How to Extract Text from Images: 7 Methods That Actually Work (2026)

When you take a screenshot or scan a document, the result is a bitmap image—a grid of colored pixels. Each letter "A" in the image isn't stored as the character "A"—it's stored as thousands of pixels that *look like* an "A" to human eyes.

The fundamental problem:

• Your computer sees: Pixel #1 is black, Pixel #2 is black, Pixel #3 is white...

• Your brain sees: "The letter A"

• You can't Ctrl+C: The text doesn't exist as selectable characters

Common scenarios:

• Screenshots of tweets, Instagram posts, LinkedIn updates

• Scanned paper documents (contracts, receipts, letters)

• Photos of signs, menus, whiteboards, book pages

• PDF files created from scans (not from Word/Excel)

• Error messages in software (often displayed as images)

• Memes and infographics with text overlays

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is software that "reads" images like a human would, converting pixel patterns into actual text characters.

How OCR works (simplified):

1. Preprocessing: Converts image to black & white, increases contrast

2. Text detection: Identifies areas containing text vs. images/graphics

3. Character recognition: Compares each letter shape against trained patterns

4. Word assembly: Groups characters using spacing analysis

5. Output: Produces editable, copyable, searchable text

Accuracy factors:

• Image quality: Sharp, high-contrast images = 95-99% accuracy

• Font type: Standard fonts work best; decorative fonts struggle

• Language: OCR engines need to know which alphabet/characters to expect

• Orientation: Horizontal text works best; rotated text reduces accuracy

Modern OCR uses AI and machine learning, achieving near-perfect results on clear printed text.

Technology: JavaScript libraries (like Tesseract.js) run entirely in your web browser on your device. No upload required—images stay on your computer.

Step-by-step:

1. Visit a browser-based OCR tool (like EZOnlineToolz OCR)

2. Drag and drop your image or click to select file

3. Choose language (English, Spanish, Chinese, etc.)

4. Click "Extract Text" and wait 5-15 seconds

5. Copy text to clipboard or download as .txt file

Supported formats: JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP, GIF, HEIC

✅ Advantages:

• 100% private—images never leave your device

• No account/signup required

• Completely free, unlimited use

• Works offline once page is loaded

• No file size limits

• Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, mobile)

❌ Limitations:

• Slower than cloud APIs (10-20 seconds vs. 1-3 seconds)

• Limited languages (13 vs. 50+ for cloud services)

• Basic output—plain text only, no formatting

• Requires modern browser with JavaScript enabled

• Sensitive documents: Medical records, tax forms, contracts, ID cards

• Quick one-off extractions: Screenshots, social media posts, single pages

• Privacy-conscious users: Don't want documents on third-party servers

• No-internet scenarios: Works offline after initial load

• Free users: No payment or subscription needed

Accuracy: 90-95% on clear printed text, 85-90% on photos, 60-80% on low-quality scans

On iPhone (iOS 15+):

1. Open any photo in Photos app

2. Tap the "Live Text" icon (text box with cursor) at bottom-right

3. Text becomes selectable—tap to select, copy, share

4. Or point camera at real-world text and tap "Live Text" button

On Android:

1. Open Google app or Google Lens app

2. Tap camera icon

3. Point at text (menu, sign, document)

4. Tap "Text" mode at bottom

5. Select text and copy/translate

From existing photos:

1. Open Google Photos app

2. Select photo with text

3. Tap "Lens" icon

4. Copy detected text

✅ Powerful capabilities:

• Real-time OCR while pointing camera (no photo needed)

• Instant translation into 100+ languages

• Smart actions: Phone numbers become clickable to call, addresses open in Maps

• Handwriting recognition (better than standard OCR)

• Search for products, landmarks, plants by image

✅ Advantages:

• Already on your phone (no installation on Android/Pixel)

• Incredibly fast—near-instant results

• Works on printed and handwritten text

• Translate foreign language text on the fly

❌ Privacy note:

• Uploads images to Google servers for processing

• Not ideal for sensitive documents

• On-the-go text capture: Restaurant menus, street signs, product labels

• Quick copying from books/magazines: Study notes, research quotes

• Traveling abroad: Translate signs, menus instantly

• Business cards: Quickly save contact info

• Screenshots: Copy text from social media posts, error messages

Accuracy: 95-98% on printed text, 85-90% on handwriting

Step-by-step process:

