CMD + V for Chemistry: Image to chemical structure conversion directly done in the clipboard.

Abstract

We present Clipboard-to-SMILES Converter (C2SC), a macOS application that directly converts molecular structures from the clipboard. The app focuses on seam- lessly converting screenshots of molecules into a desired molecular representation. It supports a wide range of molecular representations, such as SMILES, SELF- IES, InChI’s, IUPAC names, RDKit Mol’s, and CAS numbers, allowing effortless conversion between these formats within the clipboard. C2SC automatically saves converted molecules to a local history file and displays the last ten entries for quick access. Additionally, it incorporates several SMILES operations, including canon- icalization, augmentation, as well price-searching molecules on chemical vendors for the cost-effective purchasing option. Beyond the one-click conversion from clip- board to molecular structures, the app offers continuous monitoring of the clipboard which automatically converts any supported representations or images detected into SMILES. The convenient interface, directly in the status bar, as well as availability as macOS application, makes Clipboard-to-SMILES Converter useful for a broad community not requiring any programming expertise. Most conversions are per- formed locally, notably the image-to-SMILES conversion, with internet access only necessary for specific tasks like price lookups. In summary, Clipboard-to-SMILES- Converter provides a user-friendly and efficient solution for converting molecular structures directly from the clipboard, offering seamless conversions between comprehensive chemical representations and can be directly downloaded from https: //github.com/O-Schilter/Clipboard-to-SMILES-Converter