Free Image to Text (OCR)
Extract text from images and screenshots.
What is the Image to Text (OCR)?
The text you need is trapped in a picture — a screenshot, a photo of a slide, a scanned page — and retyping it is exactly the kind of tedious work a computer should do for you.
This image-to-text tool uses OCR to read printed text out of an image, right in your browser, so you can copy and reuse it in seconds.
Last updated: Aug 14, 2026
What does this tool do?
You upload an image and the tool runs optical character recognition (OCR) on it, entirely on your device.
It shows a live progress bar as it works, then gives you the extracted text ready to copy — the image itself is never uploaded to a server.
Key features
In-browser OCR
Runs locally; the image stays on your device.
Any image
Screenshots, photos, scans and more.
Live progress
See recognition progress as it runs.
Copy the result
Grab the text with one click.
Private
Nothing is uploaded.
Example
Common use cases
- Students — Turn slide photos into notes.
- Office workers — Pull text out of screenshots.
- Researchers — Digitize printed references.
- Writers — Reuse text from an image.
- Developers — Copy code or logs from a screenshot.
- Accessibility users — Extract text to read or resize.
- Translators — Get source text out of an image.
- Anyone with a screenshot — Stop retyping by hand.
Benefits
- It saves you from retyping text by hand.
- It works on screenshots, photos and scans.
- It keeps your image private on your device.
- It shows progress so you know it's working.
Tips
- Use clear, high-contrast images for the best accuracy.
- Crop to just the text before uploading if you can.
- Straight, well-lit photos beat skewed or shadowed ones.
- Larger, sharper text is recognized more reliably.
- Proofread the result — OCR can misread similar characters.
- Handwriting isn't supported; this reads printed text.
- The engine downloads once on first use, then is cached.
- Very large images take longer to process.
Common mistakes to avoid
Expecting handwriting to work
Fix: OCR here reads printed text; handwriting won't recognize reliably.
Low-quality images
Fix: Use a clearer, higher-contrast image for accurate results.
Skipping the proofread
Fix: Check the output — OCR occasionally confuses characters like 0 and O.
Uploading a huge file
Fix: Crop or resize large images so recognition runs faster.
How it works
- 1
Upload an image
A screenshot, photo or scan.
- 2
Extract text
The OCR engine reads it in-browser.
- 3
Copy the text
Grab the recognized text.
Frequently asked questions
It reads clear, high-contrast printed text well. Blurry images, unusual fonts and handwriting are less reliable.
No. Recognition runs in your browser; the OCR engine downloads once on first use, but your image never leaves your device.
It reads clear, high-contrast printed text well. Blurry images, unusual fonts and handwriting are less reliable.
No. Recognition runs in your browser; the OCR engine downloads once on first use, but your image never leaves your device.
No. It's built for printed text; handwriting recognition isn't supported.
It's tuned for English printed text out of the box.
The OCR engine downloads once on first use, then is cached for subsequent images.
No. The image and text stay in your browser.
Conclusion
An image-to-text tool frees the words trapped in your screenshots and scans without a single keystroke of retyping. Pair it with the readability analyzer or case converter to polish the extracted text.