Need the text from a screenshot, a WhatsApp forward, a notice board or a page of class notes? Instead of typing it out, use OCR (optical character recognition). It reads the letters in a picture and gives you text you can edit and paste.
How to extract text from an image
- Open Image to Text.
- Drop the picture, choose it from your gallery, or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V.
- Choose the language in the picture: English, Hindi, or English + Hindi for mixed text. Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Urdu and more are also available.
- Press Extract text. Fix any small mistakes in the box, then copy it or download a .txt file.
The OCR engine runs inside your browser. Only the language file is downloaded the first time; your image stays on your device.
Getting accurate results
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| Random symbols in the output | Crop to just the text with the image cropper |
| Hindi comes out as English letters | Choose Hindi or English + Hindi, not English |
| Small text is missed | Enlarge the image to 200% with the image resizer first |
| Photo taken at an angle | Retake it straight from above in good light |
| Handwriting not recognised | OCR is made for printed text; neat block letters work best |
Useful ways to use OCR
- Students: turn printed notes and textbook pages into editable text for revision.
- Office work: copy details from scanned invoices, letters and ID cards into forms or Excel.
- Everyday: grab a phone number, address or quote from a screenshot or poster.
- Translation: extract the text, then paste it into a translator.
FAQ
Is image to text free?
Yes, with no limit on the number of images.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes. The first scan downloads a few MB of language data, so use Wi-Fi if data is limited.
Can it read a PDF?
Take a screenshot of the PDF page and use that image. For shrinking PDFs, see Compress PDF.
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