to run Adobe Premiere Pro (or dual boot with Windows), but I cannot fully use the hardware of an iPad with the way its operating system is currently designed.
That task needed a good number of screenshots a minute. I can get each extraction done with a single keyboard shortcut and selection on a laptop, versus... that a few dozen times. It works okay for a one-off, but there's value in enabling quick non-OS-native solutions to make work easier.
The situation should dictate the solution as decided by the user, instead of the OS dictating a solution and limiting options regardless of the situation.
You can just batch the screenshots and then switch to the photos app for the extraction. I’m still failing to see the problem.
The iPad can use apps in multiple floating windows, there’s no difference here. You don’t have to switch back and forth between apps.
You can even use a keyboard and mouse and the same copy paste keyboard shortcuts if you really want.
And I’m sure there are apps on the App Store to help this workflow in some way. The iPad isn’t some static device where you’re stuck with the software it comes with.
Theres a CLI tool for this gap. textsnap on github runs OCR locally/offline, with no arg it reads an image from clipboard and copies the extracted text back to it. Might not solve the App Store install restriction, but could cut the friction if you can get it running via something like iSH or a Linux vm
On my iPad, it theoretically works the same, but the workflow differs when I take the screenshot. The screen gets filled entirely by the new screenshot interface instead of keeping to a small window that keeps other windows in view (like on MacOS), and often, text selection just doesn’t work on the iPad until I crop the screenshot further to just the text (versus working reliably on MacOS). So, it’s fiddly and takes a lot of time.
On the MacBook, I could even install free third-party software to skip a couple steps (Cmd+A, Cmd+C) and immediately save any text in the selection to my clipboard.
And that is the core of the issue for me. For the actual person using the device to get something done, many of the tasks I detailed are not possible to complete on the iPad as it is today, due to limitations on what I can install.
I would be happy if I could at least dual boot to another OS or run a virtual machine (even if touch becomes disabled) so I can install more software tools, as the hardware capability is there for the iPad. On Linux, at least I can run a Windows virtual machine to run Adobe Premiere Pro (or dual boot with Windows), but I cannot fully use the hardware of an iPad with the way its operating system is currently designed.