Documentation — Klip & KlipOCR

1 · Start here

Two apps, one workflow

If you work with math, tables, or AI answers and you live in Microsoft Office, LibreOffice, WPS, ONLYOFFICE, or Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides), Klip and KlipOCR are designed to remove the reformatting step. Klip watches your clipboard for you. When you copy Markdown, LaTeX, or HTML — for example from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, your editor, or a web page — you can paste as usual with Cmd+V on Mac or Ctrl+V on Windows. Klip converts the content while you paste, so what lands in your document is native and editable: Word equations you can double-click and edit, real tables you can resize, working links, and embedded images. It also works in the other direction. If you copy from Word, LibreOffice, WPS, ONLYOFFICE, or Google Workspace and paste into a Markdown app, you get clean Markdown back — and HTML works both ways, so HTML sources paste rich too. If you need to convert whole files without using the clipboard at all, the paid document mode converts Markdown, HTML, and Office files to Word (.docx), LibreOffice (.odt), HTML, Rich Text, Markdown, or Plain Text.

KlipOCR is the screenshot companion for when your source is pixels instead of text. Press its hotkey, drag a box around anything on your screen — a PDF page, a lecture slide, or a photo of a whiteboard — and KlipOCR places clean Markdown with LaTeX equations on your clipboard. Inline math uses $…$, display math uses $$…$$, and tables are preserved. You can then paste into Word, LibreOffice, WPS, ONLYOFFICE, or Google Workspace, where Klip turns that text into native equations. The paid document mode applies the same OCR to image and PDF files, page by page. All recognition runs on your device. The screenshot itself stays in memory during capture and is never written to the clipboard or saved as a file by the capture step; only the recognized plain text is placed on the clipboard.

Which app do you need?

If you are not sure where to start, use this table to match what you want to do with the app that does it. Many people end up using both apps together.

Apple iWork apps (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers) are not supported as paste targets. Every other major suite is supported: Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote), LibreOffice (Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw), WPS Office, ONLYOFFICE, and Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides) in your browser at docs.google.com.

Good practices

These eight habits will save you most troubleshooting later. Do the simple, safe thing first, then go deeper only if you need to.

• Try the free tier before you pay, and back up your license code. Free tier to learn the workflow: Klip pastes up to 1000 characters, 21 free in the first 7 days, then 14 per rolling 7 days; document conversion (document mode) is paid. KlipOCR 21 free snips in the first 7 days, then 14 per rolling 7 days, no length limit per snip; document mode is paid. Your paid code is delivered once by email and it cannot be shown again, so store it somewhere safe.
• Use automatic paste where it is supported, and manual paste everywhere else. In listed apps, just press Cmd+V / Ctrl+V and Klip converts automatically. In any other app, use manual paste (Cmd+Opt+V on Mac, Ctrl+Alt+V on Windows) to convert on demand. When your source is pixels rather than text, take a screenshot with KlipOCR first.
• Stay on Balanced unless you have a reason to change. All speed tiers produce identical output. Fast only reduces waiting time, but it uses more CPU, memory, and battery. Balanced is the right default for almost everyone.
• Decide deliberately about internet access. Keep internet access turned on if you want remote images in your pastes to be embedded. If you are working with sensitive documents, turn it off: nothing leaves your device, and images gracefully fall back to their alt text.
• When a screenshot looks messy, snip a smaller area and try again. Recognition works best under about 500 KB of image data. If the output looks garbled, or if you are capturing a dense chart or tiny text, halve the region and snip twice instead of once.
• If you use a clipboard manager, add Klip to its ignore list. Managers such as Maccy, Paste, Raycast, Ditto, or the Windows clipboard history can grab the clipboard in the middle of a conversion. Add Klip (and KlipOCR) to the ignore list, and wait about one to three seconds after copying before you open the manager.
• On Windows, run Klip and your Office apps at the same level. Do not solve a paste problem by running Klip as an administrator. Windows blocks pasting between an elevated app and a non-elevated one, so running everything normally is the fix.
• Try a gentle repair before a full reset. If output looks wrong, use Scrub caches first and try again; use Clear only if the problem persists. When you contact support, include a short excerpt from the log — never your secrets or your full license key.

2 · Requirements, install, first run

Mac and Windows are equally supported

Both apps run on modern Macs and on 64-bit Windows, with no administrator rights required. Before you install, check that your system meets the requirements below — especially the disk space for the OCR models, which ship bundled inside the app (no separate download).

What ships when? Klip’s engine ships inside the app (about 200 MB) so the first paste works right away after a short font scan. KlipOCR ships its recognition models inside the app too — no separate download, no first-launch fetch: the full Powerful engine is about 582 MB in total (a 466 MB model plus a 116 MB projector), and the lightweight formula engine is about 100 MB. Count that disk space at install time; the first snip only warms up the already-bundled models.

Hardware at a glance

Klip runs on almost anything that meets the operating-system requirements above. Conversion is CPU-only and lasts a fraction of a second per paste, and the app idles as a small menu-bar process. If your computer runs its operating system comfortably, it runs Klip.