1. Upload image or scanned PDF to Google Drive

2. Right-click the file

3. Select "Open with" → "Google Docs"

4. Google automatically runs OCR and creates a new Doc

5. Original image appears at top, extracted text below

6. Edit, copy, or delete the image—keep the text

Batch processing:

• Upload multiple images to one folder

• Select all images

• Right-click → "Open with Google Docs"

• Google processes all files simultaneously

• Each creates a separate Google Doc

✅ Advantages:

• Completely free with Google account

• No file size limit (up to 2MB for images, 10MB for PDFs)

• Supports 50+ languages automatically detected

• Batch processing—handle multiple files at once

• Preserves basic formatting (paragraphs, line breaks)

• Integrated with Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides)

❌ Limitations:

• Requires Google account and internet

• Uploads images to Google servers (privacy concern)

• Can't choose specific OCR settings (auto mode only)

• Creates new Doc for each file (clutters Drive)

• Formatting preservation is inconsistent

• Digitizing old documents: Boxes of scanned paperwork

• Creating searchable archives: Make scanned PDFs searchable

• Team collaboration: Share editable versions of scanned docs

• Long-term projects: Research papers, digitizing book chapters

• Google Workspace users: Already in the ecosystem

Accuracy: 93-97% on clean scans, 88-92% on photos

On Windows 10/11:

1. Open Microsoft OneNote (comes free with Windows)

2. Insert your image: Insert tab → Pictures → select file

3. Right-click on inserted image

4. Select "Copy Text from Picture"

5. Paste anywhere (Ctrl+V)—text is now on clipboard

On Mac:

1. Open OneNote for Mac (free download)

2. Same process: Insert image → Right-click → "Copy Text from Picture"

Note: OneNote processes OCR locally on your device, not in the cloud (privacy-friendly).

✅ Advantages:

• 100% offline processing (no internet required)

• Free—comes with Windows, free download for Mac

• Private—no upload to servers

• Supports 20+ languages

• Integrates with note-taking workflow

• Can OCR multiple images in one notebook page

❌ Limitations:

• Desktop app only (not available on web)

• Slower than cloud services

• No batch processing—one image at a time

• Output is plain text only (no formatting)

• Requires Microsoft account (but no subscription)

• Students: Digitizing lecture notes, textbook pages

• Offline workers: Remote locations without internet

• Privacy-focused professionals: Lawyers, doctors, accountants

• Windows users: Already have OneNote installed

• Note-takers: Combining handwritten and typed notes

Accuracy: 92-96% on printed text, 80-85% on handwriting

Using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC ($15/month):

1. Open scanned PDF in Acrobat

2. Go to Tools → Enhance Scans → Recognize Text

3. Select language and output settings

4. Click "Recognize Text" button

5. Acrobat processes entire document

6. Result: Searchable PDF with selectable text

Using free Adobe Acrobat Reader:

• Limited OCR available in Reader

• Can recognize text for searching (Ctrl+F works)

• Cannot edit or export text without Pro subscription

✅ Professional features:

• Preserves original PDF formatting (columns, tables, images)

• Batch OCR—process hundreds of PDFs automatically

• 30+ language support with custom dictionaries

• Editable output—fix OCR errors directly in PDF

• Searchable PDFs—Ctrl+F finds text in scanned pages

• Industry-standard accuracy (98-99% on quality scans)

💰 Cost:

• Acrobat Reader: Free (limited OCR)

• Acrobat Standard: $13/month (full OCR)

• Acrobat Pro: $15/month (advanced features)

❌ Considerations:

• Expensive for casual users

• Subscription required for full features

• Desktop software—not available on mobile

• Legal/corporate work: Contracts, court documents requiring perfect formatting

• Archiving projects: Creating searchable PDF libraries

• Publishing workflows: Books, magazines, reports

• High-volume processing: Hundreds of pages daily

• Complex documents: Multi-column layouts, embedded tables

Accuracy: 98-99% on professional scans, 95-97% on photos

Setup (one-time):

1. Download Microsoft PowerToys (free, official Microsoft tool)

2. Install and enable "Text Extractor" module

3. Set keyboard shortcut (default: Win + Shift + T)

Using Text Extractor:

1. Display the text you want to copy on screen

2. Press Win + Shift + T

3. Cursor becomes a crosshair

4. Click and drag to select area containing text

5. Release mouse—text is instantly copied to clipboard

6. Paste anywhere (Ctrl+V)

Works on: Screenshots, images, videos (paused), PDFs, scanned documents, anything visible on screen

✅ Unique advantages:

• Screen capture + OCR in one step (no saving image first)

• Incredibly fast—results in 1-2 seconds

• Keyboard shortcut workflow (no clicking menus)

• Works on anything displayed on screen (even video frames)

• 100% free and open-source (Microsoft official)

• Privacy-friendly—processes locally

❌ Limitations:

• Windows 10/11 only

• Only extracts text visible on screen (can't process saved images)

• No language selection (English-optimized)

• No formatting preservation

• Developers: Copying error messages, code from screenshots

• Researchers: Extracting quotes from PDFs, videos, webinars

• Power users: Frequent text extraction from varied sources

• Productivity enthusiasts: Keyboard-driven workflows

• Quick captures: One-off extractions without opening tools

Accuracy: 93-96% on clear screen text

Google Cloud Vision API:

• Accuracy: 98-99%

• Languages: 50+

• Speed: 1-3 seconds per image

• Cost: Free tier (1,000 images/month), then $1.50 per 1,000

• Best for: Handwriting, complex layouts

Microsoft Azure Computer Vision:

• Accuracy: 97-99%

• Languages: 40+

• Speed: 2-4 seconds

• Cost: Free tier (5,000 images/month), then $1 per 1,000

• Best for: Forms, receipts, structured documents

Amazon Textract:

• Accuracy: 96-98%

• Languages: English focus, limited multilingual

• Speed: 2-5 seconds

• Cost: $1.50 per 1,000 pages

• Best for: Forms extraction (key-value pairs), tables

✅ Enterprise capabilities:

• Lightning-fast processing (1-3 seconds)

• 99%+ accuracy on quality images

• Handwriting recognition

• Table and form extraction (structured data)

• Batch processing thousands of images

• Language auto-detection

• JSON output for easy integration

💰 Costs:

• Free tiers: 1,000-5,000 images/month

• Paid: $1-$1.50 per 1,000 images

• Minimum commitment: Pay-as-you-go

Implementation:

Requires programming (Python, JavaScript, etc.) to integrate API calls into applications.

• App developers: Building OCR features into mobile/web apps

• Business automation: Processing invoices, receipts at scale

• Data entry replacement: Digitizing thousands of forms

• Document management systems: Creating searchable archives

• AI/ML projects: Training data extraction from images

Not for: Individual users needing occasional OCR (too complex, overkill)

Privacy-sensitive documents (medical, legal, financial):

→ Browser-based OCR or Microsoft OneNote (offline processing)

Quick screenshot text extraction:

→ Google Lens (mobile) or PowerToys Text Extractor (Windows)

Batch processing many documents:

→ Google Drive OCR (free) or Adobe Acrobat (paid, better)

Scanned PDFs needing perfect formatting:

→ Adobe Acrobat Pro

On-the-go mobile captures:

→ Google Lens

Developing an app with OCR:

→ Google Cloud Vision API or Azure Computer Vision

Students digitizing textbooks:

→ Google Drive OCR or OneNote (free, unlimited)

Offline/no internet:

→ Microsoft OneNote or PowerToys

Highest accuracy (98-99%):

1. Adobe Acrobat Pro

2. Google Cloud Vision API

3. Microsoft Azure Computer Vision

Good accuracy (93-97%):

4. Google Drive OCR

5. Google Lens

6. Microsoft OneNote

7. PowerToys Text Extractor

Decent accuracy (90-95%):

8. Browser-based OCR tools

Fastest (1-5 seconds):

• Cloud APIs (Google, Azure, AWS)

• Google Lens

• PowerToys Text Extractor

Medium speed (5-15 seconds):

• Google Drive OCR

• Adobe Acrobat

• Microsoft OneNote

Slower (10-30 seconds):

• Browser-based OCR (processes on your device)

Completely free:

• Browser-based OCR (EZOnlineToolz)

• Google Lens

• Google Drive OCR

• Microsoft OneNote

• PowerToys Text Extractor

Free tier, then paid:

• Cloud APIs ($1-1.50 per 1,000 after quota)

Subscription required:

• Adobe Acrobat Pro ($15/month)

Resolution:

• Minimum: 300 DPI for scans

• Recommended: 1200-1500px width for photos

• Avoid: Resizing down before OCR (loses detail)

Contrast:

• Best: Black text on pure white background

• Fix low contrast: Use image editor to increase brightness/contrast

• Avoid: Gray text on light gray, colored backgrounds

Focus:

• Ensure sharp edges on letters

• Re-scan blurry documents rather than trying to OCR

• Use phone's focus tap before photographing text

Orientation matters:

• Rotate images so text is horizontal before OCR

• Skewed/angled text reduces accuracy by 20-40%

• Most tools don't auto-rotate

Remove distractions:

• Crop to show only the text area

• Remove borders, watermarks, background images if possible

• OCR engines get confused by non-text elements

Why it matters:

OCR engines optimize character recognition based on expected alphabet and common words.

Examples:

• English: Recognizes a-z, common words like "the," "and"

• Spanish: Expects accented characters (ñ, á, é)

• Chinese: Uses 20,000+ character set

• Arabic: Handles right-to-left text flow

Impact:

Wrong language selection = 30-50% more errors

Correct selection = 10-20% accuracy improvement

Common OCR mistakes to fix:

• "l" (lowercase L) confused with "I" or "1"

• "O" (letter O) confused with "0" (zero)

• "rn" (two letters) seen as "m"

• Extra spaces in numbers: "1 234" instead of "1234"

Quick fixes:

• Use Find & Replace for systematic errors

• Run spell-check to catch obvious mistakes

• Compare against original image for critical text (legal, financial)

• Use grammar checker for proper punctuation

Tables and columns:

• Crop each column separately, OCR individually

• Use specialized table extraction tools (Tabula for PDFs)

• Manually reconstruct table structure in Excel

Handwriting:

• Use Google Lens or Azure Computer Vision (better handwriting models)

• Expect 80-85% accuracy (vs 95%+ for print)

• Review and correct more carefully

Multiple languages in one document:

• OCR each language section separately with correct language selected

• Or use Google Cloud Vision (auto-detects languages)

Causes:

• Wrong language selected

• Extremely low image quality

• Decorative fonts OCR can't recognize

• Image is upside-down or severely rotated

Solutions:

1. Verify correct language is selected

2. Check image orientation—rotate if needed

3. Increase image contrast and brightness

4. Try different OCR tool (Google Lens often better with difficult images)

5. Re-scan at higher resolution (300+ DPI)

Causes:

• Low contrast between text and background

• Text too small in image

• Watermarks or backgrounds interfering

• PDF has text in vector format (doesn't need OCR)

Solutions:

1. Check if PDF text is already selectable (Ctrl+F test)

2. Zoom in on text area and re-capture

3. Remove watermarks using image editor

4. Increase image size before OCR

5. Adjust OCR tool sensitivity settings if available

Common mistakes:

• "1" seen as "l" or "I"

• "0" seen as "O"

• "5" seen as "S"

• "8" seen as "B"

Solutions:

1. Use monospace font when possible (before scanning)

2. Increase OCR confidence threshold

3. Manually verify all numbers (especially financial data)

4. Use specialized OCR for forms (Azure Textract, Amazon Textract)

5. Add validation: Phone numbers should be 10 digits, ZIP codes 5 digits

Causes:

• Most OCR produces plain text only

• Tool doesn't preserve layout information

Solutions:

1. Use Adobe Acrobat for format-preserving OCR

2. Use Google Drive OCR (preserves paragraphs, basic structure)

3. Manually reformat in Word/Google Docs after extraction

4. For complex layouts: Consider hiring human transcription service

5. Use table-specific tools (Tabula) for data tables

Causes:

• Large file size (10+ MB images)

• Slow internet (for cloud tools)

• Old/slow device (for browser-based OCR)

• Complex document with many pages

Solutions:

1. Compress image before OCR (reduce to 2-3 MB max)

2. Crop to specific area instead of full page

3. Use cloud API for faster processing (Google Cloud Vision)

4. Split multi-page PDFs into individual pages

5. Upgrade to paid tool with faster servers (Adobe Acrobat)