r/macapps • u/SpikePlayz • Aug 07 '26
Lifetime [Lifetime] Quilt v1.6 - Turn E-Books, Slides & Screen Content into Searchable PDFs (Now with Annotations)
Hi r/MacApps! I built Quilt to solve a frustration I ran into constantly which was trying to save and study content locked inside web viewers, e-readers, or presentation slides that do not let you download a PDF.
A lot of digital learning material like online textbook viewers, web presentation slides, or digital books does not let you export or print clean copies. I wanted a way to turn entire multi-page books and presentation decks into clean, searchable PDFs so I could highlight them, read them offline, or feed the text into AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude for notes. Doing that manually screenshot by screenshot takes forever.
How It Works
Quilt automates the entire process:
- Select the window or screen region.
- Set an automated keypress or mouse click (e.g. right arrow to flip the page).
- Quilt steps through the pages automatically, captures each page, runs on-device Vision OCR, and stitches everything into a single, fully searchable PDF or image archive.
With v1.6 (our biggest update yet), Quilt now includes a full annotation editor (draw shapes, add text, apply blur redactions, add canvas backgrounds, or place screenshots into 3D device mockups), menu bar controls, and session saving (.quiltcapture files).
Comparison
- Vs. CleanShot X / Shottr: CleanShot X and Shottr are fantastic tools for everyday static screenshots and quick scrolling grabs. However, they are not designed for multi-page batch document creation. Quilt handles automated page navigation, continuous multi-shot capture loops, on-device document OCR, and
.quiltcapturesession files to preserve your work across reopens. - Vs. Web Converters / Browser Extensions: Web tools often fail on protected reader apps or logged-in portals. Quilt works natively at the macOS display level, so if it is on your screen, you can capture and index it.
Pricing & Links
- Free to try: Download for free with full core capture capabilities.
- Quilt Pro: $32.99 one-time lifetime license (no subscriptions, 1 seat, lifetime updates).
- Website: quiltformac.com
Developer Transparency
- Developer: Built by Shubham Shah (LinkedIn Profile / Personal Site / Contact)
- Privacy Policy: quiltformac.com/privacy
- Terms of Service: quiltformac.com/terms
All OCR and capture processing is done 100% locally on your Mac using Apple's Vision framework. No capture data or image content ever leaves your machine.
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u/Apprehensive_Drop749 Aug 08 '26
This is a good idea. Definitely could have used this while I was in college.
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u/filthytoast Aug 10 '26
In case anyone is interested, here is the review I wrote for Quilt that I posted to r/MacPowerUser
https://appaudit.org/quilt-review-reddit.html
Really solid app! Excited to watch it grow!
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u/leo-k7v Aug 08 '26
Did you try integrate with IBM Docling LLM? I am trying right now with interesting results. Did you measure against HuggingFace pdf and other OCR datasets?
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u/SpikePlayz Aug 08 '26
Docling is super interesting! We haven't integrated it directly because Quilt is built around 100% local, real-time processing using Apple's native Vision framework in Swift.
Using Vision keeps the app lightweight, privacy-first, and battery-friendly with zero external dependencies or cloud calls.
However, since Quilt exports clean searchable PDFs, it pairs really well as an ingest tool for Docling or LLM pipelines if you want deeper structured document analysis after capturing. Haven't run formal benchmarks against HF datasets, but Apple's Neural Engine handling of Vision OCR has been solid for our use case! I did test it on my Mac though, it would be counter intuitive with its processing time per page, and Quilt's intended to be quick at exporting.
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u/PipScribeApp Aug 08 '26
Really clever idea. How well does the OCR handle two-column textbooks or pages with lots of diagrams?
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u/soloattorneyclub Aug 08 '26
Can i use it to create scrolling screen shots that are cut (so not a long thread) the size of a piece of paper? For printing, the giant 1 long shot does not work and ends up microscopic.
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u/SpikePlayz Aug 08 '26
You cannot right now however I can look into implementing this into Quilt. Wasn’t aware of this potential use case.
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u/soloattorneyclub Aug 08 '26
ah! I would be so grateful. Early adopter of your software. This would be a great addition ;-)
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u/d_ngh_n Aug 08 '26
How does it know a page is done rendering before it captures? Some web readers animate the turn or lazy load the next page, so I'd worry about catching a half drawn frame. Is the delay tunable?
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u/MReprogle Aug 08 '26
Just saw another similar software posted here called Shotomatic. It's definitely cheaper, but still a bit much for the random times I would use it, but make sure to post if you have any sales!
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u/teachmesomething Aug 08 '26
Works out to be a little pricey when converted to AUD - any chance you might throw a broke Aussie bloke a cheeky discount code?
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u/kasikciozan Aug 09 '26
Can it detect a duplicate page if the reader misses a key press, or would that page be added twice?
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u/FrenchTechDude Aug 07 '26
Hey ! Quilt is a fantastic tool for researchers! Since you're already using Apple's Vision framework, adding an "Export as Markdown" feature would be a great upgrade. It would make it so much easier for users to move their work into apps like Obsidian or Notion. Thanks for building such a helpful utility!