KlipOCR needs headroom for its models. Use this table to pick the right engine and tier:

On an 8 GB machine, stay on Balanced or Efficient — both unload the model after a short idle period (about 2 minutes on Balanced, 60 seconds on Efficient), so memory is only held while you are actively snipping. On a 16 GB machine, any tier works; Fast keeps the model loaded at all times for the lowest latency at the cost of a larger resident footprint. Only one engine is ever loaded at a time.

Install

Installation takes a minute. Follow the steps for your system. The key idea is the same on both: install per user, approve only the permissions each app actually needs, and do not run anything as an administrator.

1. On Mac, install to Applications and grant permissions when asked. Drag Klip.app or KlipOCR.app into /Applications, launch it, and approve what it asks for: Klip needs Accessibility so it can intercept paste for automatic conversion, and KlipOCR needs Screen Recording for the frozen overlay you drag over. Both apps live in the menu bar and do not show a Dock icon. To approve manually, open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility (for Klip) or Screen Recording (for KlipOCR), enable the app, then quit and relaunch it once. If the toggle already looks on but pastes still pass through, turn it off and back on — macOS sometimes needs that nudge after an update.
2. On Windows, install per user — no admin rights needed. The installer places the app under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Klip or %LOCALAPPDATA%\KlipOCR. The Store (MSIX) build is the production package. If you want the app to start with Windows, opt in when you see the StartupTask consent prompt. Never run the app elevated to fix a paste issue. You can find Klip settings in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Klip\settings.json and KlipOCR settings under HKCU Software\KlipOCR.
3. Choose whether to start at login. Each app has a single checkbox for this in its menu or tray and in Settings. On Mac this uses the standard system login-item consent; on Windows it uses the Run key or the Store StartupTask.

First run

When you first launch either app, a short walkthrough explains the Terms, the two permissions, and gives you something to try:

• Copy the sample snippet — for example $E = mc^2$, an integral, and a small pipe table — then paste it into Word. You should see a native, editable equation and a real table. If you do, setup worked.
• Take a moment to try the free tier before you decide to buy. Klip pastes up to 1000 characters, 21 free in the first 7 days, then 14 per rolling 7 days; document conversion (document mode) is paid. KlipOCR 21 free snips in the first 7 days, then 14 per rolling 7 days, no length limit per snip; document mode is paid.

3 · Plans, activation, seats

Pay once · per 1 device · try free first

Klip and KlipOCR use simple, one-time pricing. There is no subscription, and there is no account to create. You pay once, and the license stays with that one device. If you are still exploring, start with the free tier — it is the best way to see whether the workflow fits you.

Which plan do you need? Buy Klip if your sources are already text — AI chats, Markdown files, web pages — and you want them to land natively in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Docs. Buy KlipOCR if your sources are pixels — screenshots, lecture photos, scanned PDFs — and you want editable text and LaTeX back. Buy the bundle if you do both every week: one checkout gives you two codes (one Klip code plus one KlipOCR code), each bound to the same one device, and you save $0.99 versus buying separately. Teams of 20 or more seats are labeled Coming later — the same per-device rule will apply, with the total computed as (seats × list price) − discount + tax at checkout.

One code covers one device for the life of that device, for this version only; updates are never promised. You can reinstall on the same computer as often as you like, but a new computer needs a new license. All sales are final — see Terms Section 12. Checkout is handled securely by Lemon Squeezy, the Merchant of Record, and tax is added at checkout.

What you can use for free

Both apps include a free tier with no account and no time limit. The exact limits are:

• Klip: pastes up to 1000 characters, 21 free in the first 7 days, then 14 per rolling 7 days; document conversion (document mode) is paid.
• KlipOCR: 21 free snips in the first 7 days, then 14 per rolling 7 days, no length limit on input per snip; converted output text capped at 500 KB with truncation marker; document mode is paid.

How to activate your license

The activation flow is the same in Klip for Mac, Klip for Windows, KlipOCR for Mac, and KlipOCR for Windows. You need the internet once for this step; everything after works offline between checks as described below:

1. Buy your license on the license page, then save your code. Your code is sent once by email. Copy it somewhere safe, because it cannot be shown again. Checkout is handled by Lemon Squeezy as the Merchant of Record, so your card details go to them — not to Klip — and tax is added at checkout. The bundle checkout creates two codes at once; keep track of which is Klip and which is KlipOCR, because a Klip code will not activate KlipOCR and vice versa.
2. Enter the code in the app. Open the app, choose Activate license…, go to the License tab, paste your code, and choose Activate. Codes use uppercase letters; you can keep the dashes, and extra spaces are ignored.
3. Confirm that you want to bind this device. The app will ask you to confirm that the license will be permanently bound to this device and never used anywhere else. When activation succeeds, you will see Activated, along with “Unlimited pastes · document conversion included” in Klip or unlimited snips plus document mode in KlipOCR.

You need an internet connection once to activate. After that, both apps work offline between checks: a successful check covers 30 days of full offline use, plus a 14-day grace period (44 days total). While you are online, the app checks quietly in the background about once a day — first 10–30 seconds after launch, then every 24 hours (give or take 6 hours), or every 6 hours (give or take 30 minutes) while you are in the grace period. The check is silent and it never blocks a conversion. For validation, the app sends only your license ID, seat, device proof, and IP address. It never sends your document content.

