Free for Windows 10 & 11

Hold a key. Point at any text. Read it huge and clear.

Hover Text shows the real text under your cursor in a large, always-on-top popup — crisp and readable at any size, from any app.

  • Real text, not a zoomed picture
  • Ready in seconds
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Hover Text

Read any on-screen text, huge and clear

Hold Left Ctrl and point your pointer at any text on screen. A large, crisp copy appears right next to the cursor — sharp at any size, from any app.

Tooltips, button labels, menus, form fields — if the app exposes text, Hover Text can read it. Nothing is uploaded; it all stays on your machine.

Tired of squinting at your screen?

Tiny text, everywhere

Tooltips, button labels, menus, and dense paragraphs are easy to miss when they're small.

Zoom is a blurry mess

Screen magnifiers blow up the picture. You get a fuzzy close-up instead of a readable line.

Text you can't grab

Labels and menus often aren't selectable, so you can't copy them or read them larger.

How it works

Three seconds, zero effort

1

Hold the trigger

Hold Left Ctrl (or any key or combination you choose).

2

Point at text

Move your mouse over any text on screen.

3

Read it big

A large popup shows the text right at your cursor. Release to hide — or copy it on release.

Why it's different

Crisp because it's real text

Sharp at any size

Hover Text reads the actual text content, so it stays razor sharp no matter how large you make it.

Never gets in your way

The popup is always-on-top and click-through. It never steals focus and never blocks your click.

Works across apps

Buttons, menus, tooltips, form fields, paragraphs — if the app exposes text, Hover Text can read it.

Features

Everything you need, nothing you don't

  • Custom trigger key — Ctrl, Ctrl+Shift, anything you prefer
  • Copy hovered text to your clipboard on release
  • Dark and light themes
  • Anchored overlay or follow-the-cursor mode
  • Launch with Windows
  • 100% local and private — nothing ever leaves your machine

Great for

Where Hover Text helps

Reading small UI text

Decipher tiny tooltips, status labels, and menus without leaning into the monitor.

Better accessibility

A comfortable way to read any text for low-vision users or tired eyes.

Presentations & sharing

Magnify text on screen during demos and screen shares so everyone can follow along.

Download

Get Hover Text

Free. Works on Windows 10 and 11. Download and you're ready to go.

About the creator

Built by Kirolos Mahfouz

Hover Text is my first open-source project. I built it because I found myself squinting at tiny tooltips and menus every day — and I wanted a simple tool that would help anyone read the text on their screen comfortably.