How to Copy Text From an Image or Screenshot (Any Device)
By Tooldesk team · · 3 min read
To copy text from an image, run it through OCR (optical character recognition), which turns the letters in the picture into text you can paste. The quickest way on any device is our Image to Text tool: drop in the image or paste a screenshot, pick the language, and select Extract text. The text appears in a box with a Copy text button. The image is processed in your browser and never uploaded.
Your phone or computer may also have OCR built in. Here is every option and when each one works best.
Copy text with our online tool
- Open Image to Text.
- Drop in a JPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC file, or press Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac) to paste a screenshot.
- Choose the language of the text. If it mixes a language with English, tick Text also contains English.
- Select Extract text.
- Select Copy text, or download the result as a
.txtfile.
You can add several images at once. Each one gets its own section in the result.
The tool cleans the image before reading it. Small text is enlarged, light text on a dark background is inverted, tilted photos are straightened, sideways images are rotated, and text printed over a photo is separated from the background. Tables with ruled lines are read cell by cell and come out with tabs between columns, so they paste neatly into Excel or Google Sheets.
Built-in options on your device
| Device | Built-in method | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone, iPad | Live Text: open the photo, press and hold on the text | iOS 15 or later; works in Photos, Camera and Safari |
| Android | Google Lens: open the photo in Google Photos and tap Lens | Requires Google Photos or the Google app |
| Windows 11 | Snipping Tool: take a snip, then select Text actions | Recent Windows 11 versions; Copy all text copies everything |
| Mac | Live Text in Preview and Photos: select text in an image | macOS Monterey or later |
| Any computer | Google Drive: upload, then Open with → Google Docs | Good for scanned pages; loses layout |
Built-in tools are great for a quick line of text. An OCR tool is better when you need a full page, a table, several images at once, or a language your phone doesn’t read.
Languages
OCR needs to know the alphabet it is looking at. Our tool supports English, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Turkish, Indonesian, Chinese (Simplified) and Russian. Each language pack downloads once, between about 2 and 15 MB, and is then cached.
Choosing the wrong language is the most common reason for gibberish. Urdu text read as English, for example, comes out as random Latin letters.
Copying text from a PDF
If the text is in a PDF, try selecting it first. If you can highlight words, the PDF already has text: use PDF to Text or PDF to Word. If the whole page highlights as one block, it is a scan. PDF to Word reads scanned pages with OCR, as explained in our scanned PDF guide.
Getting accurate results
- Crop to the text. Logos, photos and borders around the text give the OCR more to misread.
- Use the original image. Screenshots of screenshots and images sent through chat apps lose sharpness each time.
- Take photos straight on. Hold the phone parallel to the page, in even light, without shadows.
- Proofread numbers. 0 and O, 1 and l, and 5 and S are easy to swap.
If results are still poor, our guide on why OCR gets text wrong covers the fixes for blurry, dark, small and rotated text.
Once you have the text, you can paste it into the word counter to check its length.
Questions people ask
Can I copy text from an image for free?
Yes. Live Text on iPhone and Mac, Google Lens on Android, and Snipping Tool on Windows 11 are free. Our online tool is free too and works in any modern browser.
Why does OCR give me wrong letters?
Usually the image is blurry, too small, tilted, or the wrong language is selected. Fix the image or the language and run it again.
Can OCR read handwriting?
Neat block letters sometimes work. Joined-up handwriting usually doesn’t, because OCR engines are trained mainly on printed text.
Is it safe to extract text from private documents?
With our tool, yes: the image is read inside your browser and never sent to a server. Other online tools may upload your files, so check before you use them.