Seats, revocation, and appeals

Each seat is locked to one device. That keeps licensing simple and predictable:

• If you reinstall on the same device, the app reuses the same seat automatically. If you try to use a bound seat on a different device, it is rejected — each new computer needs its own license. Do not wipe the macOS Keychain (Klip / KlipOCR entries) or the Windows Credential Manager / registry identity: that deletes the ticket plus the device key, the license stops verifying, and the same code cannot re-activate on that device (already bound) — back up your code and leave those entries in place.
• A license is revoked only for an actual refund, a chargeback, or proven abuse. An open dispute on its own does not revoke your license. If a license is revoked, the app finishes the current conversion and then returns to the free tier. Updates may continue. Simply being offline never revokes a license.
• If you believe a revocation was a mistake, you can appeal by email. Use the subject line APPEAL and include your license ID or order email plus a short explanation of what happened. A person will review it, with a target of 7 days.

If activation does not work

Find the message you see below for what it means and what to try next:

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4 · Klip workflows

Copy anywhere · paste native

This section covers the everyday ways people use Klip: pasting from AI chats into Office, choosing where automatic conversion applies, and using the special paste modes. Once you have tried the basic move below, the rest is reference. Rule of thumb: text sources go straight through Klip; pixel sources go through KlipOCR first, then Klip.

The basic move: from AI chat to your document

Most people use Klip for one job: taking an answer from an AI chat and making it look right in Word or Docs without reformatting. Here is how that works:

1. Copy as usual. Copy from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any Markdown, HTML, or LaTeX source. This can include headings, bold, italic, code, lists, tables, links, images, inline math like $…$, display math like $$…$$, or \(…\) and \[…\].
2. Paste into your document. Click into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, LibreOffice, WPS, ONLYOFFICE, or Google Docs, then press Cmd+V on Mac or Ctrl+V on Windows.
3. Check the result. You should see editable equations, real tables, and formatted text. If Klip cannot build something safely, it keeps the original $source$ text instead — you never lose content silently.

Where automatic paste applies

Klip converts automatically in the apps and sites you have checked in Apps & Sites. Everywhere else, your paste goes through unchanged unless you use manual paste. This table shows what lands in each target. The pattern is deliberate: full Office suites get fully native equations, Google Workspace gets honest text by default with an opt-in Images mode (because Docs flattens live math), and Markdown editors get untouched source so their own preview can render it:

Manual paste, passive mode, plain text, and the reverse direction

Sometimes you want control over each paste. Klip gives you four tools for that:

• Manual paste puts you in charge in any app. On Mac the default is Cmd+Opt+V and you can customize it; on Windows it is fixed as Ctrl+Alt+V. It converts and pastes even in apps that are not on your auto-paste list, and it has its own Images versus Editable picker.
• Passive mode is for full manual control. When you turn on Manual shortcut only in Advanced, normal paste always passes through untouched. Only the manual shortcut converts. Use this if you want Klip to never change a paste unless you ask it to.
• Paste as plain text strips everything to text. On Mac the default is Cmd+Shift+V. It removes all formatting flavors and leaves only plain text.
• Office to Markdown works in reverse, and it is on by default. Copy in Word, LibreOffice, WPS, ONLYOFFICE, or Google Workspace and paste outside that list, and you get clean Markdown and LaTeX — images arrive as ![](data:…) by default, or as [image] markers when you turn off “include images”. For example, a Word heading plus an editable equation pastes into Obsidian as ## Title plus $x^2$. If you paste inside a listed app, Klip routes through a Markdown step first; very long copies can time out, which is expected. Password-manager clipboards are never read — passing those through unchanged is intentional.
• Document mode converts whole files, and it is part of the paid license. Open the Convert tab (or Convert Documents), drop in Markdown, HTML, or Office files, and convert them to Word (.docx), LibreOffice (.odt), HTML, Rich Text, Markdown, or Plain Text. You can choose the output folder each time, or pin a fixed folder in Advanced. In practice: Markdown with math to .docx gives you editable Word equations; Office to Markdown gives you clean source for notes apps; HTML to Rich Text is handy for email drafts. Very large documents convert the same way as pastes — equations that cannot be built stay as $source$ text so nothing is lost.

Settings that change what a paste looks like

You can adjust these at any time. The defaults work well for most people, so change them only if you know why you want something different. Two examples come up often:

• Citations example. With Strip citations off, pasting Photosynthesis [1][^2] keeps the markers. With it on, Klip drops AI search markers like [1], [^1], and 【】 but keeps real links such as [1](https://example.com), plus all code and math.
• Remote images example. With Allow internet access on, pasting Markdown that references https://example.com/fig.png embeds the image in your document. With it off (or with KLIP_ALLOW_NETWORK=0 set), you get the alt text instead and nothing leaves your device. The image host would otherwise see the image URL, your IP address, and your user agent, sent directly to that host — never proxied.

