Copy text from a photo or screenshot
A photo of a whiteboard, a screenshot of an error message, a page from a book, a table in a picture: the words are there, but you can't select them. OCR turns the picture back into text you can paste.
Stop retyping
Retyping from a picture is slow and introduces mistakes, particularly with numbers and reference codes. Text recognition reads the image and gives you the words in seconds.
Screenshots and photos often show messages, account details or work documents. The reading happens on your device, so the images stay private.
Key benefits
- Any pictureJPG, PNG, iPhone HEIC photos, TIFF scans and scanned PDFs.
- Choose the resultPlain text to paste anywhere, a Word document, Markdown, or an Excel sheet.
- Tables to ExcelA table in a photo can come out as rows and columns.
- Several at onceAdd a batch of screenshots and get all the text in one file.
How to get text out of an image
- Open Image to text and add your photos or screenshots.
- Choose Text, Word, Markdown or Excel.
- Press Export. Open the file and copy what you need.
Tips
- Crop the picture to the part with the text for a cleaner result.
- For a photo of paper, shoot straight on, in good light.
- Check numbers and codes against the picture: similar characters such as 0 and O are the most common slip.
Questions
Does it read handwriting?
Printed and typed text is read well. Handwriting isn't supported yet.
Can I get a table from a picture into Excel?
Yes. Choose Excel, and tables are placed into rows and columns with amounts as numbers.
Which languages does it read?
English and more than 50 other languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian and Polish.
Tools for this job
More guides
- Work and adminCombine receipts into one PDF for your expense claimTurn receipt photos, PDF invoices and screenshots into one tidy PDF for your expense claim. Free, private and done in your browser, with no upload.
- Work and adminMake a PDF small enough to email or uploadReduce PDF file size so it fits email attachment limits (often 10 to 25 MB) and upload portals. Compress PDFs free in your browser without uploading them.
- Work and adminTurn your CV and cover letter into one PDFConvert a Word CV to PDF and combine it with your cover letter and certificates in one file for job applications. Free, private, in your browser.