Guides · Free Temp Tools

How to Extract Text From an Image (Free OCR)

Text trapped inside a picture is one of the small daily annoyances of computers. Here is how to pull it back out for free, in your browser, without installing anything or handing your image to a server.

Extract text from an image in three steps

• Open the free image to text tool and drop your image in, paste it with Ctrl+V, or tap Take a photo.
• Tap Extract text. The OCR engine loads once and then reads the image on your device.
• Copy the text, or download it as a .txt file. You can edit it in the box first.

What is OCR?

OCR stands for optical character recognition. It is the technology that looks at the shapes in a picture and works out which letters they are, turning a flat image into real text you can select, search and edit. Everything here uses an open source OCR engine compiled to run inside the browser, which is why nothing needs to be uploaded.

Copy text from a screenshot

Screenshots are the easiest case: the text is already sharp and perfectly straight, so recognition is usually close to perfect. Take your screenshot, paste it straight into the tool with Ctrl+V, and extract. This is handy for error messages, chat receipts, slides and anything where retyping would be tedious.

Extract text from a photo

Photos are harder because of angle, lighting and focus. A few habits make a big difference:

• Hold the camera parallel to the page instead of at an angle.
• Fill the frame with the text and keep it in focus.
• Use even light and avoid glare or a hard shadow across the text.
• Flatten a folded or curled page as much as you can.

What OCR struggles with

No engine is perfect. Handwriting, especially cursive, is largely out of reach. Decorative and highly stylised fonts, very low resolution images, text over busy photographic backgrounds and severe motion blur all cost accuracy. Multi column layouts are read as text but the reading order may need a tidy-up. The result is editable, so a quick proofread is normal even with a good scan.

Turn a paper document into searchable text instead

If you are working from paper rather than a screenshot, the document scanner is the better route. It detects the page edges, straightens the perspective, removes shadows and then runs the same recognition, producing a PDF that looks like a scan but carries an invisible text layer. The file stays searchable, so you can find it later by its contents.

Free, private and no sign-up

Because the recognition happens in your browser, there is no upload, no account and no watermark. Your image never reaches a server, which matters when the thing you are converting is a bank statement, an ID or a private message. It works on desktop, iPhone and Android alike, and after the first run the engine is cached for next time.

Frequently asked questions

Is it free to extract text from an image?

Yes. It is completely free with no sign-up and no limit on how many images you convert. The recognition runs on your own device rather than a paid server.

Is my image uploaded anywhere?

No. The OCR engine runs inside your browser, so the image and the text stay on your device. That makes it safe for screenshots of private messages, receipts or documents.

How do I copy text from a screenshot?

Open the image to text tool, drop the screenshot in or paste it with Ctrl+V, tap Extract text, then use the Copy button. The text is editable before you copy it.

How accurate is OCR on a photo?

Clear printed text comes out very accurately. Accuracy drops with blur, glare, heavy stylised fonts and steep angles, so a sharp straight-on photo in even light gives the best result.

Can it read handwriting?

Not reliably. The engine is trained on printed text. Neat block capitals sometimes work, but cursive handwriting is beyond it.

Can I get a searchable PDF instead?

Yes. Use the document scanner for paper documents. It straightens and cleans the page, then embeds the recognized text into the PDF so the file stays searchable.