The full list:

• Strip citations default off removes AI search markers like [1], [^1], and 【】 instead of pasting them. Real links such as [1](url), code, and math are kept.
• Allow internet access default on lets Klip fetch remote http(s) images at paste time and embed them in your document. When it is off, you get alt text instead. Note that remote hosts see the image URL, your IP address, and your user agent. Setting KLIP_ALLOW_NETWORK=0 has the same effect as turning this off.
• Paste links as plain text Advanced · default off keeps the link text but drops the hyperlink itself. Images are not affected.
• Text size slider default 13 pt · 7–39 pt sets the body size for every target. Equations follow it automatically, unless you pin a custom equation size in Advanced (0.5–3.0×). If your pasted tables look slightly larger than the surrounding text, lower the slider by one point and paste again rather than reformatting by hand.
• Speed default Balanced controls conversion speed only — the output is byte-identical in every mode. Fast uses all of your CPUs; Balanced uses at most 4 workers; Efficient uses at most 2, which is kinder to battery and smaller machines. On an 8 GB laptop, Efficient plus Balanced OCR is the comfortable pairing; on a 16 GB desktop, Balanced everywhere is the sweet spot and Fast only saves waiting time.

5 · Klip for Mac settings

Menu bar · Controls · Apps & Sites · Convert · License · Advanced

On Mac, Klip lives in the menu bar. The status menu gives you quick toggles, and the Controls window gives you the same settings with more room plus a few extras. This section walks through them from top to bottom, so you know what each row does. The three rows people ask about most are Equations as images (when to turn PNG equations on), Apps & Sites (how to add a site with * wildcards or the Current App button), and the shortcut pills (click, press a new combo, Esc to cancel, Backspace to restore).

Status menu, from top to bottom

Control window tabs

The Controls window mirrors the menu with larger controls, so you can see everything in one place. Practical notes: in Apps & Sites, use the host-substring field for Google Workspace and your own tools — for example docs.google.com already covers /document, /spreadsheets, and /presentation, and you can add *.notion.so with a * wildcard for custom sites. Per-target Editable versus Images pickers only appear while the master “Equations as images” switch is on; Word keeps native equations either way, while Google Docs is the one place where Images often looks better because Docs flattens live math.

• Controls: the same rows as the menu, larger, plus update toggle/button, Advanced… button, Clear cache, Help & Feedback with ticket code (FB-…), Grant Accessibility and Quit.
• Apps & Sites: pinned Manual-paste row (always on) plus per-target checkboxes for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, the whole LibreOffice suite, WPS, ONLYOFFICE and Google Workspace. Add apps by picker, sites by host substring (* wildcards), or Current App / Current Site. Minus hides; per-target Editable/Images pills appear when image equations are on.
• Convert (paid): input Markdown/HTML vs Office; drop files or browse; output Word/LibreOffice/HTML/Rich Text/Markdown/Plain Text; Convert/Show in Finder; fixed-folder hint when set in Advanced.
• License: green Get license button, free-plan quota line, code field + Activate (binds permanently to this device), Check now, Remove (kept as “Use last license”), problem strings for bound/revoked/wrong-app/clock/offline states. Licensed view shows unlimited pastes plus document conversion and the last-check or grace countdown.

Advanced settings — 9 options plus tools (changing nothing keeps current behavior)

Advanced settings are for special cases. You can safely leave them alone. If you do change one, this table explains when it helps:

Setting	Default	When to change it
Office → Markdown: include images	On	Off degrades Office pictures to [image].
Markdown paste: include HTML metadata	Off	On keeps size wrappers like <span style="font-size:12pt"> for Markdown targets.
Paste links as plain text	Off	On keeps text, drops hyperlinks; images untouched.
Manual shortcut only (no auto paste)	Off	On = passive mode: plain paste never converts.
Single-worker converts	Off	Serial renders, identical bytes. Troubleshooting only.
Fixed export folder	Empty (ask every time)	Pin Convert-tab output; Clear returns to the chooser.
Custom equation size (0.5–3.0×)	Off (follows text size)	Pin equations to an explicit multiplier.
LibreOffice formula previews	Off	On also builds PNG previews for readers without live equations (slower).
Engine timing log	Off	Writes per-paste timing lines for diagnostics.
Scrub caches / Run diagnostics / Caches folder / Settings file / Start Onboarding / Reset Everything	—	Validate caches; self-test convert (clipboard untouched); reveal folders; replay the tour; full wipe (license, caches, login item, permissions — free quota and device identity stay).

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6 · Klip for Windows settings

Tray · 5 tabs · same defaults as Mac

On Windows, Klip lives in the system tray. You can left-click or right-click the icon to open the menu, and every row refreshes when you open it. The Settings window has five tabs: Controls, Apps & Sites, License, Help, and Advanced. The defaults match the Mac, so if you switch systems you will feel at home.

