Image to Text (OCR)

Drop or paste an image and get the text inside it, ready to copy and edit. Works with screenshots, photos of documents, receipts and scans in 16 languages.

Updated 100% free Files stay on your device No sign-up

Watch the 0:27 video tutorial
Image to Text (OCR) illustration
Drop an image here, click to browse, or paste (Ctrl + V) JPG, PNG, WebP, screenshots and photos of documents

How to use the Image to Text (OCR) (video)

0:27 · no sound needed
In this video
  1. Choose the language of the text
  2. Drop your image – or paste a screenshot with Ctrl + V
  3. The text is read in a few seconds
  4. Copy the text or download it as a .txt file

Turn pictures of text into editable text

Typing out text from a photo, a screenshot or a scanned page is slow. This image to text converter uses OCR (optical character recognition) to read the text in your image and give it back to you as normal, editable text. The OCR engine runs inside your browser, so your images are not uploaded to any server.

How to convert an image to text

  1. Choose the language of the text in your image.
  2. Drop your image onto the box, click to browse, or simply press Ctrl + V to paste a screenshot.
  3. Wait a few seconds while the text is read. The first run downloads the language data once.
  4. Check the result, fix any small mistakes, then copy it or download it as a .txt file.

Supported languages

English, Urdu, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Turkish, Russian, Indonesian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Pick the right language before you start. It makes a big difference to accuracy.

Get the most accurate results

  • Use a sharp, well-lit image. Blurry or dark photos are the most common cause of errors.
  • Keep the text straight. Photograph documents from directly above.
  • Crop to the text. Remove backgrounds and pictures with the image cropper first.
  • Bigger is better. Small screenshots can be enlarged with the image resizer before reading.

Printed text works best. Handwriting and stylised fonts may not be read correctly.

What people use OCR for

  • Copying text from screenshots, social posts and slides.
  • Digitising printed letters, notes, book pages and receipts.
  • Getting quotes out of images to search or translate them.

Need to count what you extracted? Paste it into the word counter.

Frequently asked questions

Is my image uploaded?

No. The OCR engine runs in your browser, so your image stays on your device. Only the language data is downloaded once.

Can it read Urdu and Arabic?

Yes. Choose Urdu or Arabic in the language list before you add the image. Clear, printed text gives the best results.

Can it read handwriting?

It is built for printed text. Very neat handwriting may partly work, but results vary a lot.

Which image formats work?

JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF and BMP, including screenshots pasted with Ctrl + V.

Is there a limit?

No. You can convert as many images as you like, for free.