pbrich

Like pbcopy, but with support for arbitrary pasteboard types. Copy HTML, RTF, images, PDFs, or any other content type to the macOS clipboard.

Auto-detects PNG, JPEG, PDF, TIFF, and RTF from content. No flags needed for common formats.

Installation

brew install waynehoover/tap/pbrich

Or build from source:

make install

Usage

Drop-in replacement for pbcopy:

echo "hello" | pbrich

Copy an image to the clipboard (auto-detected):

cat screenshot.png | pbrich

Paste it directly into Slack, email, or any app that accepts images.

Copy a PDF (auto-detected):

cat report.pdf | pbrich

Copy RTF (auto-detected):

cat document.rtf | pbrich

Copy a clickable link (paste into Slack, Notion, etc.):

echo '<a href="https://github.com/waynehoover/pbrich">pbrich</a>' | pbrich -t public.html -p "https://github.com/waynehoover/pbrich"

Copy a URL (recognized as a link by browsers and Finder):

echo -n "https://github.com" | pbrich -t public.url

Set multiple types at once:

echo "<b>bold</b>" | pbrich -t public.html -t public.rtf

Copy a file reference (paste into Finder, email attachments, etc.):

pbrich -f screenshot.png

Copy multiple files:

pbrich -f report.pdf -f summary.pdf

Combine with other tools:

# Screenshot a window and copy to clipboard
screencapture -w -o /tmp/shot.png && cat /tmp/shot.png | pbrich

# Copy curl response as HTML
curl -s https://example.com | pbrich -t public.html

# Convert markdown to HTML and copy as rich text
echo "**bold** and *italic*" | pandoc -f markdown -t html | pbrich -t public.html -p "bold and italic"

# Screenshot a window and copy the file to paste as an attachment
screencapture -w -o /tmp/shot.png && pbrich -f /tmp/shot.png

Options

Flag	Description
-t, --type	Pasteboard type UTI (can be repeated). Overrides auto-detection
-p, --plain	Also set a plain text fallback
-f, --file	Copy file reference(s) to clipboard (like Cmd+C in Finder). Can be repeated
-l, --list-types	List common pasteboard types
-v, --version	Show version
-h, --help	Show help

Supported Types

Any Uniform Type Identifier works. Common ones:

Type	Description	Example
public.utf8-plain-text	Plain text (default)	echo "hi" | pbrich
public.html	HTML	echo "<b>bold</b>" | pbrich -t public.html
public.rtf	Rich Text Format	cat doc.rtf | pbrich
public.png	PNG image	cat img.png | pbrich
public.jpeg	JPEG image	cat photo.jpg | pbrich
public.tiff	TIFF image	cat img.tiff | pbrich
com.adobe.pdf	PDF document	cat doc.pdf | pbrich
public.url	URL	echo -n "https://x.com" | pbrich -t public.url
public.file-url	File URL	echo -n "file:///tmp/f" | pbrich -t public.file-url
public.json	JSON	echo '{"a":1}' | pbrich -t public.json
public.xml	XML	cat data.xml | pbrich -t public.xml

Run pbrich --list-types to see this list in your terminal.

Similar Projects

• pbcopy (built-in macOS) — Copies stdin to the clipboard as plain text only. Cannot handle images, HTML, RTF, or other rich types.
• pbv / macos-pasteboard — Reads rich pasteboard types from the clipboard (the reverse direction).
• cpfile — Copies file references to the clipboard via AppleScript (like Cmd+C in Finder).

History

View the changelog.

License

MIT