Advanced tab (leaving everything as is keeps current behavior)

The Advanced tab mirrors the Mac options: include images in Office to Markdown (on), include HTML metadata (off), allow remote images (on, same as the tray toggle), custom equation size (unset), LibreOffice previews (off), timing log (off), links as plain text (off), manual-only (off), single-worker (off), and a fixed export folder (empty, which means the app asks you each time). You will also find Scrub caches, Run diagnostics (which checks the version and runs a dry-run test without touching your clipboard), buttons to reveal the Caches, Settings, and Logs folders, plus Reset advanced and Reset Everything. The host only sets conversion-related variables and removes headless-only options, so Mac and Windows behave the same way.

Files, logs, and limits

It helps to know where Klip keeps things and how it protects you from a bad paste:

• Klip is installed under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Klip, with KlipApp.exe, an engine-bin\ folder, and a manifest.json. Logs live at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Klip\logs\engine.log. The log rotates at 512 KB, is redacted for privacy, and includes exit codes plus timing lines when you enable them.
• Every conversion has a 25-second timeout. If it times out, Klip automatically scrubs the cache, retries once without the cache, and then falls back to your original plain paste. You never get a blank paste.
• Klip never asks for elevation and runs as asInvoker. Windows itself blocks pasting between an admin window and a non-elevated Klip (or the reverse), so run both sides normally. If Klip itself ends up elevated, you will see a one-time notice explaining why that is not recommended.

7 · KlipOCR workflows, engines, tiers

Press the hotkey, drag a region, paste with Klip

KlipOCR turns pixels into text you can edit. This section shows the core screenshot loop, how document mode handles files, and how to choose the right engine and speed tier. Default: Powerful on Balanced.

Screenshot to Word: the core loop

If you only learn one KlipOCR workflow, make it this one. It takes a few seconds once you know it:

1. Press the hotkey from anywhere. On Mac the default is Cmd+Shift+K; on Windows it is Ctrl+Shift+K.
2. Drag a box around what you want to read. The screen freezes so you can select precisely. Drag around formulas, text, or tables. Press Esc to cancel, or note that very tiny drags under 8×8 pixels cancel on their own.
3. Let on-device OCR do the work. The bundled sidecar recognizes the region and places clean Markdown and LaTeX on your clipboard — prose as text, math as $…$ for inline and $$…$$ for display, tables as HTML tables. Results are capped at 500 KB; if you go over, you will see a …[truncated at 500KB] marker at the end.
4. Paste into Word and let Klip finish the job. Focus Word and paste — Klip converts the Markdown into native equations and tables. If you want to check the raw recognition, paste into any text editor first: you should see $…$ text with no bounding-box tags.

What makes a good snip? Tight is better than big. Include the formula plus one line of surrounding text, keep the region under about 500 KB of image data, and avoid capturing window shadows or glare. Blurry photos, tiny 8-pt footnotes, handwritten whiteboards, and dense multi-column charts fail first — halve the region and snip twice instead of once, or zoom the source to 150% and snip again. If output contains bounding-box tags, update the app first; those tags only appear in old builds.

Document mode for images and PDFs (paid)

Document mode applies the same OCR to files instead of screenshots. It is part of the paid license — the free tier covers snips only. A typical session looks like this: open the Document tab, drop in one or more files, press Start OCR, watch pages process in order with a progress bar and live log, then toggle between Rendered (read-only preview) and Raw (editable Markdown you can copy). Choose Stop to finish the current page cleanly rather than killing mid-page.

• Drop in your files. Drop files onto the Document tab (or paste them there), or choose OCR Document while unified. Supported types are png jpg jpeg tif tiff heic heif webp bmp gif pdf. On Windows, PDFs are read up to the first 50 pages.
• Run the recognition. Choose Start OCR to process pages in order with a progress indicator. Stop finishes the current page cleanly. You can switch between Rendered (a read-only preview) and Raw (editable Markdown you can copy). Copy is available on licensed copies only and shares the same 500 KB cap.
• Pick the right engine. The free tier covers snips only; document mode needs a license. The lightweight formula engine cannot run document mode — switch back to Powerful for files.

Engines: which one to use

KlipOCR includes two engines. Powerful is the default and the right choice for almost everyone. Lightweight is there for quick equation snips on slower machines. In practice: keep Powerful on for documents, mixed text with tables and math, and anything you plan to paste into Word. Switch to Lightweight only when you need a single formula fast on a weak GPU or an 8 GB machine — it loads in about 0.2 seconds with a small footprint, but it reads formula-only snips and cannot run document mode at all. If the Document tab says it needs the Powerful engine, that is why.

Speed tiers: what changes

Speed tiers control latency and memory use, not quality. If you are unsure, stay on Balanced. Concretely: Fast keeps the largest context (12288) and screenshots up to 2880 px loaded at all times for the lowest latency, at about 830 MB resident. Balanced uses mid context (6144) and 1536 px screenshots and unloads after 2 minutes idle — your next snip after idle pays a 1–3 second reload. Efficient matches Balanced but uses fewer threads, unloads after 60 seconds with no warmup, and is the kindest to 8 GB machines and battery at the cost of a slower cold start:

When you switch speed or engine, KlipOCR unloads the current model and reloads it on your next snip. The model also unloads automatically under memory pressure and rests quietly when idle, so it does not drain your machine.

8 · KlipOCR for Mac settings

Menu bar · Controls · OCR Document · License · Advanced

On Mac, KlipOCR lives in the menu bar like Klip. The table below explains each setting, what it does, and what the default is. You rarely need to change more than the hotkey and the speed tier.

About the menu-bar icon: KlipOCR uses a brackets glyph that dims when the app is off. While it is recognizing, the icon becomes a spinner (with a 0.1-second show delay and a 0.4-second minimum hold) and the tooltip reads “recognizing…”. When KlipOCR is unified with a running Klip, its own icon hides and activity appears in Klip’s icon instead. For automation, KlipOCR supports deep links such as klipocr://speed/…, klipocr://model/…, klipocr://screenshot, and klipocr://open-document.

9 · KlipOCR for Windows settings

Tray · Controls · Document · License · Help

On Windows, KlipOCR lives in the system tray. The options match the Mac closely, with one extra choice for graphics: you can let KlipOCR pick your GPU automatically, force GPU, or force CPU if your drivers are unstable. Start on Auto. If snips show a black overlay or the sidecar fails to start, try CPU once to confirm it is a driver issue, then update your GPU driver and reboot before switching back. The backend flavor (cuda, vulkan, or cpu) is chosen at install; a missing flavor blocks install rather than failing silently later.

The tray icons follow your theme with light, dark, disabled, and busy states. While busy, the icon stays static (no animation, with a 100 ms show delay and a 400 ms hold) and the tooltip reads “recognizing…”. Double-click the tray icon to start a screenshot immediately. The clipboard always receives plain text only, capped at 500 KB with a truncation marker. Settings are stored in the registry under HKCU Software\KlipOCR. You can also open settings from the command line: KlipOCRApp.exe --settings[=controls|document|license] signals the running instance, or opens the window on boot if the app is not running.

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10 · Klip + KlipOCR together

One menu bar, two engines

Klip and KlipOCR work best as a pair: KlipOCR reads the pixels, Klip formats the result for Word. If you run both every day, you can unify them so they share one menu-bar or tray icon.

1. Install and launch both apps. Make sure each one works on its own first.
2. Turn on unification in Klip. In Klip, check Unify menu bar with KlipOCR. You will only see this row when KlipOCR is installed. Klip owns the toggle; KlipOCR simply follows it.
3. Watch one icon instead of two. KlipOCR’s icon hides, and Klip’s icon shows the combined state: “converting…”, “recognizing…”, or “working…” when both are busy. The timing matches the standalone behavior.
4. Use the unified rows in Klip. You will see Screenshot… to start a snip immediately, OCR Document… to open file OCR, and OCR controls… to open KlipOCR’s window (launching it if needed). Your OCR hotkey stays in sync in both directions, so changing it in one app changes it in the other.
5. Turn unification off any time to separate them. Uncheck the box and KlipOCR’s icon returns. The pairing survives restarts through a small suite file — on Mac at ~/Library/Application Support/Klip/suite.json, on Windows at %PUBLIC%\Klip\suite-<SID>.json — plus hello and bye presence checks, so even a crash restores the icon within seconds.

End to end, the joint workflow is simple: press the hotkey, drag a region, get Markdown on your clipboard, paste into Word, and let Klip convert it to native math. As a rule of thumb, keep both apps on the same tier family — Balanced with Balanced — unless you have a specific reason to split them.

11 · Troubleshooting

Find your symptom, try the fix

Most issues fall into a few familiar patterns. Find the heading that matches what you see, try the steps in order, and you will usually be pasting again in a minute. If not, the last section tells you exactly what to send to support.

Paste arrives as raw $source$ text

If you pasted into a Markdown editor like Obsidian, Typora, or Bear, this is expected — those apps receive plain $source$ text by design so their preview can render it. If you pasted into Word or another supported app, check three things: whether your free quota is spent, whether you are in Google Docs without the Images variant turned on, and whether the target is actually supported (Apple iWork is not). Then confirm the app is checked in Apps & Sites and look at the per-target Editable versus Images picker.

Nothing happens when you paste

This usually means Klip is off, the front app is not on your auto-paste list, your free quota is empty, or a clipboard manager grabbed the clipboard in the middle of the swap. Make sure Klip is on, try manual paste (which converts anywhere), add the browser site under Apps & Sites if needed, then restart the app and try once more — the first retry bypasses the cache automatically.

Formatting is lost in one app but works in others

Each target has its own routing. LibreOffice needs its own paste path, and Google Docs needs its own site variant. In Google’s case, only docs.google.com/document|spreadsheets|presentation converts — Drive previews and Gmail compose pass through unchanged by design. For math, prefer inline $…$ and avoid forcing display math in LibreOffice, which can render as grey, displaced frames.

Math shows as source instead of rendered equations

Klip never drops an equation silently — when it cannot build safely, it keeps the source text. If you are in Google Docs, switch that target to the Images variant. Otherwise the cache may hold a bad render: choose Scrub caches from the menu and try again. If that does not help, use Clear cache and restart.

Images are missing from your paste

When internet access is off, the host is blocked, or you are offline, Klip keeps alt text by design instead of fetching. To embed images, turn the internet toggle back on (or unset KLIP_ALLOW_NETWORK=0). Keep it off when you are handling sensitive documents. On very large pastes, wait one to three seconds before pasting — the delayed clear time grows with payload size.

Your hotkey does nothing or conflicts with another app

Open the shortcut recorder, click the pill, and press a different combination. Press Esc to cancel or Backspace to restore the previous one. On Mac, check System Settings for a clashing system shortcut. On Windows, if the combination is taken you can choose Keep-anyway when it is free, or pick another. If Klip’s toggle hotkey stops responding after sleep, turn that hotkey off and back on.

Snip overlay is frozen or black

Press Esc to exit, then click once and drag again, making sure your selection is larger than 8 pixels on each side. On multiple displays, start the snip on the display you want to capture. On Windows, a black overlay usually points to the graphics driver — update it and reboot, or try the CPU tier to confirm.

OCR text looks garbled or is cut off

If you see bounding-box tags in the output, you are on an old build — update and snip a smaller area, since charts and dense pages fail first. If you see …[truncated at 500KB], your snip was too large, so split it in halves. If tables look garbled, prefer Balanced or Fast over Efficient for the extra context.

Your clipboard manager breaks conversions

Managers like Maccy, Paste, Raycast, Ditto, ClipClip, ClipboardFusion, or Windows Win+V history can grab the clipboard mid-swap and desynchronize Klip. Add Klip and KlipOCR to your manager’s ignore list, and wait one to three seconds after copying before you open the manager. Password-manager clipboards are never read — passing them through unchanged is expected.

An admin window will not accept a paste (Windows)

This is Windows UIPI doing its job: it blocks pasting between an elevated window and a non-elevated Klip, in either direction. Run both apps normally without elevation. Never run Klip as an administrator to “fix” pasting into normal apps — that makes it worse.

Paid features are stuck in the free tier

If you have been offline past the grace period, reconnect and wait for the quiet background refresh. If your clock moved backward, turn on automatic date and time and choose Check now. If you believe a revocation was a mistake, appeal with subject APPEAL as described above. When you contact support, include your license ID (not the full key), your seat count, and the grace-days number you see.

Updates will not install

Choose Check for Updates manually, keep automatic checks on, and try again off VPN with klippaste.com and GitHub release hosts allowed. The feeds always serve the latest version only, with no delta updates.

Memory or CPU use feels high

For KlipOCR, step the tier down from Fast to Balanced, then to Efficient if needed, and close very large documents. For Klip, single-worker converts or the CPU tier can help on weak GPUs. The model unloads automatically when idle, under memory pressure, and naps when you are not using it.

You suspect cache corruption

Start with the gentle option: choose Scrub caches from the menu, which keeps valid renders, then try again. If the problem persists, use Clear caches and restart. If one file always fails, run once with KLIP_NO_CACHE=1 and report the pattern — that tells us the cache is not the cause.

What to include when you contact support

The fastest way to get help is the in-app Help & Feedback form. It is available 24/7, and like much of the product it is best-effort — there is no promised reply time, response-time guarantee, or fix guarantee. To help us reproduce your issue, please include the items below. A good report looks like: “Klip 1.2.3 on macOS 15.2, pasting into Word 16.90 from ChatGPT in Chrome, auto paste kept $source$ text, licensed, snippet: ‘## Test $x^2$’, engine log excerpt attached.” A report that only says “paste broken” cannot be acted on.

• Your app versions and your macOS or Windows version.
• The target app you pasted into (plus the page URL if it was a browser), and whether you used automatic or manual paste.
• Whether you were on the free tier or licensed, a short reproduction snippet that contains no secrets, and the engine log excerpt or diagnostics line. Never include secrets or your full license key.
• On Windows, the Klip log is at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Klip\logs\engine.log — you can reveal it from Advanced with the Logs-folder button.
• On Mac, filter Console.app to the app process. You can reveal caches from Advanced, which also has the Caches-folder and diagnostics actions.
• Email is for legal notices only and may not receive a reply. Privacy requests are answered within 30 days, COMPLAINT notices are acknowledged within 3 days as receipt only, and APPEALs are reviewed by a person with a target of 7 days.

12 · Privacy, offline, updates, support

Your documents stay on your device

Klip and KlipOCR are designed to keep your work on your device. Conversion and recognition happen locally, with no account and no telemetry. This section explains clearly what stays on your computer and what must leave it for licensing, updates, or features you choose to use.

What stays on your device, and what leaves it

The content you convert or read — your clipboard text, images, and PDFs — is processed on your device. Document content stays on your device; license validation, update checks, feedback, site traffic, and any remote image address you paste leave it as described below. Processors are disclosed factually with no marketing claims: site hosting and edge delivery on Cloudflare, license and feedback backend on Supabase in Mumbai, India, email via Resend, checkout via Lemon Squeezy as Merchant of Record, support reply drafting via OpenRouter (drafting only, submitted message only, only when a reply is sent, no document content, submitting feedback creates no reply duty), and fonts via Google Fonts:

There is no telemetry, no analytics or advertising SDK, and no account. For processors, legal bases, and retention details, see Terms & Privacy: license records are kept 10 years for tax and accounting, validation logs roll every 30 days, and feedback is kept 24 months after resolution.

Working offline

You need an internet connection once to activate. After that, both apps work offline between checks. While you are online, the app checks the license quietly in the background about once a day. Each successful check covers 30 days of full offline use, plus a 14-day grace period — 44 days in total from your last successful check. After the grace period ends, the app returns to the free tier until the next successful check, when paid features resume. A concrete timeline: if your last successful check was on day 0, days 0–30 are fully offline, days 31–44 are grace (you will see a countdown), and day 45 without a check returns to the free tier. Reconnect once and the background refresh restores paid features without blocking any conversion. No account is required. Converters, OCR, and caches all work offline; only validation, updates, feedback, and remote-image fetches need a connection.

Keeping the apps up to date

Both menu-bar apps use Sparkle 2.10.0 with daily checks, a manual Check for Updates item, and an auto-check toggle you can turn off if you prefer. The feeds live at https://klippaste.com/appcast/klip.xml and …/klipocr.xml, and they always serve the latest version only with no delta updates. Updates are never promised as part of a purchase, and they may continue even after a revocation.

Getting support

The in-app Help & Feedback portal is the support channel and it is available 24/7. Replies, response times, and fixes are best-effort with no guarantee, so please do not rely on support for anything time-critical. Seller email is for legal notices only.

Power-user settings (environment overrides — the UI stays the source of truth)

These environment variables override the UI for testing and troubleshooting. In normal use, leave them alone and use Settings: KLIP_TEXT_SCALE 0.5–3.0, KLIP_EQUATION_SCALE (overrides the text size when set, otherwise follows it), KLIP_DOCS_MATH image or source, KLIP_DOCS_IMG_SCALE 0.25–1.5, KLIP_LIBRE_PREVIEW=1, KLIP_STRIP_CITATIONS=1, KLIP_STRIP_LINKS=1, KLIP_OFFICE_MD_IMAGES=0 (shows [image] instead of embedding), KLIP_ALLOW_NETWORK=0, KLIP_SPEEDMODE fast, balanced, or efficient, KLIP_WORKERS=1 (serial converts for troubleshooting), KLIP_TIMING=1, KLIPOCR_SPEEDMODE (separate from convert speed, so do not mix them), KLIPOCR_NGL=0 (CPU tier), and KLIP_NO_CACHE=1 to bypass the cache. Hosts remove headless-only options so Mac and Windows behave the same.

Why each permission exists

Klip and KlipOCR ask for the minimum access they need to work. Here is why each request appears:

Uninstalling cleanly

If you decide to remove the apps, here is how to leave a clean state behind:

• On Mac, quit first, then remove the apps. Turn off Open at Login, quit, then remove /Applications/Klip.app or KlipOCR.app. You can also remove caches and Application Support folders, and optionally reset privacy consent for the bundle ID. The in-app Reset Everything option does the same thing, except your free quota and device identity stay in place.
• On Windows, uninstall from Settings. Go to Settings → Apps → Uninstall. This removes settings, caches, the font cache, and login entries. Uninstalling the Store version leaves the same clean state.

Quick answers to common questions

Short on time? These are the questions people ask most:

• Do you need both apps? Klip alone covers copy and paste. Add KlipOCR when your source is pixels — screenshots, scans, or PDFs.
• What does one device mean? It means one computer. You can reinstall on that computer as often as you like, but a new computer needs a new license. Wiping the Keychain (Mac) or Credential Manager / registry identity (Windows) breaks the license on that computer too.
• When do weekly limits reset? Limits roll on a 7-day window: each use counts for 7 days, up to the cap.
• Does Klip upload your documents? No. Conversion and OCR run on-device; only license checks, update checks, feedback, site traffic, and remote image URLs you choose to paste leave the device.
• Why do equations paste as text in Google Docs? Google Docs flattens live math, so switch that target to Images in Apps & Sites and paste again.

13 · Integration for developers

Raycast · Shortcuts · scripts

Both Mac apps expose automation endpoints for Raycast extensions, Shortcuts, and shell scripts. On Mac, call them as URL schemes (open klip://…) or as launch flags (open -a Klip --args …); a second process started with actions while the app already runs forwards them and exits. Headless actions stay silent on success; failures and license blocks post a notification, beep, and log a line. On Windows there is no URL scheme: use KlipOCRApp.exe --settings[=controls|document|license], which signals the running instance or opens Settings on boot if the app is not running.

Klip endpoints (klip://, Mac only)

KlipOCR endpoints (klipocr://, Mac only)

Examples

• Raycast / Shortcuts (Mac): run open klipocr://screenshot or open "klip://toggle?mode=off". Quote URLs that contain ? or &.
• Shell (Mac): open -a KlipOCR --args --speed fast --screenshot or open -a Klip --args --choose-site notion.so. Actions run in order; --help prints usage.
• Windows: KlipOCRApp.exe --settings=document fronts the running instance on the Document tab (controls, document, license, or 0|1|2).

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